10 replies to this topic

[SuzieC8]

Has anyone been successful in a bid for lottery funding?

I know our secretary has tried previously but I think she went for a wish list approach. From what I can gather, you need a project in mind to be funded. I have a couple of ideas that we've talked about previously and which I'd love to get funding for. One is a big project (probably the max 10k) another a smaller one (probably about 1.5k).

We are not in a deprived area, just a small rural community.

Does anyone have any top tips or advice for me? Is it worth the time invested in making the application, i.e. what are the chances of succeeding?

Thanks in advance.

Edited by SuzieC8, 29 July 2009 - 04:47 PM.

[Lucie]

can't help too much as i left before funding was approved/or not but I know that in my area we have people from the council who come to the setting to help with filling in the form so that you can get all the 'key' words in. Maybe thats something that you could look into near you?

lucie

[sunnyday]

Hi ....haven't ever tried for pre-school .... but...some years back we got 16k to put central heating into the Village Hall.......it took two of us.....the then Village Hall Committee Chairman and me an entire day (seriously) to fill the application forms in....but have to say that when we were awarded the money....we both thought that we had 'earned' approx.2k an hour - can't be bad!!!

Good luck
Sunnyday

[Beau]

Our playgroup got several different ones at various times. As you say, the more specific you can be about why you want the money and what exactly it's for the better.

[JacquieL]

Our local council has a Funding Officer, who will help with applications for grants. He is also an excellent source of information on who gives grants for what. Your council probably has one as well so it is worth getting in touch to find out. Most grants are usually for specific projects but that's quite easy to sort out.

[babyjane31]

we have received 2 grantd via the lottery one was for special needs, where we got lots of new equipment that was not all specific to special needs we just justified the benefits i.e. lots of new small world toys to aid non-verbal communication, they also funded training and an additional memeber of staff for a term to implement new training, total of £9744. We have also just got another one to set up an afterschool club of £5700, to fund new equipment such as height adjustable furniture,X BOX, TV 2 new computers. We have found that they seem to like projects that can involve the community, we therefore requested some money to set upa small vegetable patch and mentioned that we had arranged for the local alloments holders to attend on a weekly basis to help the children with it. We are also not in a deprived area but a rural one.

We have been successful if a couple of other grants recently as well, would be happy to help if i can

[Possum]

excellent news! would they pay for our wishlist suspended ceiling?

[blondie]

gosh - i wish we could apply for lottery funding but are based in a methodist church and they do not believe in gambling so we have no chance there - any ideas anyone where could go for funding - we really need to develop our outdoor area ?

[sunnyday]

Possum, on Jul 30 2009, 07:39, said:

excellent news! would they pay for our wishlist suspended ceiling?

Why not ...give it a try!

[SuzieC8]

Thanks everyone for the helpful replies. There is a guy at the council that I know helps with these applications so I will speak to him.

I'm also going to chat to my lead practitioner about the best way forwards. It's good to hear that others have been successful. I'll let you know how it goes!

[holly35]

Sorry I meant to reply last night and got sidetracked. I wanted to say that our setting sounds similar to yours in that we are not classed as in a deprived area either. We applied for one of these grants and were successful but the application form was time consuming. It also required some creative thinking on our part too. For example although we are in an area with some large houses and lots of parks we realised that about 60% of our children lived in houses with only back yards. I couldn't actually say they were deprived by that but we used it as evidence in our application as we were applying for funding for developing the outdoor area (in the days before Capital Grant, grrrr!). If you have someone at the LA who can and will help then definitely use them - unfortunately we weren't so lucky. Hope it goes well.