Here at The National Lottery Community Fund, we believe a real strength of our work as a grant-maker is that our funding officers understand the communities they serve – either by directly living in those communities, or through their experience and work. This local approach allows them to build local knowledge and stronger relationships within the community. 

We spoke to Catriona Learmont, Funding Officer who covers the Wrexham area of North Wales about her day-to-day role is in the National Lottery Community Fund and what it means to her.  

“My name is Catriona Learmont and I’m the Funding Officer that supports the Wrexham area of North Wales. I am passionate about supporting communities in North Wales to access National Lottery funding. In my day-to-day role as a Funding Officer, I assess applications from groups that are usually for grants between £10,000 and £1.5million. I then support the successful grant holders to manage their grants, whilst also supporting unsuccessful applicants to strengthen their application or signpost to other funders and support. I will also often meet with community groups and stakeholders to encourage applications and to learn about new challenges and successes they face in the community. I am very focused on the accessibility of our funding; therefore, I engage with BAME and other minorities in different communities also.  

The most rewarding part of my job is being able to successfully work with different community groups to ensure they have the best support available to make sure their funding applications are successful.  The grants can make such a massive difference in communities, and being part of that is incredibly heart-warming and rewarding. To be able to meet such incredibly deserving people and see them making such a difference to their communities, really is a fantastic feeling.  

If you’re reading this, and you’re wondering what the most important thing is you need to do to be successful, one of the most important things when creating a funding application, is ensuring that you let the community co-produce the project. It is crucial to allow local people to be involved in process as they are the ones who are the experts in what they want and need within the community, and doing this will not only strengthen your application, but also strengthens community connections.” 

To help you get to know your funding officer better, we also asked Catriona to give us a fun fact or two about herself, and she did not disappoint. “Some fun facts about me are that I’ve lived all over the world! I’ve been so lucky to experience so many cultures, traditions, and religions and in my youth, I went to 17 different schools.  

One of the more memorable memories and facts about me is that I spent time living with a native American family in Paris, Texas in my youth. The family had a farm that trained rottweilers for the Dallas police, and during my time there, they taught me how to ride American saddle on a retired circus horse, introduced me to rocky road ice cream, and was lucky enough to spend time with a wild grey wolf.”