Plymouth Music Zone

Reaching Communities England

Plymouth Music Zone
  1. Funding
  2. Funding programmes
  3. Reaching Communities England

This programme offers a larger amount of funding (over £10,000) for organisations that work together with a shared set of goals to help their community thrive – whether that’s a community living in the same area, or people with similar interests or life experiences.

For now we’re focusing on funding projects and organisations helping communities through the COVID-19 pandemic
We ask organisations who aren't looking for COVID-19 related funding in England to not submit an application at this time. All our resources need to be focused on helping communities through the pandemic.

We are reviewing the situation on an on-going basis and will share any updates or developments on our website.

Learn about applying for National Lottery COVID-19 funding in England

We'll focus on organisations supporting people and communities who experience disproportionate challenge and difficulty as a result of the COVID-19 crisis.

This category includes, for instance, organisations supporting older people; disabled people (including people with long-term health conditions); lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer + (LGBTQ+) communities and Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) communities; all of whom are facing specific challenges during the current crisis. It also includes organisations who provide advice and support to those pushed in crisis as a result of the pandemic and those organisations supporting people and their families with end-of-life care.

Find out more about the National Lottery COVID-19 Fund – over £10,000.

Area
England
Funding size
Over £10,000
Application deadline

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Apply

For now we’re focusing on funding projects and organisations helping communities through the COVID-19 pandemic
We ask organisations who aren't looking for COVID-19 related funding in England to not submit an application at this time. All our resources need to be focused on helping communities through the pandemic.

We are reviewing the situation on an on-going basis and will share any updates or developments on our website.

Learn about applying for National Lottery COVID-19 funding in England

We'll focus on organisations supporting people and communities who experience disproportionate challenge and difficulty as a result of the COVID-19 crisis.

This category includes, for instance, organisations supporting older people; disabled people (including people with long-term health conditions); lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer + (LGBTQ+) communities and Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) communities; all of whom are facing specific challenges during the current crisis. It also includes organisations who provide advice and support to those pushed in crisis as a result of the pandemic and those organisations supporting people and their families with end-of-life care.

Find out more about the National Lottery COVID-19 Fund – over £10,000.

This is for six months’ emergency funding, for small and medium organisations and for between £10,000 and £100,000.

We are also working with specialist partners to reach specific groups as quickly as we can.

Beyond the emergency response, National Lottery funding to support communities in England will be available, and we’ll keep you updated on our funding as it develops.


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're led by a voluntary or 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 the bullet points below for CICs we can’t fund).

If you’re an unincorporated group
We might be able to fund you - but we normally expect the groups to use our funding to incorporate and, where appropriate, register as a charity.

We can’t accept applications from:

  • individuals
  • sole traders
  • organisations based outside the UK
  • anyone who’s applying for another organisation
  • organisations that look to make profits and share these profits out privately. This includes organisations without the right asset locks. Or organisations that can pay profits to directors or shareholders – this might mean some CICs limited by shares
  • 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.

If you’re not sure if you can apply

Contact us.

The projects we fund

The projects we fund

We fund projects that work to make positive changes in their community – whether that’s a community living in the same area, or people with similar interests or life experiences.

We like to see projects that can test new approaches to issues in the community. And projects that are committed to equalities and the environment.

We're looking for projects that:

  1. bring people together and build strong relationships in and across communities
  2. improve the places and spaces that matter to communities
  3. help more people to reach their potential, by supporting them at the earliest possible stage.

We're also looking for projects to be people-led, strengths-based and connected

People-led

We believe that people understand what's needed in their communities better than anyone. So it’s important to us that you involve your community in the design, development and delivery of the activities you’re planning.

You might want to ask yourself:

  • Have I spoken to the people in my community?
  • Have the people in my community told me what they need and what's important to them?
  • Have I listened to them and used what they've said to create my project?

This short video explains it well. It might be helpful when you’re putting your application together.


Strengths-based

We’d like to support people and communities to build on the knowledge, skills and experience they already have, to make the changes they want.

You might want to ask yourself:

  • What’s already working in my community?
  • How will my project add to these positive things that are already working?
  • How will my project make the most of any resources that are already helping my community?

Connected

We want to know that you’ve a good understanding of other activities and services in your community. We’d like to see how you’ll compliment these. So you can add value to what’s already there.

You might want to ask yourself:

  • Have I spoken to other groups in the area that are doing something similar to my project?
  • Have I thought about how we can all help each other?
What you can 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 make profits for private gain
  • religious activities (but 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 happen outside of normal teaching hours)
  • activities that benefit individuals, rather than the wider community
  • political activities
  • things you’ve spent money on in the past and are looking to claim for now
  • loan repayments.