Reaching Communities England | The National Lottery Community Fund

Flexible funding over £10,000 for up to five years to organisations in England who want to take action on the issues that matter to people and communities.

Area: England
Suitable for: Voluntary or community organisations
Total available: £190m this financial year
Application deadline: Ongoing

How to succeed

Reaching Communities make grants of over £10,000 in England, supporting organisations with great ideas that enable communities to thrive.

The grants are awarded to voluntary and community organisations or social enterprises for up to five years. We can fund project activities, operating costs, organisational development and capital costs.

We’re really interested in hearing your ideas. Whether they’re big or small, tell us what you think will improve your community.

Our funding priorities

We support ideas that meet one or more of our three funding priorities.

Show us how you plan to:

bring people together and build strong relationships in and across communities
improve the places and spaces that matter to communities
enable more people to fulfil their potential by working to address issues at the earliest possible stage.

What we want to see

You developed your idea by involving the people who will benefit

We want to see that you’ve spoken to people and listened to what they have to say.

You’ll support what’s already working well

Use your knowledge of the skills and experience people already have and explore how you can build on it.

You can test new approaches

We’re interested in your original and creative ideas for achieving your mission, and are keen to share what you learn with others.

You understand the existing activities and services that do similar work

Have you spoken to other groups? What can you learn from them, and how can you contribute to what they already do?

You’re committed to equalities and the environment

We’ll want to know about your equalities policy and your environmental policy if we’re interested in your idea.

Visit our website for more information on our equality principles

Visit gov.uk for more information on environmental responsibility

You’re people led, strengths based and connected

Through all our funding, we’re interested in supporting organisations that are:

people led - meaningfully involving the people you’re working with in the development and delivery of your activity
strengths based - making the most of the skills that already exist in communities
connected - understanding what other relevant organisations are doing and developing good working relationships.

Check if you’re eligible

Who can apply?

You can apply if you’re a:

voluntary and community organisation
registered charity or charitable incorporated organisation (CIO)
group of organisations, as long as they are led by a voluntary and community organisation
school
statutory body (including local authorities, town, parish or community council)
not for profit company including companies limited by guarantee and Community Interest Companies with two or more directors (see below for ineligible CICs).

We can’t accept applications from:

individuals
sole traders
organisations based outside the UK
anyone who is applying on behalf of another organisation
organisations that are aimed at generating profits primarily for private distribution. This includes those without sufficient asset locks or organisations that can pay profits to directors or shareholders, which may include some CICs limited by shares
organisations without at least two unconnected* people on the board or committee.

(*not a relation by blood, marriage, in a long-term relationship or people living together at the same address)

We will consider funding unincorporated groups, but normally expect the groups to use our funding to incorporate and, where appropriate, register as a charity.

What can you spend the money on?

We can fund:

staff salaries
project activities
running costs
small-scale refurbishment
equipment
organisational development.

We can’t fund:

activities that generate profits for private gain
religious activity (although we can fund religious organisations if their project benefits the wider community and doesn’t include religious content)
activities that replace government funding (for example, we can only fund school activities that are additional to the curriculum)
activities that benefit individuals, rather than the wider community
political activities
retrospective costs
loan repayments.

Not sure if you’re eligible?

If you’re unclear whether you can be funded, get in touch with us:

Phone: 0345 4 10 20 30

Text relay: 18001 plus 0345 4 10 20 30 (for those with a hearing or speech impairment)

Email: general.enquiries@tnlcommunityfund.org.uk

What to expect

1. Find out if we can fund you

Check that you’re eligible
Read this guidance
Talk to us

How to get in touch

Phone: 0345 4 10 20 30

Text relay: 18001 plus 0345 4 10 20 30 (for those with a hearing or speech impairment)

Email: general.enquiries@tnlcommunityfund.org.uk

2. Tell us your idea

First, give us a brief outline of what you want to do.

We appreciate you may not have all the details of your idea, but to help us build a good understanding, please include responses to the following.

What you want to do and why?
What difference do you think your idea will make?
How are people and communities involved with your project?
What is the background of your organisation?
How much money do you need from us and for how long?
How does your idea fit in with other local activities?

You can submit a form online, send us a video or email us. If you have any problems submitting your idea in any way, do call us.

We’ll then get in touch to find out more about your idea.

In assessing your idea, we have to make a judgement about the difference our funding will make and the impact it will have. Our funding team will add its collective knowledge of the local area (including our interpretation of demands and needs in the area considering the idea’s theme or subject, our three funding priorities and the composition of any partnerships) to make a decision about whether to take the idea to the next stage.

3. Submit a full proposal

If your idea is accepted, we'll ask you to submit a full proposal.

Your application will be made up of:

your proposal for funding
organisation details.

You will be sent guidance on how to put together your full proposal including areas that you need to cover. Your Funding Officer will also be able to provide additional advice.

A funding decision on your proposal will be made by a The National Lottery Community Fund panel, based on an assessment by the relevant Funding Officer.

If you’re successful

You’ll get a call from your Funding Officer and an offer letter in the post.

If you’re unsuccessful

You’ll get a call or email from your Funding Officer letting you know the decision and offering any relevant feedback.

4. Get ongoing support

If you’re successful, we’ll work with you to identify the right level of support throughout the duration of your grant.

We’ll agree your payment plan, how often you’ll update us on your progress, and how we gain assurance for the funding we have awarded.

We’ll also discuss how we can support you to celebrate and promote your funding, engage with the wider community and share your learning with others.

You can view our terms and conditions here (PDF 181KB).

Get started

First, send us a brief outline of your idea.

Submit your idea

Other ways to submit your idea

You can also send us a video or email us. If you have any problems submitting your idea in any way, do call us.

Region	Email	Phone
North East & Cumbria Covering Northumberland, County Durham, Tyne and Wear, Middlesbrough, Darlington, Stockton on Tees, Cleveland and Cumbria	NEandCumbriateam@tnlcommunityfund.org.uk	0191 376 1700
North West Covering Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Cheshire and Merseyside	Northwestteam@tnlcommunityfund.org.uk	0161 261 4646
Yorkshire and the Humber Covering North Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, East Riding of Yorkshire, North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire	YorksandHumberteam@tnlcommunityfund.org.uk	0113 224 5349
South West Covering Gloucestershire, South Gloucestershire, Bristol, Bath & North East Somerset, North Somerset, Somerset, Wiltshire, Swindon, Dorset, Bournemouth, Poole, Devon, Torbay, Plymouth, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly	Southwestteam@tnlcommunityfund.org.uk	0139 284 9747
London, South East and East of England Covering Greater London, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Kent, Oxfordshire, Surrey, Bedfordshire, Peterbrough, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk and Suffolk	Londonandsoutheastteam@tnlcommunityfund.org.uk	0207 211 1998
East and West Midlands Covering Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire (except North and North East Lincolnshire), Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire, Rutland, Herefordshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, West Midlands and Worcestershire	Midlandsteam@tnlcommunityfund.org.uk	0121 345 7800

If you want to get in touch with us about anything else, please visit our Contact page.

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