National Lottery Community Fund: The UK Fund

Open (ongoing) Active citizenship Addiction and substance misuse Adult Education/Learning Advice services Age Age discrimination Aged 26 - 59 years Aged 60+ Archives and artefacts Arts, culture and heritage Black and minority ethnic Built heritage Children (0-12) Communities Community and neighbourhood development Community development Craft and design Cross community Cultural heritage Cultural, events and festivals Dependants and carers environment Faith and religion Family and parenting Gender equality and sexual orientation good relations Housing and homelessness Human rights and equality Human rights and justice Information Technology Monitoring and evaluation Multiculturalism Natural environment and climate Offenders and ex-offenders organisational development Peace and reconciliation People with disabilities Performing arts Policy, advocacy and campaigning Poverty and deprivation Racial equality Refugees and asylum seekers research Rural development Social inclusion Social partnership Social welfare and poverty Strate Antrim & Newtownabbey Ards & North Down Armagh City, Banbridge & Craigavon Belfast City Causeway Coast and Glens Derry City and Strabane England Fermanagh and Omagh Lisburn and Castlereagh Mid and East Antrim Mid Ulster Newry, Mourne and Down Northern Ireland Scotland Wales Large (over £60,000)

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Overview

The National Lottery Community Fund’s UK Fund is open to applications from organisations seeking to scale up proven work that tackles inequality and delivers systemic change. Rather than funding new ideas, the programme supports projects that are already making an impact and have the potential to grow their reach or deepen their effectiveness.

Eligible projects must benefit communities experiencing poverty, disadvantage, or discrimination, and operate across at least two UK nations—or demonstrate clear plans to share learning nationally.

Summary

Area: UK-wide
Suitable for: Voluntary or community organisations, statutory organisations
Funding size: £500,000 to £5m. Funding is available for 2 to 10 years. They expect to fund around 20 projects a year.

Who can apply?

You can apply if your organisations is:

registered charity
constituted voluntary or community organisation
company limited by guarantee (if it has a not-for-profit clause or is a registered charity)
community interest company (CIC)
charitable incorporated organisation (CIO)
community benefit society
co-operative society (if it has a not-for-profit clause and is registered with the Financial Conduct Authority)
statutory body (including town, parish and community councils)

You can also apply as a partnership of organisations. Partners that will get any of the funding must all be one of the types of organisations they’ve listed.

What they want to fund

They fund projects that help bring diverse communities together. They’ll also fund projects that help children and young people use their voice to influence change.

All projects must:

benefit communities across the UK (by working in different places, or by sharing learning between countries)
scale up their impact by expanding their work (by helping more people, or doing more for people they already work with)
support people experiencing poverty, disadvantage and discrimination
help make significant changes to services or systems that affect people’s everyday lives.

And meet one of these aims:

improve relationships between people with different life experiences
help people and communities who find it difficult to meet face-to-face to make meaningful connections online
help people from all backgrounds to influence the future of their communities
help children and young people facing specific challenges change the systems that affect them
help more organisations to involve and listen to children and young people.

You are more likely to get funding if you meet one aim well.

Applicant notes

They’re particularly interested in how your project will:

collect learning to show your impact
collaborate and work with partners
have a positive impact on people, communities and the natural environment.
will benefit communities across the UK (or have the potential to) - this could be by sharing learning, influencing, collaborating, convening or delivering activity across and between UK countries
scale your impact - this might be by expanding into new locations, developing infrastructure, strengthening delivery or increasing your reach
focus on equity – they want to fund projects that involve and benefit places, people and communities who experience poverty, disadvantage and discrimination.

Funding Levels

You can apply for between £500,000 and £5 million. Funding is available for 2 to 10 years.

Eligible costs

staff costs, including sessional workers
development work (testing new ways of working, staff training and development, developing governance, tech or IT upgrades and purchases, sharing learning)
transport
utilities and running costs
volunteer expenses
learning and evaluation
equipment
capital costs (but these should not be a significant amount of the funding you ask for)

Notes for applicants

They expect your organisation and the activities they fund to be open and accessible, to promote equalities and challenge discrimination. Describe your approach to equality, equity, diversity and inclusion.
They're committed to helping you protect the environment.

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