International Communities Programme

Overview

The International Communities programme is the Big Lottery Fund’s way of helping disadvantaged communities overseas. It will have a budget of up to £80 million between 2010 and 2015.

They want communities to be at the heart of the International Communities programme. We will fund effective projects that tackle the causes of poverty and deprivation and bring about a long-term difference to the lives of the most disadvantaged people in the world. These will result in:

• Improved primary education for the most disadvantaged girls and boys
• Improved health for the most disadvantaged people
• Improved access to and use of natural resources to benefit the most disadvantaged people
• Improved ability for the most disadvantaged people to exercise their human rights
• Improved livelihoods for the most disadvantaged people by enabling communities in need, both rural and urban, to reduce poverty in a sustainable way.

The International Communities programme is open to UK based non-governmental organisations working with overseas partners in Africa, Asia (including the Pacific and Central Asian countries), the Middle East, Central and South America, the Caribbean, and parts of Eastern Europe.

BLF expect to make grants of between £50,000 and £500,000 for projects of between two and five years' duration. For exceptional projects, they may make a small number of grants of up to £1 million. Projects must run for a minimum of two years. They can fund all or some of your project costs, but they encourage you to get some of your funding from other sources if you can.

They will only fund UK-based non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and other voluntary and community sector (VCS) organisations that are working with local partners overseas to run a project. By voluntary and community sector they mean:

• registered charities
• charitable or not-for profit organisations
• organisations set up as social enterprises (that is, businesses where any profits are mainly invested for community benefit).

This programme is mainly for the revenue costs of projects, so we will only fund up to £50,000 towards capital costs. Any capital amounts requested should include all relevant costs, such as VAT.

They will only fund projects in the following regions:

• Africa
• Asia (including the Pacific and Central Asian countries) and the Middle East
• Central and South America
• the Caribbean
• parts of Eastern Europe and the Balkans.

Applications for a project that will work in more than one country are eligible but they will not be prioritised over those that work in just one country.