Reaching Communities England | The National Lottery Community Fund

Shantona

This programme offers a larger amount of funding (over £10,000) for organisations that work with their community to help them thrive. We fund projects that work to make positive changes in their community – whether that is for people living in the same area, or people with similar interests or life experiences.

With the COVID-19 pandemic still with us, we'll continue to support people and communities most adversely impacted by COVID-19. We can support you to:

continue to deliver activity, whether you're supporting your existing users, responding to the immediate crisis or undertaking recovery activity
change and adapt, becoming more resilient in order to respond to new and future challenges.

In order to support communities to thrive, we aim to:

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.

You can expect us to be flexible and responsive to your community’s needs:

whether you need long- or shorter-term funding
whether your request is for a particular activity or to create more fundamental change
whether the funding is to support a single organisation or to bring organisations together.

Given the ongoing pandemic, we expect continued high demand for our funding and we will have to make some tough choices. Please bear with us as our funding teams respond to the demand.

Area: England
Suitable for: Voluntary or community organisations
Funding size: £10,001 or more, for up to five years
Application deadline: Ongoing

Apply

There are two ways to tell us about your proposal

1. You can tell us about your Reaching Communities proposal online

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

Apply online 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.

2. If you do not want to use our online form - you can email or send us a video instead

Tell us in your email or video:

the name of your project
where it'll take place
what you'd like to do, how has demand for your services changed?
how your work will involve your community
how your project fits with local activities
who will benefit from your project, how have they been affected by COVID-19?
what difference your project will make, how will it mitigate the impact of COVID-19?
how much money you need
what you intend to spend the money on
how long you need the money for
what your organisation does and why you’re best placed to deliver your project.

Your video only needs to be around five minutes long.

If you're going to take videos of people taking part in your project

Make sure you get their consent first. You'd normally do this with a consent form. Once you have the videos make sure they're stored safely.

Here's where to send your email or video (or who to contact if you have any questions about sending us a video):

Region	Email
North East & Cumbria Covering Northumberland, County Durham, Tyne and Wear, Middlesbrough, Darlington, Stockton on Tees, Cleveland and Cumbria	NEandCumbriateam@tnlcommunityfund.org.uk
North West Covering Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Cheshire and Merseyside	Northwestteam@tnlcommunityfund.org.uk
Yorkshire and Humber Covering North Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, East Riding of Yorkshire, North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire	YorksandHumberteam@tnlcommunityfund.org.uk
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
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
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
Projects taking place across England	Englandteam@tnlcommunityfund.org.uk

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

We'll email you to let you know we got your proposal.
We’ll let you know if your proposal is something we’re interested in progressing in around 12 weeks.
If we’re interested in your proposal, we’ll contact you to explain the next steps. We’ll ask for more information about your proposal and your organisation. And your organisation’s financial accounts and current finances.
If your proposal is something we do not want to take further at this time, we’ll provide feedback explaining why.

If we’re interested in your proposal, and your plans include ‘capital costs’ over £10,000, we'll ask you for more information. These ‘capital costs’ might include:

refurbishment
retro-fitting
extending your building
purchasing land or buildings
creating a new building
developing an external space like a community garden.

We’ll send you our 'Land and Buildings Guidance and Checklist'. This covers the key things you'll need to consider and a list of details we'll need - for example, on:

land ownership
designs
costs
key permissions like planning consent
what support we can offer in developing your proposal.

If you'd like a copy of the 'Land and Buildings Guidance and Checklist' now, Contact us.

Here’s what happens after we give you the funding

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.

BSL video: Reaching Communities

Watch British Sign Language interpretation of 'Reaching Communities' (YouTube)

If you’re not sure how to tell us about your funding proposal

You can also read our Data Protection Statement to see how we use the personal data you give us.

We ask you to read and agree to our terms and conditions

Read our terms and conditions.

We do checks on the information you give us

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

Reduce your environmental footprint

The National Lottery Community Fund cares about our environment and are always striving to manage our environmental impact. We encourage and support projects and communities to do the same. Learn more about how you can make your project or event more environmentally sustainable and perhaps save money at the same time.

