Talk to Big Lottery about People and Communities

Last year we launched our consultation – Your Voice Our Vision – to start a discussion about what kind of funder we should be and how we can support people and communities from now until 2021.

Our mission is still to bring real improvements to communities and to the lives of people most in need. But you told us that we needed to be more flexible in how we fund, simplify our processes and support the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector to respond to a changing world.

All your views helped us shape our new plan of how we will work. It’s called People in the Lead – and that’s because we believe you are best placed to change your communities for the better.

We are putting this plan into action by developing a new programme, People and Communities (link to webpage), which we will open January 2016.

This programme will be open to meet what is needed in your community. It will invest £60 million over five years and grant sizes will range from £30,000 to £500,000 for two to five year projects. 

Talk to us about our plans:

We want to hear how this programme could support you to work with local people to make great changes in your community. We would like your views on the People and Communities programme and these key questions:

1. Tell us about how you will get people involved in what you want to do in your community. 

2. How do you know that the services or support you want to provide are right for your community?

3. What assets – including strengths, skills, services and facilities – do you already have in your community that you could build on to improve people’s lives?

4. How can we support you to do what you want to do?

Getting in touch

Please talk to us on Facebook and Twitter (@BIGNIonline) using the hashtag #fundingpeopleni, or leave your comments below.

You can also email us at yourideas@biglotteryfund.org.uk 

We’re asking you to come back to us by 30^th September 2015 so we can reflect on what you have told us before the programme opens in January 2016. However, we want to keep listening to you and want to reflect as change happens over the next five years.