National Lottery Awards for All Scotland

Who can apply?

You can apply if your organisation is a:

• voluntary or community organisation
• registered charity
• constituted group or club
• not-for-profit company or Community Interest Company
• school (as long as your project benefits and involves the communities around the school)
• statutory body (including town, parish and community council)

If you're a smaller organisation

We’re keen to fund smaller organisations too. So we’ll look at your income when we’re making a decision.

We cannot accept applications from:

• individuals
• sole traders
• companies that can pay profits to directors, shareholders or members (including Companies Limited by Shares)
• organisations based outside the UK
• organisations that have already sent a National Lottery Awards for All application and are waiting for a decision
• organisations that don't have at least two people on their board or committee who aren't married, in a long-term relationship, living together at the same address, or related by blood
• one organisation on behalf of another.

What can you spend money on?

We can fund a wide range of items, and some examples of these are below. This isn’t exhaustive, so you should contact us if you’re unsure.

We can fund:

• equipment
• one-off events
• small capital projects
• staff costs
• training costs
• transport
• utilities/running costs
• volunteer expenses.

We can’t fund:

• alcohol
• contingency costs, loans, endowments or interest
• paying someone else to write your application
• political or religious activities
• profit-making/fundraising activities
• recoverable VAT
• statutory activities.

Below is the information you’ll be asked to put in your application.

Take the time to make sure you’ve got everything you need before your apply online.

Contact details

You’ll need to give the names, contact details and dates of birth of two unconnected people from your organisation, one of whom will be the legally responsible contact for any grant awarded.

By unconnected we mean not related by blood or marriage, in a long-term relationship or living together at the same address. Both contacts need to live in the UK.

Organisation details

What type of organisation are you? What is its full legal name and address and postcode?

Accounting details

What is your accounting year end date and total annual income?

To be eligible for funding you need to produce annual accounts, or have set up your organisation less than 15 months ago and not yet produced them.

Bank statement

Make sure you have a copy of your organisation’s bank statement from the last three months (or a bank welcome letter if you have opened a new account in the last three months).

This should be for the UK-based account you want us to pay your grant into, if you’re successful. You must have at least two unrelated people who are able to manage the account you want to use. The statement needs to show the:

• organisation’s legal name
• address the statements are sent to
• bank name
• account number and sort code
• date.

See more detailed guidance on what we look for on your bank statements (PDF, 455KB)

If you are a school who uses a local authority bank account, please attach a letter from the local authority that confirms your school name, the bank account name and number and sort code. The letter must be on local authority headed paper and dated. Other statutory bodies can attach a letter from their finance department that confirms the details of the bank account funding would be paid into.

About your project

Project details

You’ll need to tell us:

• the name of your project
• when your project will start (this should be at least 20 weeks from when you submit your application)
• where your project will take place
• all the costs involved in your project
• whether your project targets a specific group of people and, if so, who.

What you want to do

You’ll also have around 500 words to tell us about what you want your project to do.

There are two key areas that we will be looking at when making a decision - make sure your answer focuses on these as much as possible.

1. You meet at least one of our funding priorities, which are:

• bringing people together and building strong relationships in and across communities
• improving the places and spaces that matter to communities
• enabling more people to fulfil their potential by working to address issues at the earliest possible stage.

2. You involve your community in the design, development and delivery of the activities you’re planning. Tell us how you’ve done this.

Arts or sport focused projects

If you are applying for a project focused on the arts, we will prioritise work that:

• engages people from areas of high deprivation removes financial barriers to access creative activities
• addresses rural isolation and encourages activity in rural areas
• engages older people, people in care homes and carers
• engages care leavers
• supports integration of refugees and asylum seekers

Please also note that you cannot apply to both National Lottery Awards for All Scotland and Creative Scotland for the same project.

If you are applying for a project focused on sport, we will prioritise projects that:

• Engage young people from our most deprived areas
• Engage girls and young women
• Engage disabled young people

Submit your application through our online form. You can’t use the Microsoft Edge browser when you’re filling in this form – because it won’t work properly. Try a different browser instead.

Read our guidance for online applications (PDF 404KB) before you apply.

If you want to find out what information we'll ask for when you apply, see the What we need to know section.

Apply Online

Please note: We expect to move to a new online application form on Monday 29 July. The final date for applying using the current application form is Sunday 28 July at 23:59.

Information saved in the current application form will not transfer across to the new application form.

If you are not confident that you will complete your application by 28 July, we suggest waiting to use the new application form.

Please note, it could take up to 18 weeks for us to tell you our decision, with a further 2 weeks to pay your grant if you are successful.

Get in touch

If you need more information, advice or support in completing your application (or need the application materials in an alternative format) please contact us.

Please also let us know if you have any communication support needs that make completing an application form difficult for you. We are happy to discuss alternative ways for you to tell us about your idea.

You can email us at advicescotland@tnlcommunityfund.org.uk or call 0300 123 7110.

Text relay users, please use 18001 plus 0300 123 7110.

BSL users can get in touch using contactSCOTLAND-BSL.

We’d also love to hear your feedback on how you found the experience of applying.

Related documents

• National Lottery Awards for All Scotland guidance notes (PDF 404KB)
• National Lottery Awards for All Scotland Terms and Conditions (PDF 250KB)

Checks

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