Reaching Communities: England

Questions and answers

1. Who can apply for a Reaching Communities grant?

2. Will Reaching Communities remain open during this year?

3. How much money is available for this financial year?

4. What geographical area does Reaching Communities cover?

5. What are the aims of the programme?

6. Who do I contact for more information?

1. Who can apply for a Reaching Communities grant?

The programme is open to registered charities, charitable or not for profit companies, statutory bodies and social enterprises. But we also want to include organisations and public bodies such as schools, as they play an important role in community activities.

We will fund new and existing organisations. While we anticipate that the bulk of applications will be from small and medium sized organisations, we do not want to m iss the oportunity to make grants that have a high regional impact from larger organisations that will be delivering their project locally.

2. Will Reaching Communities remain open during this year?

Reaching Communities programme will remain open to applications.

3. How much money is available for this financial year?

BIG has announced a budget of £130 million for this year (2009/10). This is designed to give a wider range of projects the opportunity to access BIG’s funding.

We will make grants of between £10,000 and £500,000, and we will fund projects for up to 5 years.

4. What geographical area does Reaching Communities cover?

Reaching Communities is a programme designed to meet the needs of local communites in England. We want to fund projects that primarily benefit people living in England. We would therefore consider funding a project based in Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland if the target beneficiaries were primarily from England. When considering whether the project was appropriate for this programme we would look at whether the applicant has clearly shown that there is a need for the project to be targetting beneficiaries from outside of the local area, or that there is a need for the project to be delivered outside of the area in which the benficiaries live.

5. What are the aims of the programme?

The key aim of the programme is to fund projects which help meet the Big Lottery Fund's mission: ' to bring real improvements to communites, and to lives of people most in need.' We will be using the Fund's strategic themes and outcomes as the framework against which projects will be developed, but the emphasis will be on communities developing projects that respond to their needs and issues.

Projects can meet any of the following four outcomes:

• People having better chances in life, including being able to get better access to training and development to improve their life skills
• Strong communities, with more active citzens, working together to tackle their problems
• Improved rural and urban environments, which communities are better able to access and enjoy
• Healthier and more active people and communities

6. Who do I contact for more information?

If you have questions about how to apply or plan your project, there are many sources of advice and help. Call or e-mail our Big Advice line using the contact details below with any questions you have.

• Phone: 0845 4 10 20 30
• Email:enquiries@biglotteryfund.org.uk
• Textphone: 0845 602 1659