Lottery coronavirus funding reaches £120m

Charities and community groups across the UK have received almost £120m of National Lottery funding since the COVID-19 lockdown began.

This funding has reached over 4,500 community projects across the UK, with activities ranging from a cancer support group that has moved online to a charity distributing care packages of toiletries for those in need.

The COVID-19 crisis has sparked an influx of groups seeking funding to support their communities through these times. Overall, compared to the same time last year, requests for funding have increased by 55%, while visits to the funder’s website have shot up by 47%. The most apparent spike in applications has been for smaller grants, with requests for funding up to £10,000 increasing by 51% year-on-year.

In addition to funding larger and UK-wide charities, 38% of the grants (£24 million) have gone to micro and small groups* and a further £46 million to medium-sized organisations*, as communities rally to mitigate the impact of the crisis.

Maureen Collins, project manager at The Pink Ladies Cancer Support Group, said: ‘A lot of our members are coping with a range of gruelling treatments such as chemotherapy, which weakens the immune system, or had treatment stopped which leaves them very vulnerable during this scary time.

‘We have moved our National Lottery funded support programme online which includes counselling, carer activities, education and health and wellbeing activities to ensure we are still fully supporting those in need.

‘We believe in celebrating life, we are one big family here and want people to feel safe and cared for in their own homes. When you are diagnosed with cancer that’s enough to be getting on with never mind the added worry of COVID-19, so we’re doing our bit to help lessen these burdens. We want to thank National Lottery players for this new grant which will help us continue our much-needed work.’