National Lottery Charities Board Corporate Office

UK Office

The Charities Board�s UK Committee awards grants for projects working in all four UK countries. It includes Board members from England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, as well as members of the Board who serve in a UK capacity.

Organisations may apply to the UK Committee for a grant to support a nation-wide project. Under our main grants programmes, applications for grants from the UK Committee will often come from larger charities, national voluntary organisations and consortium projects. Applications from organisations working in partnership with other agencies are a priority.

The UK grant making team is currently dealing with applications for nation-wide projects under two main grants programmes, Community involvement and Poverty and disadvantage.

Community involvement seeks applications from community organisations, those concerned with volunteering and community action and agencies providing voluntary sector development. A �community� may be a geographical group of people or a group of people with a common interest.

Poverty and disadvantage seeks to fund projects that will work with people on low incomes, people living in areas of deprivation and projects aiming to prevent or minimise future poverty.

One distinguishing feature of UK applications is the need to establish the extent to which the project has been researched and planned in each of the four UK countries. This should cover local conditions, legal implications, statutory structures, existing infrastructure, local consultation, project delivery and proportion of benefit.

The current application calls for a referee from each country who is independent of the applicants. We recognise that many applicants have difficulty finding a referee who fits all these conditions. We are exploring the possibility of reducing the level of independence required so that an organisation which has been involved in the planning, consultation and proposed delivery can act as a referee. The existing restrictions on members and trustees will stay. As it will be some time before the application forms are updated, applicants should phone one of the UK team if they have any concerns about referees.