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The Big Lottery Fund is urging organisations and individuals across the UK to engage in the debate on how BIG’s funding should be allocated through its grant programmes between 2009 and 2015. BIG is expecting to distribute over £2 billion over the coming years.

Big thinking (www.big-thinking.org.uk), the Fund’s public consultation launches on Monday, 17 November 2008 and is open to all individuals and organisations across the UK. The fund is responsible for distributing half of the UK’s good causes Lottery cash.

Sir Clive Booth, UK Chair of the Big Lottery Fund said, “We must ensure that BIG can make the best possible contribution to communities and people most in need over the next six years.

Sir Clive Booth continued: ”The financial turmoil of the past weeks has been unsettling for communities across the country. All the evidence shows that it is the worst off who will be affected most. This makes our Big thinking conversation even more important. We want to hear from you how Lottery funding can best benefit communities. Make your voices heard and help influence where Lottery money goes.”

Big thinking is giving everyone the chance to have their say through a series of national, regional and local face-to-face events and online channels including questionnaires, blogs and videos at www.big-thinking.org.uk. It will look back at what has been achieved from the accumulated experience of more than ten years of Lottery funding and what the Fund can do even better with guidance and opinion from the general public plus voluntary, charity and public sector organisations.

Central to the public consultation will be ten ‘BIG Questions’ plus specific questions to reflect the individual priorities of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Questions include:

- Do you agree we should have a greater focus in our funding to benefit those most in need?
- After 2012, when our 60-70 per cent undertaking ends, should we continue to guarantee a percentage of our funding to the voluntary and community sector?
- How can BIG best help build lasting partnerships and networks that support communities and people most in need?
- Are there opportunities for joint funding that BIG should take up?
- Do you agree that the theme of isolation provides a useful starting point for our funding?

Peter Wanless, UK CEO of the Big Lottery Fund commented, “Everyone’s opinion counts and will help form our funding strategy for the next six years. A fascinating feature of the consultation is the learning we can draw from being a UK fund that – within common principles and values – is developing in significantly different and distinct ways in each of the four countries of the UK. In Scotland, we have experimented with a ‘single front door’ for lottery applications. In Northern Ireland we have just launched Building Change Trust, a ten year commitment to support change in the voluntary and community sector.”

Peter Wanless continued: “We listened and learnt from our last consultation by introducing significant improvements to how we fund, pioneering full cost recovery and extending the length of our typical awards up to five years, offering community organisations far greater opportunity to plan for a sustainable future. Now is the time for everyone to get involved in what happens next.”


Big Lottery Fund Press Office: 020 7211 1888
Out of hours contact: 07867 500 572
Public Enquiries Line: 08454 102030 Textphone: 0845 6021 659
Full details of the Big Lottery Fund programmes and grant awards are available on the website: www.biglotteryfund.org.uk 


Notes to Editors

• Full details on Big thinking including the consultation document, online feedback plus national and regional events is available at www.big-thinking.org.uk.
• In 2007, it was announced that £638 million of BIG’s funding between 2009-2012 will be transferred to the Olympic Lottery Distributor to support the London 2012 games. The Olympic diversion means that BIG will have less funding available to distribute between 2009-2015 than we would otherwise have. It is expected that BIG’s funding will be restored to near normal rates in the years after 2012.
• The Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport has made it clear that there will be no further transfers of Lottery funding to the London 2012 Olympics.
• Many of BIG’s current programmes will still be spending and committing a considerable amount over the next few years. As at 31 March 2008, BIG had made more than £1.3 billion commitments for project that will be funded from 2009.
• The Big Lottery Fund (BIG), the largest distributor of National Lottery good cause funding, is responsible for giving out half the money raised for good causes by the National Lottery.
• BIG is committed to bringing real improvements to communities and the lives of people most in need and has been rolling out grants to health, education, environment and charitable causes across the UK since June 2004. The Fund was formally established by Parliament on 1 December 2006.
• Since the National Lottery began in 1994, 28p from every pound spent by the public has gone to good causes. As a result, over £22 billion has now been raised and more than 300,500 grants awarded across arts, sport, heritage, charities, health, education and the environment.
• About 70 per cent of the UK’s adult population regularly play the Lottery.