News

« Back to News

BIG delivers 1000th Reaching Communities grant
21.07.2008

The Big Lottery Fund has awarded its 1,000th Reaching Communities grant but the fund remains eight times over-subscribed four years after its inception.

The Easington Colliery Regeneration Partnership's People and their Parks project in County Durham (pictured) was awarded just over £138,000, one of 24 projects to receive a share of £4.7m in funding in the latest round of the sought-after BIG grants last week.

Councils for Voluntary Action umbrella body Navca congratulated BIG on the milestone but called for more resources to be dedicated to the fund.

Huge resources wasted 'Reaching Communities is an excellent programme. It is light touch and demand-led,' said Kevin Curley, chief executive of Navca. 'Grant streams like this are vital for local third sector organisations.'

'But there is insufficient funding in this programme. The available £100m in the first round was the subject of bids totalling more than £1.2bn, meaning huge resources were wasted in the bidding and assessing processes as most applications were rejected. BIG and other funders should learn from Reaching Communities and prioritise and properly fund demand-led grants programmes.'

In accordance with its brief, the BIG Reaching Communities fund has delivered 60 - 70 per cent of its funding to the third sector in grants worth between £10,000 and £500,000 to a variety of community projects across the UK.

BIG admitted the grant scheme, which has awarded £218m to community projects since it launched in 2004, remains over-subscribed, with just one in eight applicants being granted money from the fund.

But Michael Fischwick, project manager at Easington Partnerships, was happy. 'The award from the Big Lottery Fund's Reaching Communities is going to breathe new life into the fantastic parks and community spaces of Easington Colliery,' he said. 'We want to bring people back into their parks as places to exercise, socialise and enjoy. This grant will allow us to do it.'

Source: Celina Ribeiro, Professional Fundraising Magazine www.professionalfundraising.co.uk

« Back to News