The Big Lottery Fund has awarded over £6 billion since 2004 to projects supporting health, education, environment and charities. In 2012/13 it made 12,000 awards totaling £778 million, with 88% being £10,000 or less. Over 92% of its funding goes to voluntary and community sector organizations. It is proposing a development phase, application phase, and delivery phase to manage European Social Fund money aimed at promoting social inclusion and combating poverty, in order to maximize impact and improve European Funds access for voluntary organizations. This presents both opportunities and challenges regarding managing demand, additional rules and costs, and exclusions versus strengths in local solutions, impact, and cross-sector links.

1. Big Lottery Fund
ESIF Offer
Russell Darbon
Policy & Learning Manager
27/05/2014

2. The Big Lottery Fund
Since June 2004, we have awarded over £6 billion to
projects supporting health, education, environment
and charitable purposes
In 2012/13 we made 12,000 new awards with a total
value of £778m
BIG are presently managing 17,000 awards and 88%
of our awards are for £10,000 or less
Over 92% of our funding goes to the voluntary and
community sector organisations

3. Why ESIF?
OUR MISSION
Making a real
difference to
communities and
the lives of people
most in need
ESF TO9
Promoting social
inclusion and
combating
poverty
OUTCOME 1
To maximise
the impact of
this funding
OUTCOME 2
To improve
access to
European Funds
by VCSE
organisations

4. A simple equation?
BIG SFA DWP
The journey into work
Not quite...
RULES DELIVERY MONITORING RISK

5. The proposal
Development
Phase
Application
Phase
Delivery
Phase
Big Adviser
*
Priorities/MO
U
*
Share learning
*
Competitive
call for lead &
partners
Two routes
*
Partnership
application
*
Small single
projects
*
Two stage
process
Funding set up
*
Project
Delivery
*
Grant
Management
and reporting
to Managing
Authority
Three tests: Alignment, Additionality, Costs
Development funding made available
LEPs provide input but BIG retains decision making

6. An opportunity and a challenge
STRENGTHS WEAKNESSES OPPORTUNITIES THREATS
New money to
LEP areas
Managing
Demand
Local solutions
to local
problems
Size of
funding
Experience Additional
rules
Greater
impact
Monitoring
requirements
Learning Exclusions to our
funding
Improve cross
sector links
Additional
costs
South East
£8/16m