Services

Grants and Funding

Funding

Funding and Support

Funding - find out about council funding initiatives and popular funding streams, including lottery funding, funding for businesses, arts, science and technology, funding for sport, the National Lottery Fund, and Scottish Natural Heritage.

Support - find information and resources to help with compiling your funding application, and get links to organisations that offer support in taking your project ideas forward 

 Council funded programmes

This section contains a list of Council funding. Please click on the links for more details.

Lottery funding 

National Lottery funding 

Awards for All.  Awards for All is a Lottery grants programme aimed at local communities.

  • Range of grant size - You can apply for between £300 and £10,000 depending on the country. 
  • Types of scheme - Awards for All is an open scheme aimed at voluntary and community organisations, schools, parish or town councils, and health bodies.  
  • Geographical coverage  - It covers the United Kingdom although each country offers a slightly different scheme.

Community Fund  - The Community Fund is committed to improving communities and the lives of people most in need.  Community Fund is an outcomes funder, meaning that their focus is on the difference their funding makes, rather than on the organisations that receive the funding.  They can make grants to organisations in the public and private sectors, and the third sector. However, they recognise the vital role that the third sector has in helping achieve those outcomes and 92% of their funding supports this sector. 

Heritage Lottery Fund  - The Heritage Lottery Fund uses money from the National Lottery to give grants for a wide range of projects involving the local, regional and national heritage of the United Kingdom.

Type of work funded  - HLF has three aims which relate to learning, conservation and participation. Through our grant making they aim to:

  • conserve the UK’s diverse heritage for present and future generations to experience and enjoy; 
  • help more people, and a wider range of people, to take an active part in and make decisions about their heritage; 
  • help people to learn about their own and other people’s heritage. 

Range of grant size - The Heritage Lottery Fund has a range of programmes designed for heritage projects of different types and sizes. They offer grants from £3,000 to multi-million-pound awards. 

Types of scheme  - Heritage Lottery Fund offers a combination of general grants programmes, together with initiatives targeted at particular areas of heritage or themes.  

Geographical coverage  - They award grants throughout the UK (except the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man).  They have 11 offices throughout the UK including offices in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

NESTA  - NESTA (the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts) is a non-departmental public body (NDPB) investing in innovators and working to improve the climate for creativity in the UK.

Range of funding   - NESTA is not a mainstream funding provider, but works in partnership with other organisations to test innovative responses to specific economic and social challenges.  NESTA also invests in early-stage, high-technology UK companies.

Creative Scotland  - Creative Scotland is the national leader for Scotland’s arts, screen and creative industries. Their job is to help Scotland’s creativity shine at home and abroad.

Geographical coverage   - All of Scotland  

Any priority areas / key messages  - In 2003 Creative Scotland (formally the Scottish Arts Council) conducted a public consultation on its strategy for lottery-funded arts and the results were subsequently incorporated into their Corporate Plan. They have adopted four key priorities for their lottery strategy 2004 - 2009:  

  • making the arts available to those who have had few or no opportunities to appreciate them
  • increasing the numbers and broadening the range of people enjoying and taking part in the arts
  • increasing arts activity for and by children and young people
  • making sure there is a fair geographic spread of buildings, facilities and activities across Scotland.

SportScotland  - sportscotland is the national sport agency for Scotland. Working with partners their responsibility is to develop sport and physical recreational activity in Scotland.

The National Lottery Community Fund has a range of programmes in its portfolio.

The Lottery publish insights to groups who have received funding   Have a look here

They also host an applying for funding Tips page The Ultimate Guide

New programmes will be launching throughout the year, keep up to date with Funding Alert.

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