Community Power | The National Lottery Community Fund

We’re looking for 10 to 15 partners to work with us in the development stage of our Community Power fund. By community power, we mean local communities being able to influence and change the places they live. As well as the services they use, and decisions that affect their lives.

For this development stage we have up to £1.2 million funding available over one year. This work will shape how the Community Power fund runs in the future.

We’ll fund each partner organisation between £50,000 and £80,000 for the development stage. We expect this stage to run between spring 2025 and spring 2026.

As a partner you’ll deliver activities in and with communities to increase their agency, power and control. This can be new or existing work.

This development phase will also require you to work with us, and the other partners, to understand what works to increase community power. Including what the barriers are. And what support and learning is needed to improve community power activities over the long term.

The development phase may not be right for your organisation. But there are many other funding opportunities to come.

We’ve committed to a £100 million, 10 year Community Power fund. We aim to launch the broader programme in 2026. This development phase will shape how the broader programme runs.

To be a partner organisation you must:

have experience of going beyond engaging communities by doing work to increase their community power
work in and with communities that are the most excluded and marginalised, and the least empowered
have experience of working in communities where the conditions are currently least suited to growing community power. For example where people have less trust in each other, do not feel they belong, or do not have places to meet
show how the values and approaches of community power are central to your work
be committed to working with us and the other partners to shape the principles of the future programme. This may include joint learning sessions, hosting or attending visits and more.

We’re keen to hear from smaller community groups as well as larger or national organisations. We plan to work with a mix of partners. Find out more in who can apply.

Area: England
Suitable for: Community or voluntary organisations, public sector organisations
Funding size: £50,000 to £80,000 per partner organisation
Total available: £1.2 million
Application deadline: Send expressions of interest by midday on Wednesday 5 February 2025

Apply

How to apply

Prepare all the information you need to apply
Send us the information using this expression of interest form.

The deadline for expressions of interest is midday on Wednesday 5 February 2025.

You cannot save the expression of interest form or return to it later

You have to complete and submit it in one go. If you leave it and return later you may lose your answers.

So we suggest preparing all the information and answers you need in advance. For example in a document on your computer. Then copying and pasting longer text answers.

You can see a full list of questions from the expression of interest form.

If it's difficult or impossible for you to use the online expression of interest form

You can contact us. We’re happy to talk about other ways for you to tell us about your idea. For example, we can share an accessible PDF version of the form.

If you’re not sure if you should apply

Or need help, contact us at CommunityPowerFund@tnlcommunityfund.org.uk. We’re happy to discuss whether you should apply. Or answer any questions you have.

Watch our recorded webinar to find out more

You can find a transcript of the webinar by watching on YouTube (opens in new tab).

You can also see a list of frequently asked questions (PDF, 103 KB). These questions are from the webinar and from emails we’ve received.

What information you need to apply

We’ll ask you for a range of information in the expression of interest form. You can see a full list of questions from the expression of interest form.

Here’s a summary of what we’ll ask for:

Information about your proposal

Including:

what you’ll call it
where it will happen
how much funding you need.

Written answers to the following:

What would you like to do?
Tell us about your organisation’s experience of supporting communities to increase community power.
Describe the community or communities you intend to work in and with.
How do you demonstrate community empowerment through your values and work? How does your organisation make sure your work is open and equitable?

You’ll have up to 500 words for each answer.

Information about your organisation

Including its full name and address. And what type of organisation it is.

Details of two different contacts from your organisation

These must be different people. We’ll need home addresses and dates of birth for each of them. We need a different email address for each person.

One person should be someone we can talk to if we have any questions about your project. The other should be a senior member of your organisation, who'll be legally responsible for the funding. Both need to live in the UK.

These two people cannot be related.

Equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) information

We’ll only use this information to find out if we’re reaching all the people we’re trying to. We will not use your answers to decide if we award you funding.

What happens after you send us your expression of interest

We’ll review your expression of interest against our priorities. We’re expecting to get a lot of expressions of interest.
We’ll tell you if you’re invited to the next stage by the end of February 2025. We'll share the timings soon. We expect to invite 20 organisations to the next stage.
If we invite you to the next stage, we’ll ask you for some additional information and complete some checks. Learn more about our checks. We’ll do this by phone or email.
We’ll use this additional information to make a decision. We’ll aim to tell you our decision by the end of May 2025. We expect to fund 10 to 15 partners.
If your application is successful – we'll contact you with the good news. If your application is unsuccessful, we’ll give you feedback.

What happens if you get funding

We’ll get in touch with you to discuss what happens next.

Before we can pay any of your funding you’ll need to:

send us a bank statement dated within the last three months. So we can check the account you want us to pay the funding into
sign an agreement with us and return a copy.

We’ll expect that you take part in activities we arrange to share and develop learning among the partners. This will support us to learn and shape the Community Power fund in the future.

See how we use the personal data you give us

By reading our data protection statement.

We do checks on the information you give us

As an organisation that gives out public funds, we carry out some checks on the information you give to us. Learn more about our checks.

Who can apply

The partners we’re looking for

We want to work with 10 to 15 partner organisations with experience of improving community power. They’ll deliver activities in and with communities to increase their power, agency and control. This can be new or existing work.

And we’ll work with them as a group to develop new approaches for our funding in the future. We’ll build on the evidence of what works, sharing knowledge, enthusiasm and experience.

We’re keen to hear from smaller community groups as well as larger or national organisations. We plan to work with a mix of partners, with different types of experience.

