First recipients of National Lottery’s Digital Fund announced
Melanie May | 15 July 2019 | Newswire
Wag and Company, Addaction and The Law Centres Network are among the eight organisations to have been awarded funding in the first round of the National Lottery Community Fund’s new Digital Fund.
The eight organisations will receive funding of £3.4 million to help them grow their digital capabilities, particularly around their operations and service delivery.
Wag and Company has received a grant of over £350,000 to develop a digital infrastructure, which will underpin an expansion of its activities and services, while Addaction has been awarded nearly £500,000 to work with service users to co-design new digital services and products, and The Law Centres Network’s grant of nearly £500,000 will be used to refresh its organisational activities and services in the digital age.
The other beneficiaries are Abelour, National Ugly Mugs, Family Lives, Lancashire Women’s Centre, and Children 1st.
In addition to the grants, the projects will all now benefit from a support system set up for Digital Fund grantees, made up of Doteveryone, CAST, Shift, Snook, The Dot Project, and a network of coaches and mentors. This support will range from help with recruitment and Board level engagement through to responsible tech practices, service design and data audits.
They will also collectively document and share learning between themselves and the wider sector, which was a key aim for The National lottery Community Fund when setting up the Digital Fund.
Joe Ferns, UK Knowledge and Portfolio Director at The National Lottery Community Fund said:
“In a digital society it’s important that charities and community organisations are not only able to adapt to be fit for the future, but can harness the power of digital to identify new opportunities to improve services to support more people. Now, thanks to National Lottery players, these organisations can increase their digital capacity to have a greater impact in communities and support our sector to thrive in the digital age.”
Diane Morton, Founding Director of Wag and Company, said:
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“As a smaller charity experiencing an increasing demand for our services, we’re over the moon. This Digital Fund grant is going to be transformational for us – we can more than double our activities by 2022 and grow our volunteer base significantly, meaning we can play a bigger part in tackling social isolation among older people in our region.”
There are two strands of funding available under the Digital Fund. Digital Fund Strand 1 offers grants of up to £500,000 and a tailored support package to help established organisations use digital to take a major leap forward with grants expected to last from one to four years. Digital Fund Strand 2 offers grants of up to £500,000 for newer organisations that have already launched services that use digital to achieve scale or impact; again grants are expected to last from one to four years. Information on how to apply to both is available online.
About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.