Equality Matters

A good practice guide for small to medium sized voluntary or community sector organisations.

Contents

Section 1: The BIG picture - our approach to equality

Section 2: Making an application to BIG: thinking equality right from the start

Section 3: So now you’ve got the grant: equality in action

Introduction

Equality matters to the Big Lottery Fund. We want to use lottery money to bring about changes to communities by funding people, projects and programmes with a particular emphasis on community needs.

This guide is part of our drive to promote equality and maximise opportunities for people to take part in the projects we fund.

By putting equality right at the heart of project design and implementation, organisations are more likely to achieve better outcomes.

About this guide

This guide is designed to help you think about and describe your everyday practice on equality. It is particularly aimed at small to medium-sized voluntary and community organisations.

It will help you to identify what you already do well in your approach to equality and how you could do even better. It gives advice on how to incorporate equality into planning new projects and explains our equality principles and why it is important to pay attention to them if you are applying to us for a grant. We expect you to demonstrate a commitment to equality proportionate to the nature and size of your project and organisation.

Finally, the guide explains how we expect your organisation to implement equality principles once you have a grant. There are practical exercises and tips, as well common mistakes that grant applicants make, and examples of good practice from previous applications.

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