Everything you need to know about applying for Lottery funding
National Lottery funding presents a wide range of opportunities for your business. The National Lottery funds a variety of opportunities for a variety of businesses, charities, projects and communities.
The National Lottery Community Fund splits its opportunities for funding into two. One for under £10,000 and the other for funding over £10,000. There are also grants for businesses supporting communities and people impacted in response to COVID-19.
You need to be a constituted group or organisation to bid for funding from the National Lottery. A lot of application deadlines are often ongoing, meaning you can apply for grants at any time.
It is important to note that they are focused on the environment, equality, diversity and inclusion. The funders may want to know:
- Your organisation’s approach to equality, diversity and inclusion.
- That the activities and organisations they fund to be open and accessible, promoting equality and challenge discrimination.
- Your approach to equalities from participation to accessibility and decision making. They may ask to see your equalities and environmental policy as part of their assessment.
Lottery Funding COVID-19 projects
The Community Fund is there to support businesses that are responding to the pandemic or supporting recovery activities. They’re also helping organisations adapt, enabling them to become more resilient in response to new and future challenges.
Lottery funding for COVID-19 projects is also split into over and under £10,000 subsections. They are looking for projects to be people-led, strengths-based and connected to communities.
You may want to ask yourself:
- What’s already working in my community?
- How will my project add to these positive things that are already working?
- How will my project make the most of any resources that are already helping my community?
- What are the skills, knowledge and experiences people in my community have to contribute to the project?
- How can the project make sure it utilises these?
- Have I spoken to other groups in the area that are doing something similar to my project?
- Have I thought about how we can all help each other?
Lottery Funding projects under £10,000
The National Lottery funding awards grants ranging from £300 to £10,000. They help support people and communities across the UK. They like to fund organisations that:
- Bring people together helping build strong relationships both in and across communities.
- Help shape spaces and the places that matter most to communities.
- Enable more people to fulfil their potential by working to address the core issues as early as possible.
You can apply for funding under £10,000 if your organisation is a:
- Social enterprise
- School
- Voluntary or community organisation
- Not-for-profit company
- Community interest company
- Registered charity
- Constituted club or group
- Statutory body (parish, town and community council).
What can I apply for?
Lottery Funding grants can fund the following and more:
- Transport
- One-off events
- Equipment
- Volunteer expenses
- Staff costs
- Training costs
- Utilities and running costs.
Lottery Funding projects over £10,000
Applications for Lottery Funding over £10,000 are split into a range of funding streams via location. The bid process for lottery funding above £10,000 is slightly more complex than smaller grants.
The requirements will vary depending on the funding stream you are going for. So, it’s best to look online and check what it says on each page.
How do I apply?
For any Lottery Fund grant, you will need to select the location where the project will be in the UK. You will often be asked to submit a form online via their website. You may only be required to provide basic information when filling out the form. For this, you should answer as fully as possible. They will then get in contact with you to discuss any additional information to make a decision about your application. If they are interested in taking your idea further, they will contact you to discuss it more in depth.
Some projects will give you an alternative if you don’t want to complete the online form. You may be able to send an email or a video. You may need to include the following if you decide to do this instead depending on the project or fund:
- The name of your project
- Where it’ll take place
- What you’d like to do
- How has demand for your services changed?
- How your project fits with local activities
- Who will benefit from your project?
- How have they been affected by COVID-19?
- What difference will your project make?
- How will your project mitigate the impact of COVID-19?
- How much money you will need?
- What you intend to spend the money on
- How long you will need the money for?
- What your organisation does
- Why you’re best placed to deliver your project.
If making a video, it should only be around five minutes long. Of course, not all funding will require that information. It’s best to check online to see what your opportunity requires you to include. Working with a Grant Writing Consultant can help optimise your chances of success. They’re well versed in grant proposals and know what can get you in the funders good books. This can help optimise your chances of success.
What you need to apply
In order to apply for funding opportunities for your organisation you will need the following:
- The details of two different people from your organisation that they can talk to if they have any questions. One should be a senior member of your team. You will need to provide their names, email, phone number, home address and dates of birth.
- Details about your organisation. This includes the legal name and address of your organisation and what type of organisation it is.
- Your organisation’s accounts. Including the date your accounts end each year and how much income you have. It is ok if you are a new organisation and don’t have yearly accounts yet.
- A bank statement from the last three months. It should show your organisation’s legal name, address the statements are sent to and your banks name. It should also include your account number and sort code and the sate the statement was issued.
- Information about what kind of project you’d like funding for.
Need help with writing your grant application?
Our Grant Writing Service is for businesses who want to start applying for grants, but don’t know where to begin. If you don’t have the resources or the time in-house to write a winning grant – we can help. Our Bid Writers have over 60 years of experience in bidding for funding and grants. Whether it’s council business grants, grants for charities or start-up business grants. They can take care of the whole thing for you – they’ll even submit it on your behalf.
Get in touch to find out how we can help your business grow!
Our Grant Tracker service is now live. It hosts all the latest grant opportunities in the UK from 1,500 data points. Opportunities are manually tracked, enabling for accurate keyword labelling, optimising your search for the perfect grant.
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