More information about your Reaching Communities application

Thank you for all your work telling us about your project so far. We need some more information so that we can make our final decision on your application.

What information you need to send us

Your funding officer will have explained in in their email which sections of this guidance you need to tell us about and by what date. You do not need to respond to each section unless your funding officer has asked you to in their email.

We will not ask for information that you’ve already shared with us, but we may need to clarify some of the information you sent us and ask for more detail.

If you need help

Please speak to your funding officer who will be happy to help. For example, if you are unsure how much to write, the timeline for your application or you have any queries along the way. Once you’ve submitted your information, your funding officer will contact you if they need further clarification.

If you have any communication needs

Your funding officer can explain other ways for you to tell us about the information we need. This can include us paying for BSL (British Sign Language) interpreters.

What happens next

Once we receive your response, your funding officer will assess it and will usually get in touch to ask you to clarify some areas. Once we have your response, it usually takes up to 3 months for us to make a final decision on your application.

When we have all the information we need to make a final decision, you’ll receive an email asking you and the senior contact to confirm that:

• your application is accurate and complete
• you’ll tell us about any changes
• the governing body of your organisation has authorised the application
• your organisation can deliver the project described, and
• you’ve had the chance to submit all the information you think is relevant for us to make a decision about funding your application.

We get many good applications and we do not have enough money to fund them all. This means we have to make some tough decisions about who we can fund. We’ll consider what we know about the communities you are working with and how your application fits with what we have already funded. You can find out more on our website about the projects we have funded.

Your funding officer may have requested more information on the following areas

Use the links to get to more detailed guidance.

Your application will need to set out the main activities that the grant will fund. Please tell us:

• what activities, services and tasks you will deliver for the first year and an outline for the rest of the project
• about your current work and any activities directly aimed at individuals and communities
• the exact location (including postcodes) where you will deliver activities and the communities that will benefit from the services
• how these activities will support the community and/or your organisation, and how you have checked this is the right approach
• who will be responsible for delivering these activities
• how you ensure the activities are engaging and accessible
• any risks you have identified to your project being successful and how you plan to manage these risks.

Tell us more about how your work is contributing to one of our missions listed below.

Our missions are to support communities to:

• Come together, by: Providing inclusive places, spaces and activities (either physical or virtual). Especially for communities where people are least able to come together.

• Help children and young people thrive, by:
  • Developing positive social and emotional skills. And,
  • Providing safe spaces and relationships they can trust. And,
  • Involving them, and their families, in the decisions that affect their lives. And,
  • Helping prevent issues before they happen.

• Be healthier, by:
  • Supporting people most affected by health inequalities. And,
  • Helping prevent issues before they happen.
  • We also want to fund projects that support people who've experienced health inequalities to influence the health system.
• Be environmentally sustainable, by:
  • Empowering people to engage with climate issues and adapt to the impacts of a changing climate. Or,
  • Taking part in activities to make a positive environmental impact. Like reducing carbon emissions or creating space for wildlife. Or,
  • Helping communities to have access to nature. By increasing the amount and quality of natural space for wildlife. Meaning that people can experience nature around them, and that more varieties of wildlife can thrive.

We’re more likely to fund work that achieves one or two of these missions really well. There’s no requirement for your work to achieve more than one mission.

For further reading around our missions and the impact we’re looking to make through our funding see:

• our missions framework
• our strategy.

We would like to understand what you are trying to achieve for your community and/or your organisation, and how you plan to learn from your work.

The information you provide about the difference your project will make will become part of your grant agreement with us if you are successful.

You’ll need to update us on your progress against it throughout the project. You should consider how realistic, measurable and achievable your outcomes are for your organisation.

We do not mind how you present this information to us, but we’re keen to understand:

• your organisation’s overall aim and how this project fits within that overall aim
• the main outcomes that your project will contribute to. We use the word ‘outcomes’ to refer to the difference or change that your project will make. Please describe the main outcomes that your project will contribute to. You should decide on your own the outcomes that are important to your community, but you’ll need to indicate which of our mission outcomes these align to or relate to.
  
  Typically, there will be several outcomes, but there is no fixed number.
  
  These outcomes will probably be relevant to one or more of the following groups, but you do not need to talk about all four groups:
  1. project beneficiaries (the people who will benefit from your work)
  2. volunteers or staff
  3. your organisation including your organisation’s skills and capacity
  4. the wider community.
• the number of unique project beneficiaries for your work
• how you plan to monitor and measure the difference you’re making. This should be proportionate to the scale and complexity of your project
• how you will share your learning so it can be used more widely. And how you’ll apply learning to improve your work.

