Our vision

In late 2022 as part of the Strategy Renewal process, a cross-directorate team of colleagues undertook a deep dive on environment. The team presented the following vision as a conclusion from that process.

Our vision: seven strategic goals

We recommend the Fund takes an ambitious approach, and present a vision with seven strategic goals where we mobilise the creativity / enterprise and desire for change among the Third Sector to deliver:

For people and planet

1. Communities across the UK are climate-resilient
   • recognise that some communities will be more affected than others
   • (re-)imagine the new emergence of a thriving community in a 2–3ºC world
2. People in communities everywhere are empowered to take positive environmental action
   • stimulate a deeper understanding of the nature and climate emergency, and how it connects to the way communities live their lives
   • local, visible change encourages more people to take part, building ownership and driving wider behaviour change
   • people have access to high quality environmental assets, including both green and blue space; clean air; healthy environments
3. The UK’s biodiversity decline is halted, and begins to flourish again

For the Third Sector

4. The Third Sector plays a key role in delivering environmental sustainability, to support thriving communities ¹
   • the Third Sector makes a clear contribution to UK Net Zero by 2030
   • coherence as a sector; strong movement building. Third Sector organisations are advocates for the cause
   • normalising positive environmental behaviour in communities
   • The National Lottery Community Fund provides operational and organisational support to Third Sector organisations

For The National Lottery Community Fund as a funder

5. The National Lottery Community Fund is operationally Net Zero by 2030
   • ongoing working plan, keep under review
6. The National Lottery Community Fund is a regenerative ² environmental funder
   • tangibly supports the UK’s commitment of Net Zero by 2050 ³
   • is a nature-positive funder ⁴, supporting the UK to be NP by 2030
   • sees environmental impact as cross-cutting, across everything, similar to EDI
   • enables participation in change
   • has a deliberate focus on social and environmental justice
   • is forward thinking, keeping abreast of developments and complements other funders
7. The National Lottery Community Fund is known as a trusted voice on the relationship between communities and the environment
   • develops a clear environmental strategy and maximises its opportunity to make impact, learn and share its knowledge by collaborating with other funders
   • proactively seeks to act as an influencer and convenor, with purposeful communications around its environmental impact
   • focus on quality evidence; knowledge and learning; research
   • consistent impact measurement (including understanding the unintended impacts of our funding ⁵)
   • builds high level of environmental expertise across the organisation

• Blog: Exploring some key tensions
• Advertising adds 32% to UK carbon footprint

Footnotes

1. Possible measures: Thriving places index; Environmental concerns and feeling of agency.
2. Move beyond a ‘do least harm’ approach, to actively seeking to have a positive impact on the environment.
3. We recognise that there are several key tensions that arise in funding to achieve this aim (see blog link in Annex 1).
4. Working alongside other agencies – five statutory nature agencies (Joint Nature Conservation Committee, Natural England, Natural Resources Wales, NatureScot and the Northern Ireland Environment Agency) have come together to identify how the UK can achieve its commitment to being nature positive by 2030.
5. For example, the advertising industry adds 32% to the annual carbon footprint of every person in the UK.
6. In the context of the commitment the term investments refers to endowments/investments held by charitable trusts (rather than grants/awards they make).