60 seconds with a Knowledge and Learning Officer…
We’ve got an opportunity for someone to join our team as a Knowledge and Learning Officer for people who are passionate about supporting communities in Wales. If you’re not sure what exactly a Knowledge and Learning Officer does, then we asked Dave from our Knowledge and Learning team to give you a flavour of what’s involved.
What’s the best thing about working for the Big Lottery Fund?
I’ve been at the Fund for nearly 10 years now so I guess that says something. There are not many organisations whose mission is ‘helping communities most in need’ so because of that it’s a really motivating place to work, especially when you see the difference our funding makes, and being able to demonstrate that to stakeholders. On top of that, the people are great too! Read more…
£150,000 of National Lottery funding up for grabs across Wales in The People’s Projects
Five local community groups across Wales are set to compete for up to £50,000 of National Lottery funding each. The People’s Projects is giving these groups a chance to go head to head compete in a public vote to help them make an extraordinary difference to their community.
For 13 years, the Big Lottery Fund, ITV and The National Lottery have been teaming up to give the public a chance to decide where National Lottery money should go in their local area.
The three projects in Wales with the most public votes will receive grants of up to £50,000. This will help them to continue their work to bring people together, build stronger communities and make a difference to people’s lives.
Voting opens at today at www.thepeoplesprojects.org.uk. Read more…
National Lottery Awards for All is a very popular programme and we frequently receive many more applications in excess of our available budget. Because of this, we are not always able to fund all of the worthwhile applications we receive, which means we have difficult decisions to make about how to prioritise our funding.
The key areas we will use to make a decision are how strongly your project meets one of our funding priorities and how involved your community is with the design, development and delivery of the activities you are planning.
National Lottery Awards for All has three funding priorities and your project idea must meet at least one of these:
- Shape the places and spaces that matter to communities
- Bring people together and build strong relationships in and across communities
- Enable more people to fulfil their potential by working to address issues at the earliest possible stage
What next for Magi Ann?
Winning the Education Category in the National Lottery Awards 2017 was a fantastic experience for Menter Iaith Flint and Wrexham. With the lottery funding, we succeeded in creating 6 apps to help children to learn to read Welsh. We have received priceless publicity as a result of the nomination and winning the award. We reached a far wider audience than we would have through our current networks, not only across Wales, but throughout Britain. Read more…
A community farm in Swansea that was on the brink of closure less than 12 months ago is celebrating the news that National Lottery money will open up opportunities for its community. Thanks to National Lottery players, Swansea Community Farm have received £99,992 to support new people in the community with mental health difficulties into volunteering and training opportunities with the help of the animals at their farm. Read more…
60 seconds with our Funding Officers…
There are currently many opportunities to join our team for people who are passionate about supporting communities in Wales. So to give people an idea what it’s like working at the Big Lottery Fund, we interviewed Liz, a Funding Officer in our Cardiff office, and Hywel, a Funding Officer in our Newtown office, to give you the inside scoop…
Tell us a bit about what the Big Lottery Fund does.
Liz: The Big Lottery Fund distributes the funds raised by people playing the National Lottery. We give out money to organisations who make a real difference to people throughout the UK.
What made you decide to join the Big Lottery Fund?
Liz: I started with the fund five years ago as a temp. Before I was told about the job I didn’t know much about the Fund and what they did so I had to do some research to find out. I have always chosen to work in the third sector because it’s important to me that my job makes a difference. Everything I found showed that the Fund was working to improve the lives of people who are most in need and I wanted to be part of that.
Hywel: I have been with the Fund for over 18 years. I was at a stage in my life when I fancied a new challenge with regular hours. I had previously been self-employed and a director for various manufacturing companies for over 20 years. The thought of giving out money and helping others for a living as opposed to chasing money from creditors appealed greatly. Read more…
A new approach to funding with Helping Working Families
The Big Lottery Fund in Wales has launched Helping Working Families, offering grants up to £500,000 over four years for projects working with families affected by ‘in-work’ poverty to improve their lives. More or less what you would expect from the Fund? But something is different as Andy Brown, Funding Manager for Helping Working Families at the Big Lottery Fund told us:
“Funding the development phase of a project is a departure for us. Increasingly we have been asking organisations applying to our grant schemes to show how they are putting the people who will benefit in the lead when developing the project. We have been listening to feedback about how best we can help organisations and this programme offers a way for us to do that. We hope that organisations will embrace this opportunity and make an application to us.” Read more…
National Lottery Awards for All: Grants for projects led by communities, for communities.
National Lottery funding can help you to make a difference in your community. National Lottery Awards for All offers funding from £300 to £10,000 to support what matters the most to people and communities. We will fund organisations with great project ideas that:
- Shape the places and spaces that matter to communities
- Bring more people together and build strong relationships in and across communities
- Enable more people to fulfil their potential by working to address issues at the earliest possible stage
We also ask that projects are led by the communities they will benefit. This means the people you’ll be working with will be meaningfully involved in the development, design and delivery of your project. Funding Manager Gareth Williams tells us what this means and how you can encourage people to engage with your project: Read more…
Thanks a million! £5.4million of National Lottery cash to transform 5 lucky communities.
Listen to the incredible reaction of Lynne Thomas of Cardiff University as the Big Lottery Fund surprise her with the news of their £1million grant.
Cardiff University are one of five projects receiving a total of £5.4million of National Lottery money from the Community Asset Transfer 2 programme to transform disused spaces into local landmarks and community hubs. Read more…
Applying for a Big Lottery Fund grant in 2018?
Are you considering applying for a National Lottery grant to support your community this year? In our latest video, Menter Iaith Fflint a Wrecsam and Innovate Trust share their experience of accessing National Lottery funding:
Menter Iaith Sir Fflint a Wrecsam received £4,867 from National Lottery Awards for All for their Welsh Language Magi Ann project. They developed six apps to support non-Welsh speaking parents to read books in Welsh with their children. The project has been extremely successful winning the best educational project at the National Lottery Awards.
Innovate Trust received £248,713 through People and Places to help people with learning disabilities and/or mental health problems. The project will work to help individuals build on their strengths and gain skills and confidence through outdoor conservation work, one of the aims of the project is to help them live independently within their communities. Read more…