For further guidance, you may find it helpful to look at our evidence principles. And the step by step guide to generating evidence.

For further reading around our missions and the impact we’re looking to make through our funding see:

• our missions framework
• our strategy.

Our funding is available to all communities. But our priority is the places, people and communities that need it most. We are committed to making sure our funding reaches everyone that it should. We want equity, diversity, and inclusion to considered in all our decisions.

We would like to understand your organisation’s approach to equity, diversity, and inclusion and how you will apply it to this project and its delivery. This includes:

• how you actively reduce barriers for people or communities to access your services or activities
• the way in which you empower people to feel valued and allow them to participate meaningfully in your activities and decision making
• the way you recognise and support those who are most affected by multiple forms of discrimination or disadvantage based on their race, gender, sexuality, disability, class or other factors.

We want you to meaningfully involve your community in designing, developing and delivering your project. Especially the people that will directly benefit from your work.

We want you to help your community have real control over things that are important to them. Like influencing services they use or decisions that affect their lives.

We can fund some political activity and campaigning. But only if:

• the activity is not party political. This means that it must be about policy, practice, or legislation rather than opposing or supporting a political party.
• the activity is meant to help the cause of your organisation and benefit the public or society.

We will not fund projects where political activity is the main purpose. But we can fund projects that are mainly about campaigning.

We are more likely to fund organisations that are managed and led by people with personal experience of the issues you help deal with. They could be volunteers, staff or trustees.

Tell us more about:

• how you involve your community in designing, developing and delivering activities
• to what extent your organisation is led, managed and staffed by people with lived experience of poverty, disadvantage or discrimination. Or by people with personal experience of the issues you help deal with. If not, are there any plans to improve lived experience through this project?
• what are the challenges to empowerment in your community and how would you address these in your project?
• how you take a strengths-based approach – building on the resources of your community and making use of the knowledge, skills and experience they already have
• how your organisation works, or could work, to help your community have control over things that are important to them and that affect your community
• if relevant, tell us how your organisation supports people to know about and claim their rights. This could include increasing the ability and accountability of individuals and institutions who are responsible for respecting, protecting, and fulfilling rights.

We want to understand more about your organisation. We want to understand your organisation’s strengths and the challenges you face, so please tell us more about:

• how well you are connected locally with other organisations - will you be working with or referring to any other organisations when delivering your project? How will this work?
• how you work collectively with other organisations to address inequalities
• how other people in your community find out about your work and access your services
• any support you need to help deliver your project
• whether this project is new to your organisation, such as a capital project or an environmental project. If it is then tell us about any organisations you have worked with or advice you have received from experts to help you plan the project so far.
• your organisation’s leadership structure and governance processes. We expect your organisation to follow our guidance on financial controls and financial governance.

Tell us about all of the organisation policies you have in place. How often are they reviewed and updated and how do you ensure they’re understood and followed by colleagues, employees and volunteers? If you are applying for funding as a partnership, all partners will also need to have suitable policies in place. Here is some examples of policies we’d expect you to have in place:

• HR policies (For example, whistle blowing, health and safety).
• Employment policies.
• Equity, diversity and inclusion policy - see section D.
• Safeguarding policy if relevant - see section M.
• Finance policies.

You do not need to send these policies to us.

Tell us more about:

• the skills of your trustees or directors, how they are involved in your work, how often they meet, how often they are trained
• the key skills and experience of your staff and volunteers relevant to this project
• the main responsibilities and roles of all delivery staff and any volunteers for the proposed project, including those not covered by our funding
• which project roles are currently being carried out by existing staff, and which will be new roles? For new roles, we will expect to see open recruitment
• your arrangements to supervise staff and volunteers
• any people or organisations you may employ to support with organisational development, evaluation or impact management
• any people you may employ to support any elements of your project that involve building or refurbishment work
• for projects involving children and young people, information showing that the workers have suitable qualifications, skills, and/or training where appropriate e.g. for youth, play, family support.

The National Lottery Community Fund is a Living Wage Friendly Funder. This means that we encourage our applicants to pay their staff the UK Living Wage. Visit the Living Wage Foundation to find out more about the Living Wage.

If you are applying for funding as a partnership with other organisation(s), all partners must be on the list of organisations that are eligible to apply.

We usually give our funding to the lead organisation in a partnership. They can then pay the other partners for the work they do. If your partnership will not have a lead organisation, we'll pay out the funding separately to each organisation.

