A charity named ‘The Triangle Trust’ was first proposed by Sir Harry Jephcott, the then Chairman of Glaxo, before the Second World War
Trust deeds were finally approved and The Triangle Trust 1949 Fund became operational in 1949. Initially the trustees had to be people well acquainted with the affairs of Glaxo or its subsidiaries, and its aims were to provide hardship and education awards for Glaxo employees, retirees and/or dependents.
Over the next 60 years the Trust‘s aims and rules had to change because of social change and the provisions of the Welfare State, particulary with the provision of education and health following the war years.
In 1968 the hardship/compassionate gifts were introduced for pharmaceutical pensioners/dependents or employees. However, as time went on, the Welfare State made it considerably more difficult for the Trust to find worthy causes associated with the pharmaceutical industry to fulfil the original aims.
Consequently over the years, the Trust has gradually abandoned its Glaxo employee focus. Trustees are now recruited from a wide field of experience and the Trust’s education and poverty remit has been extended to include the ‘community at large’.
In the 1990s there was a move away from individual hardship and educational funding towards the introduction of third party charities that would provide support to individuals on behalf of the Trust in the form of hardship or educational grants or the provision of support services.
To date the Trust has supported hundreds of charities supporting carers, community arts and education, disability, older people, poverty, integration and rehabilitation with an emphasis on maintaining an open and inclusive society and promoting integration (or re-integration) of individuals or groups into society.
In 2012 Trustees made the decision to become more focused and only support specialist organisations working with Carers or the Rehabilitation of Ex-offenders. In early 2013 a new scheme was launched offering non-restricted funding within these two fields.