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Greater support is on its way to voluntary and community organisations across England, as the Big Lottery Fund today launches the second round of its BASIS (Building and Sustaining Infrastructure Support) programme with up to £50 million available to develop the sector.

Following the success of BASIS 1 that awarded close to £100 million to over 200 projects supporting third sector infrastructure, BASIS 2 is taking a more targeted approach.

The programme is looking to fund projects that fill the highest priority gaps in the current VCS infrastructure support to ensure the sector’s wide spectrum of organisations can access relevant high-quality assistance.

Sanjay Dighe, Chair of the Big Lottery Fund’s England Committee, said: “Through BASIS 2 the Fund is continuing to develop the provision of expert, consistent and sustainable services, across the range of voluntary and community sector organisations. This second round of BASIS is taking a much more targeted approach to ensure funding is used specifically to meet identified needs within third sector infrastructure support.

“This support aims to fill the gaps remaining after BASIS 1 on both a regional and national level, ensuring the sector is fully equipped to operate to the best of its ability, ultimately improving the services it provides in enhancing lives and communities across the country.”

To help identify the priorities for BASIS 2, between August and November 2007 BIG carried out a consultation with national and local organisations including funders, frontline organisations and providers of voluntary and communty sector support services.

In support of the Fund’s approach, Ann Blackmore, Head of Policy at NCVO, said: “NCVO commends BIG on undertaking a very thorough consultation exercise. We fully support BIG’s proposal to fund a more tightly prescribed range of activities in Round Two of BASIS. This will enable organisations to make an informed decision about whether or not to apply and reduce the number of bids that go unrewarded.”

Projects to benefit from BASIS 1 funding include the Scope-led Disability LIB (Listen, Include, Build) project. The project was awarded £4,245,382 to establish the UK's first disability-led consortium that is advising on the critical and varied needs of disabled people's organisations (DPOs) across England and providing necessary infrastructure support. Through Disability LIB, DPOs will have access to action-learning groups, training workshops, seminars and practical toolkits.

BASIS has also supported projects working at a local level such as St Helens CVS who are using an award of £498,777 to improve the delivery of infrastructure support offered to groups from the voluntary, charitable and faith sector. To develop skills and knowledge the project is offering a range of services to improve governance, planning, management, sustainable funding and volunteer recruitment.

BASIS 2 will continue to complement, but not duplicate government initiatives such as Change Up and Capacity Builders. It is building on a strong history of Lottery funding in this area that is responding to a key need amongst voluntary and community organisations.

The Big Lottery Fund's regional staff will hold a series of stakeholder events to ensure that those who are eligible to apply for BASIS 2 funding are fully briefed on the opportunities presented by the programme. Full eligibility criteria and application packs will be available to download from the Big Lottery Fund website www.biglotteryfund.org.uk

The deadline for applications is 2.00pm on 27th August 2008.

Further information

Big Lottery Fund Press Office: 020 7211 1888
Out of hours contact: 07867 500 572
Public Enquiries Line: 08454 102 030
Textphone: 0845 6021 659
Full details of the Big Lottery Fund programmes and grant awards are available on the website at www.biglotteryfund.org.uk

Notes to Editors

• The Big Lottery Fund rolls out close to £2 million in Lottery good cause money every 24 hours which together with other Lottery distributors means that across the UK most people are within a few miles of a Lottery-funded project.
• The Big Lottery Fund, the largest of the National Lottery good cause distributors, has been rolling out grants to health, education, environment and charitable causes across the UK since its inception in June 2004. It was 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 £20 billion has now been raised and more than 280,000 grants given out across the arts, sport, heritage, charities, health, education and the environment.