Tell us more about:

• the reasons for your organisations coming together and the value it will add to your project.
• any previous experience you have of working together.
• the roles and responsibilities of each partner organisation in managing and delivering the project.
• whether partners will have suitable policies in place such as those referred to in section G.
• You and your partners will need to confirm you have a written agreement about how you’ll work together before we can pay you the funding. If you need it, you can use our partnership agreement template (Word document, 51 KB).

If your project is currently funded through Reaching Communities and your application is for the continuation of this existing project, tell us more about:

• how you have learnt from your community and the people you work with on the difference your existing project has made.
• how this learning has shaped your project plans and your application.

If you are applying for £20,000 or more of funding for the purchasing, refurbishing or developing of land and buildings or other construction-related works you need to complete the checklist in our land and buildings guidance and checklist (PDF, 175 KB). Tell us how the project will consider environmental sustainability. You will need to read the land and buildings guidance to check whether you need to include an access plan and carbon savings plan.

We want to know your future plans for the financial sustainability of this project and what the long-term legacy might be. If you intend to continue the project beyond the lifetime of our grant, please tell us how you might fund it in the future. This could include which funders you might apply to for more funding or looking at ways to generate your own income in different ways. We understand that you might not have a fixed plan at this stage of the project.

For environmental and capital projects, tell us your plans for how any new spaces will be maintained beyond the length of the funding.

The National Lottery Community Fund is committed to protecting the rights and interests of the people who benefit from the grants we make. We believe that people should never experience any form of abuse, neglect, or harm of any kind.

We expect grantholders to promote a culture of safeguarding, to keep people safe and to respond to safeguarding incidents. If the project involves working with children and young people (under the age of 18) or adults at risk, we need to ensure that you can meet our requirements. Please tell us:

• whether you understand that in signing a grant agreement with the Fund, this will include a requirement to meet our safeguarding expectations for organisations we fund.
• that your organisation has its own tailored policy for safeguarding and protecting children and adults at risk.
• about your approach to reviewing your safeguarding policy, and training staff and trustees on its contents.
• whether all sub-grant-holders and third parties (including contractors) appointed by you to work with children and adults at risk as part of grant activity have their own, appropriate safeguarding and protection policies and procedures in place.
• that you have named people responsible for safeguarding such as a designated safeguarding lead.
• that your staff understand how to deal with and escalate concerns.
• that you can show how you track safeguarding concerns and tell us how many concerns you have managed in the past 12 months.
• that you conduct DBS (Disclosure and Barring Service) checks, if needed.
• that you will work with your funding officer or funding manager where there are potentially serious concerns or disclosures about the safeguarding or protection of any child or adult at risk. Grant holders will need to notify us of concerns or incidents within three working days, as explained in our safeguarding expectations for organisations we fund.

Our strategy for 2023 to 2030 states that environment is one of our core missions and that we will consider environmental sustainability as part of every application.

Our environment plan commits us to being a world-class environmental funder.

Our aims are to help the wider community and voluntary sector to improve its environmental impact, to lead the way in managing our own environmental impact, and to demonstrate influence and leadership on environmental sustainability.

For further information and guidance on reducing your environmental footprint, please see our climate action hub.

Tell us more about:

• your plans to make a positive difference to your environmental impact. This might be by delivering your project in a more environmentally sustainable way or through a particular element of your project
• how you know this activity will be the most appropriate or impactful action you could take. Have you sought advice on your needs and the best way to do this?
• if you will use your project to promote environmental awareness
• how you have checked whether any of your activities are harmful to the environment (such as use of petrol or diesel vehicles, or single use plastics). If they are, what are your plans for addressing this in the future?

Your funding request can include costs to support your environmental ambitions.

We want to fund organisations that support and help other organisations through a ‘generous leadership’ approach. Generous leadership means actively ensuring a positive environment for working together with other organisations and groups.

Please tell us if you plan to take this approach and if so how would you plan to do this during the lifetime of your project. This could include:

• sharing evidence and data with other organisations with shared missions
• collaborating in other ways to achieve your mission such as sharing resources
• helping to advance skills in the sector.

What happens if we award you the funding

Find out what to expect, by reading our guidance on managing funding over £20,001.

Our terms and conditions

Read our funding terms and conditions.

See how we use the personal data you give us

By reading our data protection statement.

We do checks on the information you give us

As an organisation that gives out public funds, we carry out some checks on the information you give to us. Learn more about our checks.