A year in review: Our annual report
Turn2us has published its 2016/2017 Annual Report, revealing that the charity helped more people than ever last year.
We’re at a watershed moment not just for our own organisation but also for the wider movement we’re proud to be a part of.
During the last year, we signed up to the comprehensive strategy produced by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation to solve poverty in the UK by 2030 and we’re responding to the challenge.
We’re now helping more people than we’ve ever helped before, with over 5 million unique visitors to our website in 2016-17 and over £3 million given in grants to those living in poverty.
The charity carried out nearly 1.8 million benefit calculations in 2016/17 through its website and helpline, an increase of 42% on 2015/16.
This year also saw the introduction of the first new direct grant fund from the charity in our 120 year history. The Turn2us Response Fund will be available to help those who have recently experienced a sudden life event such as bereavement, job loss or illness, and for whom one-off assistance in the form of a financial support could be genuinely life changing.
At the same time, we launched the Edinburgh Trust Community Programme. Offering funding and support to new and innovative community projects that can provide lasting positive impacts to help improve lives, the new program seeks to reduce poverty and get the best out of the people and resources in our communities.
We’ve also hit the mark we said we’d hit in terms of financial sustainability, putting us in a position of strength in this, our 120th year.
Working in partnership across the sector, reaching more people than ever, and backed by a position of true financial sustainability, we can move forward with confidence.