By Community Manager - July 1st, 2009

The Big Lottery Fund (BIG) – the largest distributor of National Lottery good-cause funding – is to pump a multi-million pound package of funding into communities to help them cope with the effects of the recession.

Voluntary sector groups in Scotland are set to benefit from an additional £4.5million in Lottery funding to help them cope with the recession.

The Big Lottery Fund in Scotland announced on the 25th June that the funding would go to existing grant holders to help people, families and communities cope with the worst impacts of the recession.

You can read the full details of the package by clicking here.

Big have also published the results of their Big Thinking Consultation which gives details of the questions asked, and the responses given.

It is very encouraging, and Big have committed to ensuring the voluntary sector receive a bigger share of their funding in the future.

The report states: "The Voluntary and Community sector is our major partner in delivery,and we have set ourselves a target that it will receive at least 80 per cent of our funding between now and 2015
The voluntary and community sector’s ability to reach those most in need, and work with communities who are often poorly served by mainstream provision, makes them the natural and primary partner for BIG.

We know the sector needs a stable and secure funding base to ensure this can continue.

We will therefore extend our commitment to the VCS – raising the proportion of funding they can expect from us, and extending this for the duration of this Strategic Framework. We will set a UK-wide target that at least 80 per cent of our funding will go to the VCS during the period up to 2015.

Alongside this undertaking, our continued investment will support a stronger sector that is better equipped to support and empower all communities, but especially those most in need."






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