Life in the armed forces community is full of transitions, and this has been a year of transitions for us, too – as we launched our new strategic framework, to maximise the impact of the national Covenant Fund to 2027.

In this report you can follow the golden threads which link the experiences of those our funding serves and what we heard in our research and consultation work last year; the funding programmes we’ve developed as a result; and the grants we’ve begun to make. But in this year of transitions for the Covenant Fund Trust, there’s one thing which never changes: our work is about empowering people.

Those in the armed forces community who are experiencing disadvantage in a myriad of different ways, or who need special consideration because of their unique service journey. And those who support them, designing and delivering projects through which that magic of community can happen.

I’ve been reflecting on the input we had from so many people, organisations and groups within the armed forces community - and beyond – to help us shape the priorities, themes and goals of the strategic framework we launched this year. 

Here are just a few of the thoughts you gave us on how we should deliver: 

• “Talking with the wider community and concentrating on themes that regularly occur or where a specific need is often not met or well-funded.” 

• “Providing longer term project funding.” 

• “Focusing on prevention.” 

• “Encouraging skills and knowledge sharing.” With those as our benchmarks, this has been a hugely successful year. 

We’ve deployed Covenant Funding to 114 projects through twelve brand new programmes, all focused on the outcomes you told us would make the greatest difference to the lives of those in the armed forces community. We’ve sought to find the projects which are tackling hidden needs; we’ve encouraged collaboration to spread knowledge far and wide; and we’ve sought to fund projects on a longer-term basis. 

We’ve grown the evidence base on some of the most complex issues you highlighted, to inform grantmaking to help the wider charity sector better serve the armed forces community. In doing so, the projects we’ve funded this year have the potential to help more than 180,000 people in our community. Enabling that movement feels like a great start to our new way of working, and it’s only just begun!