The first initiative, which will receive £1m of funding from the Printing Charity, will support - either financially or more directly - other social enterprises that are making a difference in people's lives in the industries the Printing Charity was established to serve.

Chief executive Stephen Gilbert highlighted the example of Yorkshire-based charity The Prince's Trust, which received a £15,000 grant from the Printing Charity last month to help unemployed young people find work.

"That pilot has gone very well and we have a model now that we can build on," he said. "We're a small team and for us to get into new areas would be time consuming and expensive, so we're looking to partner with other social enterprises to help them achieve more.

"Sometimes the most pressing need for charities in our industries is cash and if we can use others' knowledge, experience and expertise to put that money to good use in helping people then that's the kind of thing we want to do."

Gilbert added that the charity was in the process of completing the research phase of defining the activities it wanted to invest in and that he expected to be in a position to announce the first partnerships towards the back end of the year.

Partners will be able to benefit from any size of grant depending on their needs. "Some will only want relatively small amounts," said Gilbert, adding that the charity would try to find a balance in the number of social enterprises it supports so as to neither spread itself to thin nor put all its eggs in one basket.

The second of the two initiatives, which Gilbert said would also receive "a significant sum of money that will make a real difference to people's lives", will be an extension to its existing grant programme to support out of work printers.

The charity already issues cheques of up to £500 to recently redundant printers to help alleviate the financial pressures of being out of work. Gilbert said that the charity wanted to work with partner organisations to provide further funding to help people get back into work - even if that meant leaving the industry.

"We have to accept that the industry the Printing Charity was set up to support in 1827 is nothing like today - it's constantly changing and evolving and we're here to help not just those who are currently in our industry, but those who have recently come out of the industry."