THE LEONARD LAITY STOATE CHARITABLE TRUST

FEBRUARY 2006

GRANTS 2004-2005

The trust received 170 applications in 2004, which were considered at the July 2004 and January 2005 meetings. The number of applications was well down on previous years (due largely to the post office not sending on mail), and the figure is nearer 270 for 2005.

In practice, it is not possible to give serious consideration to more than thirty to forty applications at a meeting, and it is part of my job as secretary to vet the applications and provide a shortlist. Although I do this by reference to our grant selection criteria, the choices are inevitably to some extent personal, so all the trustees receive a list and résumé of all the applications, and can call for applications to be brought to the next meeting. From 2005-06, our normal meeting dates have changed to September and March, by the way.

Click here for a list of grants awarded at our July 2004 meeting.

Click here for a list of grants awarded at our January 2005 meeting.

Click here for a list of grants actually paid in the 2004-05 financial year.

There is a discrepancy between grants awarded and grants paid, as many grants are for building and other similar long term projects, and we do not release grants for such projects until all the funds needed have been raised and the project started.

The major grant paid in the year was a contribution of £12,000 towards some of restoration costs of the New Room, John Wesley's original Methodist Chapel in Broadmead, Bristol. I have picked out this and a few other grants to provide a bit more background information. (This file is 821KB, incidentally)

For statistical purposes, we try to keep a record of how grants paid fall geographically, by category of beneficiary, and by the use to which the grant will be put. Again the pigeon-holing is somewhat subjective, as charities often fall into more than one category (eg Great Ormond Street Hospital would come under "Medical and Disablement" rather than "Youth and Children". This information is correlated into pie-charts for the year. You will see that there is a clear emphasis towards the west country, with 90% of the grants being allocated there. The grant for the New Room has distorted the beneficiary categories somewhat this year, Methodism in the Specified Counties receiving more typically 13-15% rather than 32% this year. Otherwise, the proportions are fairly typical.