Reaching Communities England | The National Lottery Community Fund

This programme offers a larger amount of funding (over £10,000) for projects that last up to five years. We’re looking for projects that work with their community – whether that’s a community living in the same area, or people with similar interests or life experiences.

Area: England
Suitable for: Voluntary or community organisations
Funding size: Over £10,000
Total available: £190m this financial year
Application deadline: Ongoing

Apply
Who can apply
The projects we fund
What you can spend the money on

Apply

You can tell us about your ideas online

Our new online form makes it easier for you to tell us about your funding proposals.

Start your proposal Continue your proposal

If you have any communication needs
Please contact us for help if completing a form is difficult or impossible for you. We’re happy to talk about other ways for you to tell us about your funding proposal.

If you don’t want to use our new online form

Don't worry, you can submit your idea as an email or video - here's what to tell us:

the name of your project
where it'll take place
what you'd like to do
how your project will involve your community
how your project fits with local activities
who will benefit from your project
what difference your project will make
how much money you need
how long you need the money for.

Here's where to send your email or video:

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, Christchurch, 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’re not sure how to tell us about your funding proposal
Contact us.

Here's what happens after you tell us about your funding proposal

we'll email you to let you know we've received it
if we like your project idea, your funding officer will get in touch to ask some more questions
your funding officer will let you know if you should write a full proposal or not
if we ask you to apply, we'll send some pointers to help you write your full proposal
you send your full proposal back to us and we’ll do checks on the information - you can learn more about our checks here
we'll then assess your project idea and decide whether to fund you or not.

Here's what happens if we ask you to write a full proposal

1. We'll tell you what information you need to include in your full proposal
Your funding officer will also give you extra advice if you need it. You’ll then write your own full proposal and send it back to us.

2. We'll let you know we've received your full proposal
We’ll send you an email, or letter, to let you know we have your full proposal.

3. Your funding officer will get in touch to talk about your full proposal
They could call you, or come to visit you face to face. Your funding officer will want to talk about your project. And they could have some extra questions about what you plan to do. This is also your chance to ask them anything too.

4. Your funding officer will assess your full proposal
Your funding officer’s assessment will go to The National Lottery Community Fund panel. They’ll decide whether to fund your project or not.

5. Your funding officer will let you know
If we decide to give you funding, your funding officer will let you know. They'll talk about next steps too.

If we decide not to fund your project, your funding officer will get in touch with feedback (to help your organisation plan for the future).

Here's what will happen next, if we decide to fund you

Once you’ve been awarded over £10,000 of funding from us, here’s what to expect. This page will also let you know about the things you need to do too.

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

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:

bring people together and build strong relationships in and across communities
improve the places and spaces that matter to communities
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.

If you're ready to tell us about your funding proposal

Start your proposal Continue your proposal