PN 04-03-21 CF New Finance and Ops

29 March 2004

Finance and Operations Directors announced for new Lottery distributor

The Community Fund and the New Opportunities Fund have announced two linchpins in the new senior management team appointed to help lead the new distributor being created from the current merger of the two Lottery distributors. The new fund will distribute half of all National Lottery funding.

Mark Cooke takes up the post of Director of Finance and Corporate Services for the merging funds around the middle of June. He is currently Finance and Commercial Director at the British Printing Industries Federation.

Adriènne Kelbie, currently the new distributor’s Scotland Director, becomes Director of Operations for the new distributor in early May.
The appointments were announced today by Stephen Dunmore, Chief Executive of the new distributor. He said the appointments will enable plans to move ahead speedily towards the Spring launch of the new distributor.

He said: “This is a challenging and exciting time and I am confident that the expertise Adriènne Kelbie and Mark Cooke bring will play an important part in shaping the new distributor. This announcement is another step on the road to integrate the two organisations, and I look forward to the arrival of the new, coterminus Board in June”.

The new distributor will play a lead role in implementing the Government’s agenda to transform Lottery distribution to ensure that the benefits of funding reach communities, to promote social inclusion and partnership working, and to explore new ways of engaging the voluntary and community sector.

The New Opportunities Fund and the Community Fund are working together to facilitate the transition towards the new distributor announced by the Secretary of State, Tessa Jowell, in July 2003.

Notes to Editors
On 3rd July 2003 the Community Fund and the New Opportunities Fund jointly welcomed the Decision Document announcement of the creation of a new single distributor of National Lottery good cause funding, formed by a merger of the two Funds.

Community Fund:

The Community Fund gives out money raised by the National Lottery to charities and to voluntary and community groups. Out of every £1 spent on the National Lottery the Community Fund gets 4.7 pence.
Since 1995 the Community Fund has awarded over 60,000 grants worth more than £2.7 billion to UK charities and voluntary groups.
The legal name of the Community Fund remains the National Lottery Charities Board. The National Lottery Charities Board was set up in 1994 and changed its operating name to Community Fund – Lottery money making a difference in April 2001.

New Opportunities Fund:

The New Opportunities Fund is the biggest of the National Lottery good cause distributors, providing National Lottery funding for health, education and environment projects across the UK, with a particular focus on improving quality of life, particularly in disadvantaged communities.
Since its launch in 1998, the New Opportunities Fund has committed £2.1 billion to initiatives with national, regional and local partners from the public, voluntary and private sectors. Its work has been focused on the needs of people who are most disadvantaged in society, delivering programmes supporting health, education and environment which complement the national, regional and local priorities.

Community Fund press office: 020 7211 3709
New Opportunities Fund press office: 020 7211 1888

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