Blog posts
Looking for colour, context and perspective about the work of The National Lottery Community Fund, its impact on communities and topics currently in the news? It’s all here. This blog will explain, explore, showcase and examine the ways in which civil society, and as a result the sector, is changing. Read about what people in communities across the UK and sector thought leaders have to say and form your own opinion.
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1 April, 2021
Faiza Khan MBE, Director of Engagement and Insight, reflects on the Fund’s recent conference: Communities Can Conference – a day of thought-provoking discussion to mark one year, since the UK went into lockdown. Read more -
HeadStart: Helping schools to respond to uncertainty and change during COVID-19
18 March, 2021
We’re taking a look at how The National Lottery Community Fund’s HeadStart programme – a six-year, £67.4 million programme set up to help improve the mental health and wellbeing of young people and prevent serious mental health issues from developing – has supported schools during the pandemic. Read more -
18 March, 2021
John Rose, interim CEO of The National Lottery Community Fund, shares how the Communities Can Conference 2021 will bring the voluntary and charitable sectors together to celebrate achievements, reflect on challenges and share thoughts on how to rebuild post-pandemic. Read more -
Bringing People Together: a new funding programme
15 March, 2021
Today marks a year since the first announcement on 16 March 2020 that all ‘unnecessary social contact’ should stop across the UK due to COVID-19. Read more -
National Lottery Community Fund supporting Plunkett Foundation in 2020
11 March, 2021
Whilst it seems hard to think back to a time pre-Covid, the reality for the community-owned business sector was that they started 2020 in a relatively buoyant position. Read more -
The New Infrastructure Programme: the story so far
10 March, 2021
We set up the New Infrastructure Programme last year to give critical community infrastructure organisations the opportunity, space and time to plan for the future. Today we have announced funding to 14 vital and varied infrastructure organisations across the UK. Read more -
Taking climate action by tackling waste and championing sustainable consumption
24 February, 2021
Our recently launched second round of the Climate Action Fund has a clear focus on waste and sustainable consumption. From repair & re-use to food waste, from tackling a culture of consumerism to deep-dives on individual waste streams, we know that a wide range of community-led approaches are already being implemented across the UK in approaching this issue. We’re looking for exemplar projects which demonstrate how communities can work together to tackle the carbon emissions associated with an increasingly wasteful society. Read more -
February 2021 Update from our Interim CEO John Rose
17 February, 2021
We are already over a month in to 2021 and it’s clear that the COVID rollercoaster and the ongoing impact on people, communities and the sector is not going to end anytime soon. In this context, we are being careful to keep one eye on the ‘here and now’ and the other focussed on the future. Read more -
Andy Haldane: Social capital is the glue that binds communities together
28 January, 2021
Past pandemics have tended to collapse the capital on which capitalism is built: physical capital, human capital and financial capital. Yet there is one capital that, historically and currently, has bucked these trends: social capital. Read more -
Supporting communities to take action on climate change – the Climate Action Fund so far..
26 January, 2021
It’s been 18 months since we launched the Climate Action Fund – a £100million fund that supports communities across the UK to take action on climate change - and a lot has happened in that time. Read more
