The Lloyds TSB Foundation increased its grantmaking to £24.5m, in line with expectations, last year and predicts there to be more demand for its grants in 2011.

The total value of the grants, which rose from £20.6m in 2009, had been announced early last year and in the charity’s annual report released yesterday it re-confirmed its commitment to keep grantmaking at this higher level until 2013.

Demand for funding, however, is expected to increase at an ever faster rate. At an event held in London earlier this year Lloyds TSB Foundation chief executive Linda Kelly said that the foundation had seen a 24 per cent increase in the number of applications, but she predicted 2011 will prove a year of greater need.

“Not surprisingly, we have seen a significant increase in the number of eligible requests for support from our needs driven community programme and our matched giving programme,” said Kelly. “As the landscape continues to change, we anticipate an even busier 2011 as many more organisations face an uncertain and difficult future.”

In total last year, the Lloyds TSB Foundation made just over 900 grants, 890 of which (£19.4m) were for projects as part of the community programme. The top three most funded causal areas were children and young people, disability and health (including mental health).

South East London and Kent received the largest total value of grants in any region (£2.26m) while projects in North Wales were funded to the tune of £160,000 – the lowest amount distributed by the foundation to any one region.