Society Network Foundation, the charity arm of Big Society Network, has been awarded £1m by the Big Lottery Fund to launch the Britain’s Personal Best campaign, even though the Network is more than three months late filing its accounts with Companies House.
The grant is one of four UK-wide projects aimed at cementing the Olympic legacy that will be funded with a total of £5.3m from BIG.
The grant to Society Network Foundation comes even though the organisation has been unable to say how it has spent a £199,900 Social Action Fund grant awarded last year, and despite the fact that Big Society Network is more than three months late filing its accounts with Companies House.
The charity itself was also late filing its accounts for the last two years.
A Big Lottery Fund spokesman said: “They have gone through all the process in terms of checks around accountability and the money being fine, so we’re confident it’s a project they’ll be able to deliver. We wouldn’t have provided them with the grant if that wasn’t the case.”
Last week the Charity Commission's head of information and communication, Sarah Atkinson, said any charity that doesn't file on time could not be trusted with donors' money.
The grant to SNF was only added into press releases announcing the funding late yesterday. BIG said it was a late addition because the funder was unsure the grant would be agreed in time to include in the announcement.
Four projects to share £5.3m
The other organisations chosen to “rekindle the spirit of 2012” are the British Olympic Association; the Join In Trust, and Sustrans. All the projects will seek to inspire and engage people in volunteering and sports.
The funding announcement follows a recent Public Accounts Committee report which warned that there was a “danger of the volunteering legacy fizzling out”.
The bulk of the funding will be supplied to the British Olympic Foundation, the charitable arm of the British Olympic Association which is charged with promoting the Olympic movement. It will receive £2.5m for its Get Set programme which hopes to create a network of Games Makers, the celebrated volunteers of the 2012 Olympics. The programme seeks to make ‘Change Makers’ out of the Games Makers, encouraging them and others to become more active in their communities. Social media, a dedicated website and promotional roadshows will be used to that effect.
Britain's Personal Best
Britain’s Personal Best, which was revealed exclusively by Civil Society News last month, is a public engagement campaign that Big Society Network claims will become the “largest mass participation event in Britain, the biggest fundraising event in history and the most successful human development event in history”.
It will encourage people to set themselves challenges over the weekend of 4, 5 and 6 October 2013 and raise money for charities.
The Join In Trust, which registered as a charity in June 2012 with the aim of promoting volunteering, will receive £1.5m from BIG. Its funding will be used to host sports events throughout the UK encouraging volunteers to use its website and mobile app to match volunteers to appropriate volunteering opportunities in their communities. Some 50,000 sports clubs will be linked with 10,000 events in the process.
Sustrans will use its £360,000 to launch Pedal On UK, a cycling event which will raise awareness of new walking and cycling routes on the National Cycle Network.
£40m Spirit of 2012 Trust
The initial £5.3m pot is being released ahead of the Big Lottery Fund’s £40m Spirit of 2012 Trust, which was announced late last year and will launch soon.
Lord Coe, chair of the British Olympic Association and Tim Reddish, chair of the British Paralympic Association, will join BIG’s chair Peter Ainsworth at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park to launch the funding this afternoon.
With additional reporting by Niki May Young
