National Lottery Community Fund Makes Changes to Respond to Covid-19

The National Lottery Community Fund is making several changes in response to the current coronavirus/Covid-19 situation.

In its most recent statement, the National Lottery Community Fund (NLCF) says:

It plans to continue to deliver its services to applicants, grant holders and communities across the UK as normally as it can.

• The current priority is to keep money flowing to support people, communities and the organisations.
• It has started to shift application deadlines for some of its funds that were due to close soon.
• It has also announced the following decisions:
• Firstly, all the funding decisions made for the next six months (up to £300,000 million of National Lottery funding) will be devoted to addressing the current crisis.
• In addition, NLCF will accelerate the cash part of this funding as much as it can, so that it can get money to where it needs to be. This is not new money, but it will be faster money.

A statement issued by NLCF CEO Dawn Austwick on 27 March, she said:

“In deciding how to implement this approach we have to make some tough choices about how we get that money out quickly to those communities and organisations that need it most. We will do our best to be fair and true to our principles and to you.

“To reach those groups best placed to support their communities at this vital time, we will prioritise the following faster payments for existing grant holders and applicants using the following criteria:

• Activities specifically geared to supporting communities through this crisis.
• Helping organisations overcome any liquidity issues caused by COVID-19.

“Should we get through this initial tranche of support with some funding left or circumstances change, we will move to set new priorities. We know that this means some groups will not be able to access our funding over the coming months and we will endeavour to return to our broader support as soon as we can.”

The latest coronavirus updates can be found on the National Lottery Community Fund website

Full details…