Who Funds The Funders, And Why TRJ’s “No Public Money” Line Does Not Survive Contact With The Record
GrantNav is only half the picture. Council ledgers and FOI fill in the rest.
Summary: The 360Giving dataset shows £542,900 in grants to The Recruitment Junction since 2020. That dataset is not complete. Newcastle City Council’s published ledgers and a formal FOI response take the documented public funding to at least £130,000 from the Council alone, plus £20,000 from the National Lottery Community Fund. Minimum public share of TRJ’s funding, using GrantNav’s total as a denominator, is 27 to 28 percent. The “no public funding” claim does not match the paper trail.
What we are counting, and what we are not
- Denominator, for now the captured GrantNav total for TRJ since 2020, £542,900.
- Public money we can evidence directly National Lottery Community Fund awards to TRJ, and Newcastle City Council payments and awards to TRJ.
- Not included yet commissioning via intermediaries and any VRP, DWP, MoJ or HMPPS contracts not visible in open data. Those will move the percentage up when documented.
Claim vs record
The claim TRJ’s CEO stated in July 2025 that the charity receives “no public funding”.
The record National Lottery awards to TRJ are published. Newcastle City Council’s ledgers show TRJ as a payee across multiple months and programmes. A Council FOI response to us, on file, totals £134,272.06 since 2021 across ESF CLLD and the Newcastle Fund. The numbers do not support the claim.
Public money, evidenced
| Line | Programme | Amount | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| National Lottery grant to TRJ | National Lottery Awards for All England | £10,000 on 19 Mar 2021 | GrantNav entry |
| National Lottery grant to TRJ | National Lottery Awards for All England | £10,000 in 2022 | NLCF open data workbook (grant ID 360G-tnlcomfund-0045463398) |
| Newcastle City Council payments to TRJ | ESF, Community Led Local Development | Examples, £9,813.30 (Sep 2021), £20,297.50 (Dec 2022), £15,373.85 (Feb 2023), £11,656.20 (Jun 2022) | Sep 2021 CSV, Dec 2022 CSV, Feb 2023 CSV, Jun 2022 CSV |
| Newcastle City Council payments to TRJ | Newcastle Fund | Examples, £5,292.75 (Apr 2023), £5,292.75 (Jul 2023) | Apr 2023 CSV, Jul 2023 CSV, plus fund overview |
| Subtotal, documented public money National Lottery to TRJ plus Council payments | £150,000 plus floor | FOI reply on file totals Council to £134,272.06, NLCF adds £20,000. Published ledgers and GrantNav corroborate the lines above. | |
Maths, for transparency Using the GrantNav total as a proxy denominator of £542,900, a Council subtotal of £130,000 plus NLCF £20,000 yields a minimum public share of 27.6 percent. Using the FOI total of £134,272.06 for Council plus the same NLCF £20,000 puts the minimum at 28.4 percent. The real denominator is likely larger once all sources are counted. The share of public money remains material in either case.
Why GrantNav and the Council site do not show everything
- GrantNav is publisher dependent only funders who publish in the 360Giving standard appear. Not every public body or commissioner is in scope, and pass through awards can sit under a partner’s record.
- Council ledgers have thresholds and categories monthly CSVs show payments over a threshold and specific codes. They are useful, but they do not promise a complete project history or future commitments.
- Commissioning via intermediaries a primary grant holder, such as a partner charity, can contract TRJ without TRJ appearing as the Lottery recipient. That is still public money driving TRJ delivery, and it belongs in the oversight conversation.
FOI transparency, the reality check
We have filed multiple Freedom of Information requests about TRJ with relevant public bodies. Numerous requests have been impeded, hindered, or ignored in practice. As of publication, Newcastle City Council is the only public body that has consistently upheld its legal obligations in a relatively transparent way, with ledger data, programme pages, and a formal FOI schedule that totals £134,272.06.
| Public body | Status | What we asked for | What happened |
|---|---|---|---|
| Newcastle City Council | Upheld | Payments to TRJ, programme details for ESF CLLD and Newcastle Fund, monitoring records | Ledger entries disclosed, programme pages public, FOI schedule provided. This is the minimum standard. |
| National Lottery Community Fund | Hindered | Grant monitoring returns and due diligence notes referencing TRJ, and related correspondence | Open data gives headline awards. Monitoring detail not provided to date, requests outstanding or routed through narrow interpretations. |
| HMPPS, Probation North East | Impeded | Safeguarding, referral and contract information that would evidence oversight of TRJ delivery | Responses have not met the statutory transparency standard. We have prepared internal reviews and escalation notes. |
| MoJ, DWP, Northumbria VRP | Outstanding | Funding, monitoring and commissioner oversight records where TRJ is a delivery partner or beneficiary | Requests logged. Acknowledgements or substantive responses are incomplete or absent according to our tracking. |
Why this matters FOIA places a duty to confirm or deny holding, to assist requesters, and to respond within statutory time limits. Where exemptions apply, explanations and public interest tests should be given. The pattern above, if it continues, is a governance story in its own right, it affects safety, data quality, and public confidence.
