in grants awarded
households supported
children supported
grants given
people helped
66+ years old beneficiaries supported
59% male 41% female
The Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) is the official measure of relative deprivation in 32,844 small areas or neighbourhoods in England. We wanted to know how our beneficiaries in England were categorised in the index to understand whether we are directing our support to the most deprived, as might be assumed.
23 per cent of the total value of our grants over five years supported people living in the most deprived areas. Although it might appear that we are not directing enough of our support to those in the most deprived areas, this is a reflection that the levels of household income and savings we allow a beneficiary to hold is higher than most grantmaking charities and therefore our beneficiaries may live in more affluent areas. We also have a separate and more generous financial test for our health, care and wellbeing support which are included here.
A young swimmer that is reaching his full potential in the sport; a Fundraising and Communications Manager tells how the MCF supported their charity; and a volunteer speaks about how they play an important role in helping others in need.
When analysing our support by age group we can see that we have been increasing our support to younger people aged 18 or under and our support to those aged over 85 has reduced.
The majority of our grants each year are consistently directed to those in financial crisis. We saw a fall in support for health care needs during the pandemic which rebounded significantly in 2022.
We learnt that we have awarded larger grants to working age households, many of which will have children and therefore higher living costs. We know that many of these households struggle to make ends meet.
We identified that only 33 per cent of pensioners we supported were in the lowest Income Deprivation Affecting Older People Index (IDAOPI). We are using insights such as these to reflect on how we target our support in different ways to make sure we are reaching people most in need and making a positive difference.
