Our National Lottery funding in England: update

Earlier this year we responded to the COVID-19 crisis by providing emergency funding to projects and organisations supporting communities through the pandemic. In addition to our own funding, we also distributed the Government’s emergency support package for charities and social enterprise in England. In total, we have distributed over half a billion pounds since March 2020.

This short-term emergency phase of funding is now at and end and our National Lottery Awards for All, Reaching Communities and Partnerships funding programmes in England are open again.

National Lottery funding is for everyone and is there to support communities to thrive. The COVID-19 crisis has helped us identify where we can do more to ensure our funding is reaching a full and diverse range of communities. With the pandemic still with us, we will continue to seek to support people and communities most adversely impacted.

Here’s what you can expect from us, and what we look for when assessing an application:

Through National Lottery Awards for All, Reaching Communities, and Partnerships, we support people and communities to build on the knowledge, skills and experience you already have, to make the changes you want.

You can expect us to be flexible and responsive to your community’s needs – whether you need long or shorter-term funding, whether your request is for a particular activity or to create more fundamental change, whether the funding is to support a single organisation or to bring organisations together.

Our funding can be used to deliver activities, but also to help your organisation recover, adapt and thrive. This includes supporting you to become more financially resilient and operate in a more digital world. We can also help you to make useful connections with other organisations, whilst also supporting infrastructure to nurture grassroots community action.

We can cover core costs to help your organisation develop, share learning with others, support you to test activity designed to help your organisation work in new ways and help you better understand the difference you make.

What we expect from you:

We firmly believe that when people are in the lead, communities thrive – we want your project’s application to demonstrate this clearly.

People understand what’s needed in their communities better than anyone, especially during these unprecedented times. We want to support projects that:

• involve people and communities from the start 
• build on people’s strengths
• are connected in their community.

Our communities are more important than ever, and we will continue to provide National Lottery funding to those who are stepping up to provide support.