Who funds TRJ’s funders
Follow the money. Endowments, corporate profits, livery investments, community endowments, lottery players. Each route has its own oversight lever.
| Funder | Type | Where their money comes from | Scale signals |
|---|---|---|---|
| A B Charitable Trust | Family funded | No endowment, funded annually by the Bonavero family. | Small independent trust. |
| The Henry Smith Charity | Family endowment | Permanent endowment with total return policy. | £60m plus grants per year recently. |
| Lloyds Bank Foundation for England and Wales | Corporate foundation | Annual donation from Lloyds Banking Group profits to its four Foundations. | £35.2m group donation in 2024 across the Foundations. |
| The EQ Foundation | Corporate linked | Supported by EQ Investors and donors. The charity owns a strategic stake in EQ. | Lean regranting model. |
| The Grocers’ Charity | Livery foundation | Charitable arm of the Worshipful Company of Grocers, investment income heavy. | About £1m in grants per year. |
| Community Foundation Tyne and Wear and Northumberland | Community foundation | Pooled permanent endowment built from many donors. | Active local regranting across the North East. |
| Garfield Weston Foundation | Family endowment | Dividend flow from Wittington Investments, which holds major stakes including ABF. | Very large annual grant budget, sustained by Wittington income. |
| Charles Hayward Foundation | Family endowment | Endowed by Sir Charles Hayward, grants from investment returns. | Targeted programmes. |
| The Fore | Donor regranting | Raises philanthropic funds, evolved from a Bulldog Trust programme. | Unrestricted grants to small charities. |
| The National Lottery Community Fund | Lottery distributor | Money raised by National Lottery players, distributed by a public body. | Hundreds of millions per year in awards. |
| Trusthouse Charitable Foundation | Endowed independent | Endowment created from the Trusthouse Forte sale, total return policy. | Multi million annual grants. |
| Allen Lane Foundation | Family endowment | Founded by Allen Lane, income primarily from investments. | Circa three quarters of a million in grants last year. |
| The Leathersellers’ Foundation | Livery foundation | Significant investment income supports grantmaking. | Seven figure investment income annually. |
| Woodward Charitable Trust | Family endowment | Part of the Sainsbury Family Charitable Trusts, expendable endowment. | SFCT group infrastructure. |
Oversight levers that now trigger
- Lottery accountability NLCF awards create a public interest line. Distributors keep monitoring files. Those should be in scope when concerns are raised.
- Council grant governance Council ledgers and Newcastle Fund records must reconcile with delivery and safeguarding practice. Payments without competent oversight help nobody.
- Foundation risk large endowed and corporate funders rely on reputation. When facts bend, the due diligence question is simple. Who checked, and what changed.
Verification notes
- GrantNav totals for TRJ 27 grants, £542,900 since 2020.
- NLCF awards to TRJ £10,000 on 19 Mar 2021, and a further £10,000 in 2022 recorded in the NLCF open data workbook.
- NCC ledgers TRJ appears as a payee under ESF CLLD and the Newcastle Fund across multiple months with itemised amounts.
- Council FOI NCC’s formal FOI reply to us, on file, totals £134,272.06 to TRJ since 2021 across the cited programmes.
- Funder of funders facts ABCT is family funded with no endowment. Henry Smith, Garfield Weston, Charles Hayward, Woodward, Trusthouse and Allen Lane are endowed. Lloyds Bank Foundation is funded from Lloyds Banking Group profits. Grocers’ and Leathersellers’ are livery foundations with investment income. Community Foundation is an endowed community model. NLCF is a Lottery distributor.
What happens next
- Publish the full NCC FOI schedule and the scanned monitoring documents.
- Submit internal reviews where FOI deadlines have passed without a lawful response, then escalate to the ICO if required.
- Request NLCF monitoring returns and due diligence notes that reference TRJ in this period.
- Ask endowed and corporate funders whether they saw and tested the Council and Lottery lines before making awards.
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