From funding community projects to funding community power

I recently spent time in Bulwell, in north Nottingham - not far from where I grew up in neighbouring Sherwood and Arnold. These are places, communities and challenges I know deeply.

Nottingham - and areas like Bulwell - have a strong sense of identity and community. There are real challenges here. Poverty, ill health, crime and economic disadvantage. But there is also something else. Plain-speaking, practical, can-do action from people determined to improve the places where they live. That doesn’t need dressing up.

Returning to Bulwell recently, I visited Bulwell Forest Gardens, a community space supported by National Lottery funding. What struck me was not just the project itself, but the sense of ownership and participation around it.

Among the pine trees - originally planted by local school children in the 1980s - local residents and volunteers have created gardens, ponds, huts and shared spaces. Young volunteers helped build wildlife areas. Local businesses and tradespeople contributed materials and skills. Families were cooking and sharing food together. Children were learning about nature during the school holidays. Others were taking part in yoga, wellbeing and community activities.

Since opening, supported by The National Lottery Community Fund, the organisation has grown from strength to strength. Becoming a charity. Employing staff. Building partnerships. And expanding the support and opportunities it offers to people living nearby in Bulwell.

For me, it was a reminder that community power is not an abstract concept. It is what happens when local people have the opportunity, confidence and support to shape the future of their own area.

At The National Lottery Community Fund, we believe everything starts with community. That is who we exist to serve. Across the UK, I increasingly hear a similar message from communities: people want to be listened to, trusted, and involved in shaping the future of the places where they live.

Too often, people feel decisions are done to them rather than with them. Yet at the same time, I continue to see extraordinary examples of communities stepping forward. Supporting each other. Building local organisations. Improving neighbourhoods and creating opportunities where others only see challenge.

That is why community matters more than ever.

When we launched our strategy, It Starts with Community, we committed to prioritising communities experiencing the greatest barriers and least support. But increasingly, we believe this is about more than funding individual projects or short-term activity.

It is about helping communities build lasting confidence, relationships, capability and power. The ability to shape their own futures.

That requires us to think differently about how we fund, who we partner with, and where we focus our support. Increasingly, we are shifting from funding community projects to helping build community power.

An equity-based approach is part of that shift. For us, it means recognising that different communities start from different places and face different barriers. If we want communities across the UK to thrive, we cannot always treat every place or every challenge in exactly the same way.

Some communities require deeper, longer-term or more flexible support because the challenges they face are deeper too. Whether that is white working-class communities experiencing long-term economic decline; Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities facing exclusion and discrimination; communities affected by structural racism and health inequity; or neighbourhoods where poverty and opportunity gaps have become entrenched over generations.

More than half of our funding in 2024-2025 went to areas experiencing the highest levels of poverty and disadvantage. But we know we need to go further - not simply reacting to applications but becoming more intentional about where and how we invest.

This summer we will announce a series of significant long-term investments focused on communities experiencing persistent inequality and disadvantage - including partnerships addressing structural racism, health inequity and barriers to opportunity.

But the bigger shift is not simply the amount of money involved. It is our determination to support community leadership, lived experience, and long-term change.

We are also listening carefully to communities themselves about how we work. That means being willing to adapt our funding processes, reduce barriers, and work alongside organisations that understand their communities deeply.

For example, when we launched our Thrive Together Fund, we partnered with GiveBradford to help shape the programme and support people least able to come together through small-scale community grants. Through our Health Inequities Partnerships, we are supporting organisations tackling long-standing inequalities while helping shape future approaches alongside communities themselves.

We know we cannot do this alone. Nor should we. Lasting change happens through relationships, partnerships and learning. That is why we are investing in Community Learning Panels and other approaches that enable communities and grant holders to shape our understanding of what works - and what does not.

We also recognise our own position. In many rooms, we are the largest funder present. That carries influence, responsibility and power.

Used badly, that power can unintentionally close conversations down or reinforce dependency. Used well, it can help communities build confidence, capability and long-term influence for themselves. That is the balance we are constantly trying to navigate.

At a time when many people feel disconnected from institutions and uncertain about the future, community matters profoundly. Not simply as a source of support, but as a source of agency, participation and hope.

Our role is not to impose solutions from above, but to back communities themselves - especially those too often overlooked - with the trust, relationships and long-term investment needed to shape their own futures.

That is the shift we are making: from funding community projects to helping build community power.