Who can apply

You can apply if you’re an organisation that serves communities within England and is one of the following:

a voluntary and community organisation
a registered, exempt or excepted charity
a charitable incorporated organisation (CIO)
a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee - you must be a registered charity OR have a not-for-profit 'asset lock' clause in your articles of association
a community interest company (CIC)
a school
a statutory body (including local authorities, town, parish or community council)
a community benefit society
a co-operative society - you must have a not-for-profit 'asset lock' clause in your society rules and also be registered with the Financial Conduct Authority
a group of organisations, as long as they're led by an eligible organisation.

If you’re an unincorporated group

It might be appropriate for you to incorporate. We suggest you explore this and consider the implications for your organisation.

Who we cannot 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 - including companies limited by shares, organisations without the right asset locks, or organisations that can pay profits to directors or shareholders.

Board or committee members

It’s really important that organisations that apply have at least two people on their board or committee who are not related.

By related, we mean:

married to each other
in a civil partnership with each other
in a long-term relationship with each other
living together at the same address
related by blood.

BSL video: Who can apply

Watch British Sign Language interpretation of 'Who can apply' (YouTube)

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. By community, we mean people 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.

With the COVID-19 pandemic still with us, we'll continue to support people and communities most adversely impacted by COVID-19. We can support you to:

continue to deliver activity, whether you're responding to the immediate crisis or supporting recovery activity 
change and adapt, becoming more resilient in order to respond to new and future challenges.

In order to support communities to thrive, we aim to:

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.

You can expect us to be flexible and responsive to your community’s needs:

whether you need long- or shorter-term funding
whether your request is for a particular activity or to create more fundamental change
whether the funding is to support a single organisation or to bring organisations together.

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

We firmly believe that when people are in the lead, communities thrive. And we want your funding proposal to demonstrate this clearly.

People understand what’s needed in their communities better than anyone, especially during these unprecedented times. We want to support projects that: 

involve people and communities from the start 
build on people’s strengths    
are connected in their community.

Involving people and communities from the start (or '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?
What can I do to find out what’s important to people in my community during COVID-19? For example, online surveys, virtual meetings, telephone calls, conversations with helper agencies and engaging with stakeholders.
Who's involved in delivering my project? Think about encouraging people who benefit from your project to get more involved in running your organisation and making decisions. For example, they could become trustees or volunteers, or you could find ways to employ them.

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

Building on people's strengths (or '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?
What are the skills, knowledge and experiences people in my community have to contribute to the project?
How can the project make sure it utilises these?

Connected in their community (or '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?

If your project works with children, young people or vulnerable adults

You need to have a policy in place that explains how they'll be safe. And we might ask to see this policy, if we decide to give you funding. The NSPCC have lots of helpful advice about setting up and following good child safeguarding policies.

Equalities, diversity and inclusion:

We want to know your organisation’s approach to equality, diversity and inclusion.
We expect your organisation and the activities we fund to be open and accessible, to promote equalities and challenge discrimination.
We would like to understand your approach to equalities, from accessibility to participation and decision making. So we might ask to see your organisation’s equalities policy as part of our assessment.

You can read more about our equality principles.

Environment

We all have a responsibility to protect the environment for future generations. This includes the communities and projects we support. You can find out more about how to reduce your environmental impact.

BSL video: The projects we fund

Watch British Sign Language interpretation of 'The projects we fund' (YouTube)

What you can spend the money on

We can fund:

direct costs associated with delivering activities in your community - this can include project staff, materials, equipment, room hire, volunteer expenses and project evaluations
organisational development - this can include business planning, testing new ways of working, staff training and development, developing governance and leadership, tech or IT upgrades/purchases, developing and sharing impact and learning, and increasing capacity to support collaboration and partnership working
core/fixed costs to support the day-to-day running of your organisation - this can include core salaries, rent, utilities, equipment
the purchasing, refurbishing or developing of land and buildings.

We cannot fund:

activities that make profits for private gain
religious activities (we can fund religious organisations if their project benefits the wider community and does not 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 or lobbying activities
things you’ve spent money on in the past and are looking to claim for now
loan repayments
the topping up of organisation reserves.

BSL video: What you can spend the money on

Watch British Sign Language interpretation of 'What you can spend the money on' (YouTube)

If you're ready to start your proposal

Apply online Continue online application