Gingerbread is delighted to announce that we’ve received a generous grant of £150,000 over three years from the Linbury Trust towards our free, expert advice and information services for single parents.

The Linbury Trust is a UK-based grant-making foundation and forms a part of the wider Sainsbury Family Trust network. Established by Lord Sainsbury of Preston Candover KG and his wife Anya, Lady Sainsbury CBE, the trust has awarded almost £200 million since 1973. Gingerbread has been supported by the Linbury Trust since 1990: we are very grateful for the support they have helped us to provide to single parent families.

After a particularly tough year for single parents due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the grant will ensure that we are able to continue supporting single parents across the country with free expert advice, as well as to expand our helpline services to reach even more single parents.

Gingerbread’s Head of Fundraising, Steve Hawe, said, “We’re extremely grateful to the Linbury Trust for awarding Gingerbread this grant. It’s fantastic news for the thousands of single parent families Gingerbread supports and advises each year. We’re absolutely delighted to have been chosen for this grant by the Linbury Trust and look forward to working with them – and with single parents – more in the future”.

Jo Hardy, Gingerbread’s Head of Services, said, “Our expert helpline advisers work flat-out to answer calls from single parents, many of whom have no one else to turn to for support and may be struggling with finances or childcare. With the fast-moving changes throughout the pandemic, keeping our free online information pages up to date has never been more important – or more challenging. Over the course of the next three years, the Linbury Trust grant will mean Gingerbread is able to advise more and more single parents on everything from benefits, child maintenance and tax credit issues to going back to work or dealing with a break-up and more. As a single parent myself, I can attest it’s been such a relentlessly difficult time for us all; the Gingerbread helpline and online information pages have been a lifeline for thousands. I’m thrilled that Gingerbread will now be able to put more vital funding into our free services to continue providing single parents with crucial support when they need it most”.