The National Lottery Community Fund (NLCF) has suggested that the language underpinning its good cause funding remit should be modernised.
NLCF said the current statutory wording – “charitable or connected with health, education or the environment” – had enabled a broad range of funding but could be updated.
“The commonly used description of this good cause as ‘charity’ no longer adequately reflects either the organisations and communities we support or the role the fund plays,” it said.
“We believe there is a case for modernising the language to recognise ‘community’ explicitly within the statutory description of National Lottery good causes.
“This would better reflect the fund’s purpose today: strengthening communities, supporting social infrastructure and enabling people to act together on the issues that matter to them, while preserving the independence of our existing remit.”
NLCF added that an updated description would also reflect the organisation’s evolution from its last major review in 2003, when its two predecessor bodies – the Community Fund and New Opportunities Fund – were responsible for a 50% share of good cause funding.
An NLCF spokesperson clarified that it was not proposing the removal of the word “charitable” from the description.
‘Simpler applicant experience’
The funder’s comments came in its written response to the government’s call for evidence on how NLCF’s good cause funding should be spent, which closed on Wednesday.
In its response, the arms-length public body emphasised the importance of its independence and said the good causes system needed “stronger collective leadership and coordination”.
NLCF said this could help to “remove barriers to collaboration and drive shared accountability, common standards, shared data and insights, a simpler applicant experience, coordinated work in places, and critically a clearer public story about the impact of good causes”.
On application processes, it added: “We believe that simplification cannot stop at the boundaries of individual lottery distributors.
“There is a significant opportunity for the lottery family to work more closely together so that applicants experience a more coherent and easier-to-navigate funding system.”
It said greater public and community participation should be combined with “independent grantmaking and the principle of additionality”.
“Community empowerment requires political impartiality,” it said.
“Greater participation can give people and communities a strong role in shaping priorities and decisions as a feature of the wider National Lottery system.
“We want reform to build on the expertise and independence of distributors while significantly strengthening community voice and partnership with elected leaders.”
NLCF said it wanted strong partnerships with mayors, devolved governments and other elected leaders, alongside community participation and independent grantmaking.
“Local approaches should be able to reflect different priorities, while UK-wide capability enables learning and action on challenges that cross geographic and administrative boundaries,” it said.
