The National Lottery Community Fund has doubled the amount of funding available to grassroots projects, in what it’s calling the biggest change in National Lottery funding for a generation.
The change to National Lottery Awards for All, often regarded as one of the UK’s foremost and most accessible small grants programmes, is part of The National Lottery Community Fund’s ambition to strengthen society and improve lives across the UK.
The new maximum award available is £20,000. The funder is also doubling the time that grassroots causes can be funded for through these grants, to two years. It’s not clear, however, whether the total Awards for All budget has been correspondingly doubled.
Awards for All are available in England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Applications are ongoing.
Equity, diversity and inclusion is one of The National Lottery Community Fund’s priorities, and it has pledged to invest most in places, people and communities experiencing poverty, disadvantage and discrimination.
Last year through National Lottery Awards for All the funder awarded £11.9 million to projects supporting for ethnic minority communities. £18.3 million was awarded to groups supporting people with disabilities, and £3.2 million to LGBTQ+ communities.
This was part of more than 11,600 National Lottery Awards for All grants made totalling £98 million. These were awarded in almost every local authority area, with one grant made every ten minutes.
Earlier this year, the funder launched its new strategy, ‘It starts with community’, which underpins its efforts to distribute at least £4 billion of National Lottery funding by 2030 in support of projects that build resilient communities that are more inclusive and environmentally sustainable.
Source: UK Fundraising