Baring Foundation to relaunch

The Baring Foundation, which suspended grants to voluntary
agencies following the collapse of the Baring Bank in February, is
to be relaunched in the autumn.

The Dutch bank ING, which took over the Baring bank after its
spectacular crash, made a one-off injection of £10 million
into the grant-giving agency.

But assistant director of the Baring Foundation Jacqueline Ray,
warned that grants would be at a much lower level than before the
collapse unless ING proves able to sustain major contributions to
the foundation.

Many of the agency’s donations have been to charities in the
social care sector.

‘At the moment we’re honouring all current commitments, but
we’re not making any new ones,’ she said.

About 700 applications, pending when the Baring Bank crashed in
February, were turned down.

Grants are likely to total about £6 million for 1995,
compared with £13.2 million in 1994.

New terms and criteria for the foundation will be developed over
the summer.