Experience partners should have

Experience of going beyond engaging communities by doing work to increase their community power

This could include:

locally – at various scales
with or without significant funding from outside the community
as an individual project, or as part of a bigger programme of work.

Experience of working in and with communities that are the most excluded and marginalised, and the least empowered

We’ll ask you to tell us about the communities you work with, and why you work with them. You could share data about the communities you’ve worked with. And tell us about your knowledge and experience of the local context.

Experience of working in communities where the conditions are currently least suited to growing community power

For example where people do not:

have trust in each other
feel they belong
feel safe
have good social connections
have places to meet.

Values and approaches of community power are central to your work

For example, tell us about:

how you’ve managed power dynamics with communities you support
how you’ve improved trust and connections with communities you support
if community power is a large part of your strategy, or your daily work. Or is something your organisation invests in
how you’ve worked with others to deliver your work
how you’ve shared your learning about what works to develop community power
your commitment to equity.

By equity we mean recognising that not every community starts with the same resources. And that to make things fairer, we should support those that need it most.

Commitment to working with us and the other partners

To shape the principles of the future programme. This may include joint learning sessions, hosting or attending visits and more.

What organisations can apply to be a partner

You can apply if your organisation is a:

constituted voluntary or community organisation
constituted group or club
registered charity
charitable incorporated organisation (CIO)
not-for-profit company
community interest company (CIC)
school (as long as your project benefits and involves the communities around the school)
statutory body (including local authorities, town, parish and community council)
community benefit society.

Any other funded partners also have to be one of these types of organisation.

You need at least 2 board or committee members who are not related

Related can mean:

related by marriage
in a civil partnership with each other
in a long-term relationship with each other
related through a long-term partner
living together at the same address
related by blood.

All companies who apply must have at least 2 directors who are not related in any of these ways. This also applies to companies that are also registered as charities.

Who cannot apply

Who we cannot accept applications from:

individuals
sole traders
organisations based outside the UK
companies that can pay profits to directors, shareholders or members (including Companies Limited by Shares).

What we plan to achieve

We’ve committed to a £100 million, 10 year Community Power fund. It’ll give us a better way of working with, and funding, communities to increase community power.

Before launching the broader programme we want to work with partners on a one year development phase. It’ll run from spring 2025 to spring 2026, and have up to £1.2 million funding. Partners will run activities to improve community power in local communities. And work with us to learn from what’s worked best.

Community Power is one of 3 partnership approaches we opened in January 2025. The others are:

Read about these in our vision for funding in England.

What community power means

By community power we mean communities being able to influence and change:

places they live
services they use
decisions that affect their lives.

By communities we mean people living in the same place, whether at a neighbourhood or larger level.

Development stage: what partners will do

For this first development stage we’re offering funding of £1.2 million. We’ll fund 10 to 15 partner organisations to run new or existing work to improve community power. And we’ll work with all the partners together to learn from what they’ve done. This will shape the longer-term Community Power fund.

We’d like to fund a range of different approaches to improving community power. We’re interested in testing out innovative approaches. But we also want to fund things that you know already work. We think both are important.

The work we’ll fund could include:

addressing barriers to community power
supporting communities to use their power
improving confidence and accessibility
supporting communities to influence decisions that affect their lives
raising awareness of other ways to use community power.

But we’re interested in any approaches that you can show increase community power.

Why we’re doing this

We want to be more than a funder

By this we mean doing more than giving out money. We want to support and involve the communities we fund in other ways too. We’ve committed to this in our new strategy, It Starts with Community.

We want to explore equity-based support for civil society organisations to achieve our missions.

We’ve set out to achieve 4 community-led missions. We’ll support communities to:

come together – such as enabling people from all backgrounds to shape the future of their communities
be environmentally sustainable
help children and young people thrive – like supporting them to shape the decisions that affect them and their communities
enable people to live healthier lives – such as increasing opportunities for community participation to shape better health services.

The work we fund to increase community power will help achieve these missions.

We know we’re not the experts

We think that increasing community power is important in achieving all of our missions. We also know we’re not the experts.

That’s why we want to work with a mix of partners. We’ll share knowledge, enthusiasm and experience. And come up with something better than if any of us did this on our own.

What you can spend the money on

As a partner we’ll fund you between £50,000 and £80,000 to deliver activities that increase community power. And to work with us and other partners to share what works best.

We can fund:

delivery costs for running activities that increase community power
salary costs
transport costs and expenses
other costs involved in working as our partner and taking part in development work. Check with us if you are not sure.

We can also fund overheads

This could include things like part of your rent or insurance. Or part of a salary for someone not directly involved in this work. Like a senior manager or an office admin worker.

For example, the delivery work could end up being a quarter of the work your organisation does. In that case, we might fund a quarter of your overheads for that time.

This is sometimes known as full cost recovery. Find out how to work out overheads in our guide to full cost recovery.

We cannot fund:

things you’ve spent money on in the past and are looking to claim for now (retrospective costs)
any other costs not related to:
- activities that will increase community power
- working with us and partners to develop our new Community Power fund.

UK’s subsidy control commitments

Our grants come from public funds and successful applicants will be asked to comply with the UK's International Subsidy Control Commitments listed on the GOV.UK website. You should seek independent legal advice if you need more guidance.

If you need funding for a different kind of project

You can look at our other funding opportunities in England.

We’ll also be opening new funding in 2025 to help us achieve our new strategy.