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Transcript of the UK Fund short video summary

Watch our short video summary of The UK Fund.

Transcript

Slide 1

This is a video summary sharing information about The UK Fund, a funding programme being offered by the UK Portfolio at The National Lottery Community Fund.

Slide 2

This presentation aims to give you information to help you decide if the programme is a fit for your work. We’ll provide information about the criteria and aims for the programme, hints and tips, details of what we’re not looking to fund, some examples of the types of projects we are looking to fund and a checklist of things to consider before applying. As well as this information, we strongly encourage you to read all sections of The UK Fund web page.

Slide 3

This checklist shows some of the important things you should consider before applying. If you can answer yes to all these questions, then The UK Fund might be a fit for your work. It’s important to note that our assessment processes are extremely competitive, and we can therefore not guarantee success at any stage of the process. We’ll show this checklist again at the end of the presentation. The things you should consider are:

  • is your organisation eligible to apply for this programme?
  • does your project meet all the criteria?
  • does your project meet one aim well?

Slide 4

  • will your project benefit communities across the UK?
  • can you demonstrate evidence of impact?
  • are you looking to make long-lasting changes to systems and services that affect people’s lives?

We’ll go into more detail in the following slides.

Slide 5

This slide gives information about timing and amounts The UK Fund is offering funding from £500,000 to £5 million. We expect to fund around 20 projects per year. The length of funding available is 2 to 10 years and we expect most projects to be 3 to 5 years long. There is no application deadline, The UK Fund is an open, rolling programme.

Slide 6

The next slides give information about the programme criteria which all projects must meet

Slide 7

the first is benefit communities across the UK: we can fund projects that demonstrate this in different ways, for example, working across the whole of the UK, or across more than one country of the UK, or place-based projects that can show how they’ll share learning that could influence and inspire change in other areas. We’re interested in the partnerships, relationships and networks you hold that make this possible.

Slide 8

number 2: scale up proven impact: we’re looking for projects that are building on existing work that can demonstrate evidence of impact with plans to scale that impact further. this could be reaching more people or expanding into new areas or communities. it could also be developing better infrastructure or improving the support you already offer to people.

Slide 9

the 3rd criteria is support people experiencing poverty, disadvantage and discrimination: we’re looking to target our funding where it’s most needed. we have a strong equity focus so we’re looking at how things can be made fairer for these groups.

Slide 10

and the last one: help create lasting changes to services or systems: we want to support ambitious projects that could lead to long-term, lasting transformational change. we call this systems change and it could include tackling the root causes of issues, changing rules, habits, or ways of working, and giving communities more control over decisions and resources

projects can do this alongside service delivery, but we’re not looking to fund projects that are only looking to deliver a service

Slide 11

The next slides give information about the aims of the programme and we’re looking for a mix of projects across these aims. We think the strongest projects will meet one of these aims strongly:

Slide 12

Aim 1 is to Improve relationships between people with different life experiences – as we know that connection across social boundaries has huge and deep social benefits. This could be bringing people together from different backgrounds, generations or places.

Slide 13

Aim 2 is to help people and communities meaningfully connect online when it’s hard to meet in person. Examples here include because of health issues, poor transport links or because they live far apart from others with similar experiences or identities. We’re conscious of digital poverty here and would encourage projects to tell us how they plan to combat this.

Slide 14

Aim 3 is to support people from all backgrounds to influence the future of their communities – for example, creating ways for local people to have power in decisions that affect them.

Slide 15

Aim 4 is to help children and young people facing specific challenges change the systems around them – by giving them a voice and acting upon it. Projects should identify what the specific challenges are and how they will target those particular children and young people.

Slide 16

And aim 5 is to help more organisations to involve and listen to children and young people – by embedding excellent youth voice practice into organisations to use what children and young people say to improve their communities, and the systems and services they rely on.

Slide 17

We particularly welcome projects that are led-by and for disabled people. This is because we are aware of the challenges faced by disabled people and want to encourage more applications for projects that centre the voices of disabled people. But we are open to projects working with all communities, as long as they meet all programme criteria and one aim.

Slide 18

These are some hints and tips about the criteria and aims:

  • projects do not need to meet all the aims. you’re more likely to get funded if you meet one aim really well
  • we’re unlikely to fund projects that want to do a little bit of lots of things

Slide 19

  • we’ll only fund you to increase the impact of things you’re already doing – you should be able to demonstrate strong evidence of the impact of those things
  • it’s helpful to confirm what we mean by communities – we mean people who either live in the same area, or share an identity, interest or experience

Slide 20

We always find it helpful to explain what we’re not looking to fund:

Slide 21

So we’re not looking for projects that:

  • are brand new, that don’t have impact they can demonstrate, or no plans for increasing impact. we’re looking for projects that are able to demonstrate their impact and have plans for scaling that impact further
  • only focus on delivering services: we want to see plans to also change systems
  • only plan to move existing activities online: the aim about online connection is to support those who experience barriers to offline connection
  • work alone to make changes: we feel that the criteria are best demonstrated by organisations working with others

Slide 22

These are some other things we’re looking for in projects:

Slide 23

Community involvement and voice: We’re interested in how communities are involved in your organisation through governance and decision-making or design and delivery of services. You should tell us how communities have shaped the project and how they’ll continue to influence it.

Slide 24

We thought it would be helpful to provide some examples that bring the criteria and aims to life, we’ve given 4 examples to show the types of projects that meet the programme criteria and aims.

Slide 25

Project A is expanding its work in one location, building on evidence of impact to date. Working in a cross-sector partnership, the project will bring residents together with community leaders to identify and act on issues that are important to them. It will demonstrate UK-wide benefit by sharing learning with national and international partners to enable them to explore the work in their own contexts.

Slide 26

Project B is building on work in three locations in England and Wales, scaling into another area in Scotland. The project encourages connections between individuals, local groups and statutory bodies to reduce social isolation. It aims to affect systems change by building infrastructure to offer a support network for vulnerable communities.

Slide 27

Project C is a partnership of regional organisations that will use young peer researchers and training for youth sector organisations and professionals to embed youth voice into issue-based decision-making and the design of services and systems.

Slide 28

Project D is a coordinated activity programme that connects and empowers LGBTQ+ young people and organisations across the UK, with the aim of creating a movement that enables LGBTQ+ young people to advocate for their community. The project aims to influence policy and practice to affect positive change and improve outcomes and experiences for LGBTQ+ young people across the UK.

Slide 29

And here is the checklist again as a reminder. If you can answer yes to all these questions, then The UK Fund might be a fit for your work. The things you should consider are:

  • is your organisation eligible to apply for this programme?
  • does your project meet all the criteria?
  • does your project meet one aim well?

Slide 30

  • will your project benefit communities across the UK?
  • can you demonstrate evidence of impact?
  • are you looking to make long-lasting changes to systems and services that affect people’s lives?

Slide 31

Lastly, here’s some information about the next steps you could take.

Slide 32

If you feel your project is a good fit for the programme, you can find an online application form on our website. The form asks 3 main questions:

  • what do you want to do and why?
  • how does your project meet our funding priorities?
  • what do you hope to learn and what impact will your learning have?

Slide 33

If you have any further questions, you can contact our advice team by phone on 0345 4 10 20 30, or by email at general.enquiries@tnlcommunityfund.org.uk

The advice team can also give information about other funding programmes offered by the Fund. Thank you for watching this information video about The UK Fund programme.