Scotland’s biggest trust now having to fund charities’ salary costs

The revelation comes as The Robertson Trust, which was founded in 1961 by Elspeth, Ethel and Agnes Robertson, awarded a record £18.2 million during the year 2014/15 to 742 charities and says it is getting far more applications than ever before.

Since its foundation, the trust has distributed over £150m to good causes but last year’s donations marked an increase of 10 per cent on the previous year and enabled trustees to support 742 charities.

The three Robertson sisters inherited the Robertson and Baxter whisky empire, which included brands like The Famous Grouse, The Macallan and Highland Park, and with none of them married and the First World War and a flu epidemic conspiring to leave them childless, they instead decided to ensure the firm’s huge profits would go towards funding charity.

The trust has since always operated quietly in the background, despite being the largest of its kind in the country and the work funded has tended to focus on a core of areas originally backed by the three sisters, including education, help for the elderly, work with offenders and health.

However, the trust is now set to expand its support to help charities cope with funding cuts and is investing in research to help organisations and government target spending better.

It is also having to adapt its remit to take on tougher economic challenges according to Dame Barbara Kelly, the trust’s chair.

“We are now helping fund core costs such as salaries, which 10 years ago we wouldn’t have. But charities are facing very tough times, making cuts while still having to deliver on contacts with local authorities, for instance,” she said.

“We are getting a huge number more applications than we used to five years ago.”

“Because the fund set up by the sisters offers us stability, we are able to look to the future and plan in a way other charities are not able to do. That’s useful at a time when the sector is being asked to do more for less all the time.”

The trust has also moved into criminal justice, funding a number of charities with innovative approaches.

It recently funded a £33,000 theatre-in-prison scheme at HMP Kilmarnock as part of a programme helping young people beat the cycle of offending.

“Some of the most exciting work we do is in criminal justice”, Dame Barbara added.