Good news for rural community buildings

Big Lottery Fund announced at the beginning of February at least £100 million a year is to be invested across England in a new improved version of its flagship Reaching Communities programme for each of the next five years. The new funding will be introduced in the spring and comes with two distinct improvements.

First, applicants seeking smaller sums of money will enjoy a simpler application and assessment process. Second, a two-stage decision making process for larger bids will ensure that all applications will learn sooner whether their projects is in with a chance of receiving funding. For those invitited to the second stage, the likelihood of success will be much higher, making work on completing a full application more worthwhile.

Also in the pipeline for later in the year is a third element, a dedicated capital stream offering  funding within the familiar Reaching Communities application process to respond to the high, unmet demand for funding for community buildings.

The changes are in response to the Fund's major public Big Thinking consultation last year. In addition, the Big Lottery Fund is promising more informative feedback on all unsuccessful applications.

More details will be available shortly -it is anticipated that this funding will be available for churches adapting their buildings for community use. More information to hopfully confirm this will be forthcoming.
 

___posted March 9th 2010 Taken for ORCCs email bulletin ___