Scots community projects to share £13m National Lottery funding, as strategy change announced

ALMOST 500 Scots community-based projects are to share almost £13m, to either help get them set up or to keep operating.

Projects as diverse as a sailing club near Helensburgh running a monthly lunch club to an initiative in the Leith area of Edinburgh supporting young families that are struggling have been chosen among the recipients of funding through the National Lottery.

Most of the 460 community projects (the full list can be found here) are recipients of a scheme called Awards for All, and in future the maximum award is to increase from £10,000 to £20,000, and with the funding period also doubled, from one to two years.

This follows a re-think by the National Lottery, as to its grant-giving priorities, and it has led to a new Community Fund strategy being announced, for between now and 2030.

Says the National Lottery, here: “First, we’re doubling down on our grassroots community funding. We’ve heard the value that communities place on this. We know this is where our funding has furthest reach. And where it supports and creates the most volunteering opportunities.

“Over the last year [we have] heard this time and time again talking to communities and seeing projects in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. That’s why we’ll now double both the size of the possible grant award available and the time any project can run for. It’s the biggest change to our National Lottery Awards for All for a generation and will see more than £1 billion of new money for communities over the next seven years.”

The National Lottery is an UK-wide lottery played by members of the public and which raises funds for ‘good causes’.

Picture credit: National Lottery

Comments are welcome – only courteous ones (as per our T&Cs) – but they can only be posted by signed-in members. To sign up, for as little as £12 a year, please go here. Please note, comments appear following moderation (so expect a delay when submitting).