£752,526
2024/2025 Grants agreed
141
Charities supported in 2025
£25 million
Over twenty five million pounds donated the Foundation began
59
Fifty eight years of funding charities
About
The Allen Lane Foundation
The Allen Lane Foundation is a grant-making trust which was established in 1966. The founder was Sir Allen Lane, who set up the publishing company Penguin Books.
Team
The trustees bring a wide range of expertise and experience to the Foundation and include three family members of Sir Allen Lane.
History
The Allen Lane Foundation is a family trust, established in 1966 by Sir Allen Lane, who founded the publishing company Penguin Books.
Lectures
The foundation has held a number of lectures over the years from well known and respected figures from within the charity sector.
About us
Sir Allen Lane’s family are still involved in the running of the trust today – two of his granddaughters are Trustees, plus one of his great-granddaughters.
We award funding for charitable purposes across the UK. Our focus is on funding particular groups that experience marginalisation and/or discrimination and we currently make grants through seven specific funding programmes.
Within those programmes, our overall aims are to: make a lasting difference to people’s lives; reduce isolation, stigma and discrimination; and to encourage or enable groups that experience marginalisation and/or discrimination to share in the life of the whole community.
In addition to its general grant-making, the Foundation has, in the past, funded some particular programmes of work including support for penal reform and women’s projects in the Republic of Ireland. It has also made some larger-scale grants for specific work on a national scale.
2016 was the Foundation’s 50th anniversary year and a Lecture was given by Dame Anne Owers in celebration. Plans are underway to celebrate the Foundation’s 60th year in 2026.
Previously located in London, Bracknell, and then York, the Foundation’s office has now moved to Kirkbymoorside in the North Yorkshire Moors.
