Revenue grants of between £500,000 and £5 million over 2-10 years (although most awards are likely to be for between 2 and 5 years) are available for a range of organisations, including registered charities, Community Interest Companies and local authorities, for projects that enable communities to come together help create a better-connected society and help children and young people use their voice to influence change. Partnership proposals are welcomed.
The UK Fund is one of the National Lottery Community Fund’s first significant commitments as part of its strategy for the period 2023-30, entitled ‘It Starts with Community'.
The UK Fund is looking to fund organisations that want to do more to help communities come together and help create a better-connected society, as well as projects that help children and young people use their voice to influence change.
Projects must either work across the UK, or be able to inform, influence or scale up across the UK. The National Lottery wants to support ambitious projects that aim to create longer-term, transformational change. It will take an equity-based approach to tackle inequality. This means funding will be directed to areas where the greatest need can be evidenced.
Funding is available for projects that:
- Benefit communities across the UK (by working in different locations, or by sharing learning between countries).
- Help make significant changes to services or systems that affect people’s everyday lives.
- Scale up their impact by expanding their work (by helping more people, or doing more for people they already work with), and
- Support people experiencing poverty, disadvantage, and discrimination.
Projects must also meet one or more of the following aims:
- 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.
- 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, and/or
- Improve relationships between people with different life experiences.
Revenue grants of between £500,000 and £5 million are available over 2-5 years (and in exceptional circumstances up to 10 years) to not-for-profit organisations for projects that have a UK-wide reach and the ability to create better connected communities. Up to 20 projects are expected to be funded each year. Partnership proposals are welcomed.
Grants can be used for:
- Capital costs (although applicants should note that this is primarily a revenue grant scheme).
- Costs associated with delivering the project in other languages.
Development work (testing new ways of working, staff training and development, developing governance, tech or IT upgrades and purchases, sharing learning).
- Equipment.
- Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning.
- Staff costs, including sessional workers.
- Transport.
- Utilities and running costs, and
- Volunteer expenses.
The programme opened to applications on Monday 4 August 2023. There is no closing date; applications are assessed on an ongoing basis.
Further information about the UK Fund is available on the National Lottery Community Fund website.