The Lloyds TSB Foundation, one of the biggest grantmakers in England and Wales, saw a sharp increase in both eligible and total funding applications last year as charities tried to plug funding shortages.

Linda Kelly (pictured), chief executive of the Lloyds TSB Foundation, told a Media Trust conference in London yesterday that while the trust made the same number of grants last year as the year before, 890, the volume of applications had risen starkly.

There was a 24 per cent increase in eligible applications, to 2,529, and total applications rose by 12 per cent to reach 4,757. Meanwhile, the value of grants actually made rose by just 1 per cent, to a value of £19.6m.

The Foundation received more than 2,000 ineligible funding applications, many of which failed at the earliest hurdle. The biggest reason the Foundation rejected applications for funding was that the charity had not filed documents with the Charity Commission.