National Lottery Charities Board South West

Briefing note for arts and charity projects prepared by South West Arts and the South West Regional Office of the National Lottery Charities Board

Contents:

• Introduction
• Legal and policy requirements
• Funding facts - amounts, success rate, consultation
• Funding policy - regional priorities
• Funding policy - arts
• Case studies
• Further information and contacts

Introduction

This document sets out to:

• clarify the roles and areas of responsibility of South West Arts (SWA) and the National Lottery Charities Board in distributing lottery funds and;
• enable applicants to identify the most appropriate funder for their project.

South West Arts and the Charities Board are responsible for distributing lottery funds in the South West. Each distributor is funding a clearly defined area of activity and each is anxious to ensure that they do not make grants that fall within each other's remits.

South West Arts launched the new Regional Arts Lottery Programme (RALP) in July 2000. It aims to support high quality arts projects and make grants available in the following three strands:

• projects or activities;
• small scale capital; and
• organisational development

The Charities Board aims to meet the needs of those at greatest disadvantage in society and to improve quality of life in the community. It has an ongoing grant programme that has two strands:

• community involvement; and
• poverty and disadvantage

Legal and Policy Requirements

Funding facts - amounts, success rate, consultation

Both South West Arts and the Charities Board fund projects or activities rather than organisations (except in the organisational development and capital strands of RALP).

South West Arts has �1,850,378 to allocate during 2000/01. In the last RALP programme 26per cent of applications received funding. An average award was �30,452. South West Art's RALP budget for 2000/01 is allocated between the three strands of the programme as follows:

• projects - �1,063,860
• small scale capital - �531,930
• organisational development - �254,588

Applicants to RALP must demonstrate that they have discussed their proposal with their local authority. As part of the assessment process South West Arts will contact the appropriate local authorities.

The South West region of the Charities Board has �16.8m to distribute for 2000/01. Around one in three applications are successful and an average grant is worth �95,000. In the period 99/00 the Charities Board received 514 applications and made 220 grants, an overall success rate of 43per cent. The Charities Board does not insist that applicants have consulted their local authority. However it does recommend very strongly that all organisations discuss their plans with all relevant groups prior to submitting an application.

Both distributors are targeting their funds much more strategically now to ensure they reach areas of greatest need within their respective regional priorities.

Funding policy - regional priorities

Both South West Arts and the SW regional office of the Charities Board have regional priorities, which have been identified to address the particular needs of the region and which are taken into account when applications are assessed. Projects do not need to address all the priority areas. The regional priorities are as follows:

National Lottery Charities Board - projects that meet the needs of:

• people in dispersed and isolated rural communities
• older people
• low income groups
• young people and children (aged 11-25)
• minority ethnic groups; and
• organisations that support and develop the voluntary sector infrastructure

South West Arts - has set local priorities within these five national criteria:

• access to the arts
• education through the arts
• production and distribution of the arts
• investment in artists
• development to help build long term stability of arts organisations.

For more information on what SWA is looking for in these categories see the application pack.

Both funders also prioritise geographic areas that they have identified as being in particular need. Currently these areas are:

Charities Board: Penwith, Kerrier, Restormel, North Cornwall, Plymouth, Torbay, Bournemouth, Christchurch, East Dorset, Purbeck, Weymouth & Portland, West Somerset and Tewkesbury.

South West Arts: Areas that have comparatively less arts/voluntary activity and/or have had relatively lower benefit from the lottery in the past

Funding policy - arts

It is not the Charities Board's policy to support arts projects. This is because an equal amount of public lottery money is given to the Regional Arts Boards to distribute to arts programmes. The Charities Board does not fund projects where the arts activity happens to be undertaken by disadvantaged people or in disadvantaged areas; that is, where the principal aim is to promote or develop the arts. The following would probably be outside Charities Board funding policy:

• a project to teach children with physical disabilities to dance;
• a project to produce drama workshops in a hospital;
• a visual arts project in a community centre.

However if the principal purpose was to provide therapy or community development and the artistic element of the application was merely incidental to that purpose then the Charities Board may support it. An example of this would be a project working with people with learning difficulties that used painting to bring about therapeutic or welfare benefits to those individuals.

Test for arts projects that fall within the Charities Board remit

What is the overall objective of the project?
If it could be achieved by means other than an arts activity then it may be acceptable to the Charities Board.

What is the desired outcome of the project?
If it is to promote or develop an art form amongst a certain group of people or within a certain area then it will not be acceptable to the Charities Board. If, on the other hand, it is to improve the conditions of life of that group of people or to regenerate a deprived area then it may be acceptable to the Charities Board. In the case of the children's dance class mentioned above - is the objective to help children with disabilities improve their quality of life through improved mobility or to help children with disabilities learn to dance?

Case Studies

Case Study One
A bid to the Charities Board by an organisation whose stated aim was to "promote innovative development in dance and provide equality of access to dance for people facing physical and social barriers" was not successful because the organisation was predominantly an arts organisation although it did work with excluded people.

Case Study Two
Marston Village Hall serves a small rural community. It provides a venue for the local playgroup, old people's luncheon club and a GP's surgery. It also provides facilities for badminton, yoga and keep fit. In addition it has a stage and dressing room facilities that are used by the thriving amateur dramatic society and by occasional touring companies. The Village Hall Association want to know whether they can apply to RALP to refurbish/rebuild/decorate the hall.

Advice
They would have to make a very good case for the importance of the arts use for the hall. RALP does not normally fund capital work on multi-purpose venues where the benefit to the arts is not seen as exceptional. If, on the other hand, it was demonstrated that the work would benefit he entire community a bid could be made to the Charities Board.

Case Study Three
Newtown Community Centre is home to a flourishing range of projects that include youth drama workshops and circus skills training, a community theatre group, creative writing classes and an Asian dance group. It is also the venue for small scale touring companies with an average of one performance a week. They need to improve their access to allow a disabled theatre group to use the premises and redecorate the building to make it more comfortable and accessible to participants and audiences alike.

Advice
As this is a building that provides community access to a range of arts programmes and as the proposals will directly increase access to and education for the arts, they could submit an application.

Further information and contacts

For further information please contact:

The National Lottery Charities Board:

John Skrine
Regional Development Officer
SW Regional Office
Beaufort House
51 New North Road
Exeter EX4 4EQ
Tel: 01392 849713
Email:[email protected]

South West Arts:

Sue Jacob
Planning Officer
Bradninch Place
Gandy Street
Exeter EX4 3LS
Tel 01392 218188
Email:[email protected]

Other sources of information: