Building a collective moment is key to The National Lottery Community Fund’s Climate Action Fund
At the National Lottery Community Fund we believe that when people are in the lead then communities will thrive. You may have seen that we’ve recently announced a £100million Climate Action Fund to support thriving communities across the UK to tackle the climate emergency in a way that, collectively, makes a difference that benefits everyone.
If you want to find out more how you can make a positive impact on the environment with your National Lottery funding, visit our website by clicking here.
Why is climate action so important to us? We believe that addressing the climate emergency is everybody’s business.
As we celebrate the 25th birthday of the National Lottery this November we are proud of our role in funding environmental activities across the UK. Since 2013 alone we have invested around £345million (through 4,800 grants) in total on projects with an environmental aspect across the UK including: Read more…
Photographic exhibition marks 25th National Lottery birthday
Today (1 October) 25 charities and community groups from across Wales joined the National Lottery’s 25th birthday celebration in the Senedd to share their stories – captured on camera about their incredible impact in supporting communities to thrive.
Lord Elis Thomas, Deputy Minister for Culture, Sport and Tourism unveiled the photographic exhibition which captures the story of 25 years of funding communities thanks to The National Lottery Community Fund.
Wales Director at the Fund says “For 25 years The National Lottery has been helping communities to thrive and the National Lottery Community Fund – the largest community funder in Wales – is proud of the role we’ve played in supporting people and communities to thrive. Read more…
Celebrating 25 years of supporting communities in Wales to thrive
This November we’re celebrating the 25th birthday of The National Lottery. Since the first National Lottery draw in 1994, it’s not just the jackpot winners that have had their lives changed for the better. In Wales 20,671 good causes have received a share of £973.5 million of National Lottery funding to community projects.
The National Lottery Community Fund distributes 40% of National Lottery funds raised for good causes supporting health, education, the environment and charitable purposes. We are the largest community funder in Wales, supporting people and communities to thrive.
Our funding is having a positive impact on communities across Wales and to give you a flavour of the breadth of projects we’ve supported, we’re counting down the years and showcasing 25 examples of organisations we have supported in the 25 years since The National Lottery began… Read more…
Third sector support directory launched
Recently we launched a directory to support the third sector in a variety of ways. Rob Roffe our Head of Knowledge and Learning tells us more:
With constant pressure on public funds, the landscape for the third sector is challenging. While funding challenges are perhaps the most urgent problem that organisations need to address, we know that other organisational needs around issues like financial management, business planning, mission drift and demonstrating impact are also a cause for concern. Read more…
Did you know that The National Lottery Community Fund provides a full bilingual service to its customers in Wales? Sian Jones, our Welsh Language Officer, gives us a little update on what’s been happening over the past year.
If you would like to read this article in Welsh, you can find it here.
Our dedication to offering a truly bilingual service to our customers in both Welsh and English has continued. This was the feedback by one of our grant holders:
“The National Lottery Community Fund’s Welsh language service is brilliant. The website is easy to use and the Welsh is just as good as the English site. This is a breath of fresh air after dealing with many grant funders and other large organisations that don’t offer a Welsh service to the same standard. Being able to discuss a project or application in Welsh means that I can convey my enthusiasm for the application in a better way with the officers.” Read more…
Theatre workshops for people affected by homelessness thanks to National Lottery players
Theatre Versus Oppression received £187,478 of National Lottery money to run their Behind the Label project to provide a series of applied theatre workshops to people affected by homelessness in Cardiff. They are one of over 160 projects that received over £15 million for health and wellbeing projects over the last year. We spoke to Suzanne Phillips about their project and how they are hosting a show starring service users at Wales Millennium Centre.
“Behind the Label is an Applied Theatre project run by TVO in partnership with The Wallich and Wales Millennium Centre. Started in 2016 it uses drama and performance to give marginalised people a voice, tell their story and offer a new perspective on a social issue and the reasons behind it. Our aim is always to create compelling performances that challenge the audience to look at different perspectives.
Are you a school looking for a grant?
Schools across Wales are at the heart of their communities and have the potential to play a much larger role in the daily lives of the community where the school is based, beyond education in the classroom. We know that schools and Parent Teacher Associations (PTAs) are always looking for new ways to raise money and we receive many applications for grants from our National Lottery Awards for All programme.
Open to everyone
The strongest applications – and the ones more likely to be successful – show that they are applying for something the local community wants, which will bring wider benefits. We can only fund activities which are available to the wider community that the school sits within. Activities should take place out of school hours, in school holidays, and before or after school but importantly must also be available to the whole community and allow other children or families from across the area to join in the activities, not just the applying school’s pupils. As an example, if your community has come up with an idea for new play facilities, outdoor shelters or holiday clubs, then make sure these can be used by as many people as possible, as often as possible. Read more…
This month we awarded £800,000 to 20 groups across the UK as part of our Lived Experience Leaders programme. One of the projects that we funded was to Sub-Sahara Advisory Panel (SSAP), who are using £50,000 of National Lottery money to deliver a programme to support BAME people in Wales into leadership positions. We spoke to Fadhili Maghiya, Director at SSAP about the project to find out more about its background and the impacts that it will have.
“My name is Fadhili Maghiya, I’m the Director of South-Sahara Advisory Panel. I can pinpoint two areas that got us to where we are right now. The first one, one of the leaders for this project met with me about three years ago and we got to talking about young, BAME people in Wales and what support they were getting in terms of their progression and terms of developing themselves as people as well as activists through statutory bodies, charities and so on. What we realised was that there was a huge gap in provision and there wasn’t anything tailored for BAME communities in terms of their personal development. If you look at the leadership training that’s provided it’s more aimed towards mainstream organisations and people from BAME communities aren’t taking part in that training. Read more…
Top application tips from Empower – Be The Change
Empower – Be The Change in Wrexham was set up in 2016 after Founder, Jo Clay, spent two and a half years in India volunteering and working on various community projects. She mainly worked on setting up an international volunteer programme for young people from Wales, enabling them to increase their self-belief and strive towards their real interests and goals. It was this experience that inspired her to set up a social enterprise which could empower others to achieve the same. We spoke to her about her work thanks to a National Lottery grant of £246,000.
I set up Empower – Be The Change in May 2016 as I firmly believe that everyone has huge potential and with the right opportunities everyone has the opportunity to become empowered. The best part about my role is working with our participants and witnessing the positive self-belief they develop. It is also great working with the team and being creative and innovative in what we do. Read more…
Welsh Institute of Therapeutic Horsemanship to support disadvantaged women into leadership positions
This week we awarded £800,000 to 20 groups across the UK as part of our Lived Experience Leaders programme. One of the projects that we funded was to Welsh Institute of Therapeutic Horsemanship (WITH), who are using £50,000 of National Lottery money to deliver a programme to support disadvantaged women into leadership positions. We spoke to Lindsey Crosbie, Equestrian Director at WITH from the project to find out more about the background to the project.
“My name is Lindsey Crosbie and I come from a background of multiple, multi-generational disadvantage. I, my mother, my grandmother and my great grandmother have all had direct lived experience of poverty, domestic and sexual abuse and mental health issues. My great grandmother committed suicide because in the 1940s she was unable to access help for her anxiety, a condition that today is fully treatable. My mother and grandmother, though both bright and creative women, worked as a dinner lady and a zero hours contract carer respectively and never achieved their full potential because the disadvantages they suffered, and their resulting poor mental health held them back. I broke the cycle because, with the support of my mother and a teacher who really believed in me, I was able to win a scholarship to private school when I was 11 which gave me access to more choices and a greater variety of opportunities than the women who went before me ever had. Read more…
