Improving Lives

The National Lottery raises money for good causes. We are a distributor of National Lottery funding, established as a non-departmental public body by an Act of Parliament.

Many people experience challenges at some point in their lives. Through Improving Lives we aim to support activity that helps people overcome these difficulties and become more resilient. Grants from £10,001 to £200,000 to help people facing challenging circumstances. Area: Scotland. Suitable for: Voluntary or community organisations, Public sector organisations. Funding size: £10001 to £200000

We want to fund activity that means people: *are better able to identify ways to take control over their lives and build resilience. *are able to shape the activities and services they use to better meet their needs. *have more access to support and opportunities to improve their lives.

Improving Lives will fund activity that: *supports children, young people and families currently experiencing challenging circumstances. *supports people that have experienced abuse. *tackles loss, isolation or loneliness. *supports people that experience discrimination and/or work to challenge discrimination. *supports people facing financial hardship.

We will consider activity which aims to prevent as well as respond to these issues. There are some things that we won’t fund including mainstream employability activity, such as job search support. All applicants need to demonstrate that their activity is people-led, connected, and strengths-based. We call these our three approaches.

You can apply for funding for up to three years. Your application may have a better chance if you can demonstrate some level of match funding. However, we can fund up to 100% of the costs of your activity including staff, equipment, premises costs and overheads. We refer to these types of costs as 'revenue costs' and would expect these to be the main focus of your application. You can also include up to £50,000 of minor capital costs as part of your overall activity for items such as building refurbishment or adaptations.

The National Lottery Community Fund is a Living Wage Friendly Funder. This means that we encourage our applicants to pay their staff the UK Living Wage.

Most organisations are eligible to apply. We're keen to see applications from smaller organisations that we haven’t funded before.

Existing National Lottery Community Fund grantholders can apply. However, there are restrictions on how many Improving Lives grants you can hold at any one time – contact us at advicescotland@tnlcommunityfund.org.uk or 0300 123 7110 for further information.

We can usually accept applications from: -voluntary or community organisations -registered charities -constituted groups or clubs -not-for-profit companies or Community Interest Companies -statutory bodies (including town, parish and community councils).

But this might be different depending on which of our funding programmes you apply to.

We usually can’t accept applications from: -individuals -sole traders -companies limited by shares -organisations outside the UK -one organisation applying on behalf of another.