Bringing People Together

The National Lottery Community Fund’s Bringing People Together fund awards grants of up to £300,000 to charities, community groups, voluntary organisations and social enterprises.

This programme is particularly interested in projects that focus on one or more of the following priorities:  

• builds connections across communities, not just within existing communities;

• supports and explores what’s needed to connect communities and enables stronger collaboration to bring people together and keep people together;

• focuses on creating longer-term change;

• explores what best practice and new approaches to bringing people together  look like since the outbreak of COVID-19 ;

• brings people together around climate action in communities;

• builds collective action and strengthen communities’ own abilities to have control, influence and agency on the things that matter most to them (collective efficacy).

All projects will need to:

• have a clear equality, diversity and inclusion focus;

• deliver across at least two counties in the UK; and

-demonstrate they can learn and adapt as they go.

Deadline: Continuous rolling programme

Who can apply:

We're particularly interested in projects led by, or supporting people and communities who have been disproportionality affected by COVID 19. These include communities experiencing ethnic or racial inequity, discrimination or inequality, disabled people, LGBTQ+ people, and people who’re seeking asylum or who are refugees. We want to see more people across these communities represented in our funding.  

We can support a wide range of organisations and welcome applications from both larger and smaller organisations.

We can accept applications from consortiums or partnerships. In this case, a lead partner will need to take responsibility for the application process.

You can apply if you have a current grant from The National Lottery Community Fund. We’ll consider how this funding would complement and impact on existing awards during the assessment process. If there’s a high demand for this funding, we may need to prioritise organisations that do not already have grant funding from us.

Your organisation also needs to be one of the following:   

• registered charity   
• community interest company (CIC)
• Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) 
• community benefit society 
• co-operative society (if it has a not-for-profit clause and registered with the Financial Conduct Authority) 
• voluntary or community organisation   
• statutory body (including town, parish and community councils)  company limited by guarantee (if it has a not-for-profit clause or is a registered charity).  Board or committee members   It’s essential that organisations that apply have at least two people on their board or committee who are not related.

 By related, we mean: 

• married to each other 
• in a civil partnership with each other 
• in a long-term relationship with each other 
• living together at the same address 
• related by blood.

We cannot accept applications from:

• individuals   
• sole traders   
• organisations focused on making profits and sharing these profits privately - including companies - - limited by shares, organisations without the right asset locks, or organisations that can pay profits to directors or shareholders
• organisations based outside the UK   
• applications made by one organisation on behalf of another    schools.