National Lottery Bids

Funding from National Lottery boards is an excellent fundraising opportunity for many charities.

Although lottery programmes change from time to time, there is usually a fund available for most organisations to apply for, whether multi-year revenue funding or one-off capital funds.

National Lottery grants can also be very large, with some programmes offering multi-million grants for the right projects. Our clients have recently received grants of £488,019, £476,766, £400,000, £300,000, £287,991, £235,487, £228,000 and £180,000 from successful bids. This was all revenue funding to support their project work.

A great benefit of a successful lottery bid, apart from the financial security and the contribution to core costs, is the very high ratio of return on the cost of the bid, which can be as low as 1 - 2% of the grant amount. A successful lottery bid can also help to diversify the income portfolio.

On our team are consultants with extensive experience of the National Lottery Community Fund (formerly the BLF), the National Lottery Heritage Fund (formerly HLF) and the Arts Council England.

If you also need help in preparing a business plan or need to provide a project evaluation to accompany a major lottery bid, we can also provide support in developing these.

There are two main ways in which we can support your bids to the National Lottery. Either we can review and strengthen your draft or we can prepare the whole bid for you, using your information. The choice is yours.

Some clients have also asked us to review failed bids they have made, in order to resubmit them. This is an area where an expert eye can greatly improve a weak bid and bring success and it often works! So do not give up hope if you have received a rejection - get help and try again.

Support with National Lottery bids is charged by the day. A typical Reaching Communities bid takes 1 day to prepare Stage 1 (or half a day to review a draft) and 6 - 10 days to prepare Stage 2 (or one day to review a draft). Please call us to discuss your needs and obtain a free quotation.

As part of the service, we give advice about what you need to do to prepare your project or organisation for making a successful bid, for example the nature of consultations you may need to undertake, as well as helping you create a realistic budget.

If you are required to provide an evaluation of your project when applying to the National Lottery (for example if you are seeking continuation funding), then we can also conduct this for you.

Here is what recent clients have said about our National Lottery bid writing service:

I just wanted to email and thank you for all your help with the Lottery bid. I found out today that we've been awarded £476,766 over the next 5 years! Your help was invaluable, and I'm sure went a long way to making the bid successful.
Anne Dannerolle, Hull Community Church

We are so grateful to the team at Wootton George Consulting, as without them we would not be here! In particular, our thanks to Claire who helped us win the lottery! Now we can focus on the real work of helping bereaved relatives, knowing that our charity and its work are secure.
Heather Landsberg, National Co-ordinator, SAMM

The team at Wootton George Consulting has been really supportive and clearly have in- depth experience in their fields. Thank you for all you have done for our charity - we only wish we had found you sooner!
Irene Kohler, Director, Advocacy Plus

To talk about help in making or reviewing your National Lottery bid, please contact us today on 01903 723519