The National Lottery Community Fund Update
Like many funders The National Lottery Coomunity Fund Scotland plans for 2020 have changed significantly as they respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. This year at the National Lottery Community Fund Scotland were due to pause and redevelop their funding offer as it reached the end of its five-year cycle.
We want to let you know today that they have changed these plans, as they think it is important to ensure third sector organisations can access their significant National Lottery funds to support them respond to and recover from the impact of the pandemic.
Their current funding programmes will remain open for an extra 18-24 months – however, they will adapt them as needed. They hope remaining open for applications means that they can better support the sector through COVID-19. Some of the grants and funding will remain unchanged, and others will be adapted to be more focused on COVID-19 recovery, with shorter grants and quicker turnaround.
We want to let you know today that they have changed these plans, as they think it is important to ensure third sector organisations can access their significant National Lottery funds to support them respond to and recover from the impact of the pandemic.
Their current funding programmes will remain open for an extra 18-24 months – however, they will adapt them as needed. They hope remaining open for applications means that they can better support the sector through COVID-19. Some of the grants and funding will remain unchanged, and others will be adapted to be more focused on COVID-19 recovery, with shorter grants and quicker turnaround.
Headlines
- National Lottery Awards for All and Young Start funds will remain open and unchanged
- Improving Lives grants remain open, but will be shorter, quicker to access, and will fund a wider range of work focused on recovery from COVID-19.
- From October 1 2020 the maximum Improving Lives grant will be £200k for up to three years.
- Community-Led Activity grants remain open. They’re reviewing these now to make sure they are relevant to the current situation, and will make any changes before the end of 2020.
- They’re still prioritising COVID-19 responses across all funds – but remain open to non-COVID-19 related work too.
- While they will make some further changes to priorities for both Improving Lives and Community-Led Activity before the end of 2020, there will be no other large-scale changes to the main grants until at least 2022.
Detail and deadlines:
Improving Lives grants
- From October 1, 2020 the maximum available Improving Lives grant will be £200K over one to three years. It will be a single stage application.
- They will only accept applications for more than £200k or more than 3 years until noon on Wed 30 September.
- They are reaching out to organisations they think will be affected by this change, but please don’t hesitate to get in touch if they can help support someone you are working with
- Before the end of 2020 they intend to adapt the priorities for Improving Lives to make it more relevant to the current situation. These priorities are in development, but they plan for these to expand the types of work they can currently fund rather than replace them.
- Community-Led Activity grants remain open. They are reviewing the fund to make sure it’s relevant for current situation, and will make some tweaks before the end of 2020
- They plan to increase the maximum grant to £200K.
Keeping you informed
TNL Community Fund Scotland be putting information about all these changes on their website and social media channels over the next few working days.
Other funding opportunities
Young Start
As more and more youth services reopen across Scotland, they are interested in hearing from great youth-led projects that could benefit from the Young Start funding. Grants of up to £100k can be used for any work that is designed and led by young people aged 8-24, and that will improve their wellbeing, help them become better connected or more enterprising.
Over the past six months they’ve received fewer applications than expected, so are happy to hear from any new projects that may be interested in funding.
Catalysts for Change funding
They would also like to highlight the Catalysts for Change fund, which they support through the Queen’s Nursing Institute Scotland. The fund offers grants up to £5k for projects led by community nurses that will work with the local community to improve the health and wellbeing of marginalised groups.
The next round opened on the 21st of September 2020.
As more and more youth services reopen across Scotland, they are interested in hearing from great youth-led projects that could benefit from the Young Start funding. Grants of up to £100k can be used for any work that is designed and led by young people aged 8-24, and that will improve their wellbeing, help them become better connected or more enterprising.
Over the past six months they’ve received fewer applications than expected, so are happy to hear from any new projects that may be interested in funding.
Catalysts for Change funding
They would also like to highlight the Catalysts for Change fund, which they support through the Queen’s Nursing Institute Scotland. The fund offers grants up to £5k for projects led by community nurses that will work with the local community to improve the health and wellbeing of marginalised groups.
The next round opened on the 21st of September 2020.
