Funding Update - June 2007

LOTTERY FUNDING

The re-direction of Lottery funding towards the 2012 Olympics remains a hot topic, with many organisations lobbying MPs to ensure that the various distributors do not suffer more than is absolutely necessary. It is inevitable that the Olympics “will not be allowed to fail” however much money is needed to pay for them, and Lottery distributors are more likely to be squeezed than London’s council tax-payers. Heritage Link is one such group campaigning to restore Heritage Lottery Fund’s budget, and is looking at options such as a loan scheme which would effectively mean government promising more funds after 2012, but allowing distributors to commit before 2012.

Our advice as ever is that there is still a lot of lottery cash out there, and would-be applicants should not be deterred from submitting applications – if other interest groups are holding back from applying because they fear rejection, then those of us who do apply must have a greater chance of success.

As this may be the last Funding Update before the announcing of the Big Lottery Fund’s Living Landmarks’ winners in November, we wish all waterway-related applicants the very best of luck. Their final bids had to be submitted by the end of May. Amongst the last 29 in the race for both the £10m to £25m grants and the People’s Millions (£25m to £50m) are schemes that incorporate Lydney Docks, the Mon & Brec, the Bedford Milton Keynes Waterway, the Cotswold Canals, the Forth & Clyde Canal, the Bradford Canal, the Somerset Levels, the Black Country canals, the River Irwell and the Wilts & Berks Canal. Ten out of 29 doesn’t seem a bad hit rate.

The application window for the latest round of the ITV-based People’s Millions scheme has been and gone since the last Update – hopefully anyone interested in applying didn’t miss the boat, though publicity seemed a bit more low-key than in 2006. Short-listed projects will be announced on 31st October, and during November these will be up for the votes of TV viewers in all ITV regions.

HIGHER LEVEL ENVIRONMENTAL STEWARDSHIP

Natural England are improving the application process for Environmental Stewardship by filtering out the weaker schemes before they spend considerable sums on Farm Environment Plans, which is wasted money if the application subsequently fails. Indeed, the process may even result in the Higher Level scheme becoming invitation-only.  There are also likely to be changes on the main Entry Level scheme (which is probably more relevant to our sector) - at the NFU’s annual conference in February, Natural England’s Chief Exec Helen Phillips referred to a “raising of the bar” to ensure that public money secures “real large-scale environmental gains”.

LANDFILL COMMUNITIES FUND (LCF)

The LCF regulator Entrust has recently launched its new website (www.entrust.org.uk) which is rather more user-friendly than its predecessor, particularly the area-by-area directory of Distributor Environmental Bodies, who are the usual channel through which many grantees seek LCF grants. Entrust are currently revising their guidance to Environmental Bodies, and over the summer they will be using focus groups in key areas such as biodiversity, public amenity and historic building restoration to help formulate their ideas. Incidentally, In the March Budget statement, the Chancellor announced an additional £5m for LCF, making £65m in all available through in 2007/2008.

WREN (www.wren.org.uk) is the latest in a growing line of distributor bodies actively seeking applications from all and sundry, particularly in the environmental improvement areas which interest our sector. WREN is the distributor for landfill operator Waste Recycling Group (spot the canal-friendly acronym) and has distributed over £100m over the last ten years. Their Managing Director was quoted as “urging people involved in community projects to come forward and apply for a grant”. A certain group in Sleaford have recently, and successfully, done just that in order to replace a bridge over the navigation in the town centre.

Biffaward has also re-launched its website (www.biffaward.org) and widened its eligibility criteria on some of its funding streams (though not streams likely to be of interest to most waterway restoration projects). Like WREN it is keen to encourage more applications.

COMMUNITIES FIRST TRUST FUND (C1st)

Communities First is a scheme funded by the Welsh Assembly that supports any activity in Wales involving local people through small community organisations that benefit their community. It is open for applications from 1st April to 31st January 2008, and grants of up to £5,000 are available. Full details are on the website www.communitiesfirst.info., and there is a helpline 0800 587 8898.

GIFT AID

As has been widely reported, the reduction in basic rate income tax from April 2008 (22% to 20%) will reduce the take available on Gift Aid. From that date, the Exchequer will give you back 25p in the £1 rather than just over 28p as at present. Perversely, many have mourned this, even criticised it – for a bit of positive spin, your benefactors will be almost 2.6% richer as a result of the tax reduction so they can afford to give you almost £1.03 instead of the £1 they gave before. On a £1.03 donation the Exchequer will, from next April, refund …. 28p. Marvellous !

THE WATERWAYS TRUST

I was hoping that the 2007 ‘themes’ for TWT’s grants scheme would have been announced in time for this Update but they are not expected until the very end of June. Suggest you check on their website www.thewaterwaystrust.org.uk in July.

HERITAGE LINK FUNDING DIRECTORY

Following last time’s review of a number of fund-raising directories, a new free on-line one from Heritage Link is definitely worth a plug.

Access is via the Heritage Link website at www.heritagelink.org.uk/fundingdirectory, and there are good search criteria which should ensure you do not end up with a list of totally irrelevant funding agencies to look at.

One clever feature is that when you do pull up details on a particular funder, the search criteria reappear at the bottom of the page with ticks or crosses against the various areas of interest for that funder (per this screen-print for the entry for our very own IWA Grants Fund).

FUNDRAISING.ORG.UK

Finally, another scheme that raises money for good causes through internet surfing. The website www.fundraising.org.uk has teamed up with over 400 on-line retailers including John Lewis, Amazon, Comet and Carphone Warehouse. Once a benefactor has registered with the website and nominated you as their chosen charity, any purchases made from one of the participating retailers means a cash-back payment from the retailer to the charity. There seems little to lose in getting your charity listed in the directory and then publicising it to members.