Two complementary models: partners announced for Grant Holder Support pilot

At The National Lottery Community Fund, we believe everything starts with community. That’s who we serve. That’s where you’ll find us.

Each year, thousands of people talk to us about what’s important to them and their communities. The issues they face. The solutions they have.

What communities are telling us

We know from these conversations - especially with smaller organisations representing communities experiencing poverty, disadvantage and discrimination - that accessing operational support can be challenging. That they don’t always have the legal, governance or technological tools and resources they need to thrive.

Why we’re taking an equity-based approach

We want to help to fix that. To meet our communities — and the organisations that represent them — where they are. As they are.

We know not every community has had the same starting point. Some face more complex and deep-rooted challenges than others, including:

• poverty
• disadvantage
• discrimination

When we launched our strategy, It Starts With Community, we promised to provide communities with the resources they need — and for these to be proportionate to achieve what they need. And to do this in a way that is just and fair. We call this our equity-based approach.

Last year, we doubled down on this. We promised to target our funding in England on the places, people, and communities that experience poverty, disadvantage and discrimination — those that perhaps have not been able to access the support they needed in the past.

What we’re doing next

So, what are we doing about it?

We want to find out what these communities need and what matters most to them. Then, we want to develop the support required to share the learning, resources, and connections they need to flourish.

Through our Grant Holder Support offer, we’re investing up to £150 million by 2030 to help civil society organisations in England build the knowledge, skills and resilience they need to thrive.

We know not every community has the same starting point. This is how we help to level the playing field.

Announcing our pilot partners

Today, we’re pleased to officially announce that we’re working with Lloyds Bank Foundation and Civic Power Fund on piloting this exciting new programme in England — starting next year.

Each partnership will help us test, and learn, how best to reach organisations that have historically missed out on funding and support. And how, then, we make this support bigger, better, and further reaching.

Two complementary models

We’ve backed two complementary models - with just over £2 million each.

Lloyds Bank Foundation’s partnership

Working with eight national specialist organisations.

Providing practical, tailored support to hundreds of small and medium-sized charities.

Helping them to strengthen how they’re run and how they plan for the long term.

Civic Power Fund’s partnership

Working with dozens of grassroots partners to build a more open, community-designed programme of support.

Rooted in organising, listening and shared learning.

Together, these partnerships invest in proven methods and models — shaped by communities most affected by poverty, disadvantage and discrimination.

Across both pilots, we’ll be working with a mix of national and local organisations, from long-established infrastructure bodies to small, community-based groups. That diversity is deliberate. Why? Because it gives us a richer picture of what support different organisations really need.

A shared purpose

Two very different organisations. Each with their own experience, expertise, and networks. Each the outcome of our own rigorous and robust decision-making processes as to how best to turn money raised by players of The National Lottery into truly life-changing funding.

Funding that is open to everyone, from grassroots groups to mainstream organisations — but which always has the same purpose: to help people and communities thrive.

Looking ahead

This is a 12-month pilot programme. But we’re ambitious for what we want to achieve in the long term.

We know what we want to do and why we want to do it. Through this partnership, we can design, develop and test the how. How we do it.

By working together, we’ll develop something much better than if we’d tried it alone. And after this, there will be a second stage — and a bigger, more sophisticated funding stream for the sector to apply for.

Because this is just the beginning.

We'll tell you more in the new year.