Big Lottery Fund supports BASIS of Voluntary and Community Sector Infrastructure

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Published: 10 April 2006

Big Lottery Fund supports BASIS of Voluntary and Community Sector Infrastructure

The Big Lottery Fund (BIG) has launched a multi-million pound programme that will fund support for the voluntary and community sector in England - the new £155 million BASIS programme (Building and Sustaining Infrastructure Services).

BASIS is the first Big Lottery Fund programme to focus solely on developing voluntary & community sector infrastructure and it aims to fund a more expert, consistently available & sustainable set of support services for front line voluntary & community organisations across England.

The programme has been devised following extensive public consultation & discussions with the voluntary and community sector. As a result, it will be offering longer-term support for up to five years and substantial capital investment.

The programme aims to ensure that voluntary & community sector (VCS) organisations can access high-quality support so that they in turn can benefit their service users.

The Fund wants to help develop the provision of expert, consistent & sustainable services, across the range of VCS organisations, as well as established charities and voluntary groups.

Sir Clive Booth, Chair of the Big Lottery Fund, said:

Through BASIS the Big Lottery Fund will play a vital role in helping voluntary and community groups achieve their goals.

In recognition of the importance of building VCS infrastructure, the Fund has set aside £155 million to support the work of infrastructure agencies across England.

Funding the VCS in this way will better facilitate our grant making as we will have accessible and high quality infrastructure in place everywhere we fund.”

The BASIS programme will support work by infrastructure organisations that increases the:

· Voluntary and community organisations skills in management and fundraising

· influence voluntary sector organisations have on national and local policy and practice

· ability voluntary and community organisations have to learn from their work and share that learning

· diversity and skills of voluntary and community organisations trustees

· pools of resources available to voluntary and community organisations

The programme is also intended to support work that improves the accessibility & sustainability of infrastructure organisations providing these outcomes.

BASIS will complement, but not duplicate, government initiatives such as Change Up and Capacity Builders.

It is responding to a key need amongst voluntary and community organisations to provide long term support, substantial capital investment and support in areas of work that is beyond current initiatives.

BIG will work with Capacity Builders to ensure that the funding streams are complementary and that infrastructure bodies will be able to build on the partnership and planning work they are beginning to do as a result of Change Up, allowing them to provide a comprehensive service meeting the full range of VCS needs.

The BASIS launch has been welcomed by Kevin Curley, Chief Executive NACVS (National Association of Councils for Voluntary Service):

"The launch of the BASIS initiative will make a big difference to the local voluntary and community sector, providing long term funding for key support services, enabling areas where infrastructure is weak to build up a stable base, and giving a chance for a wide range of communities to benefit from new resource centres."

Ben Kernighan, Director of Services and Development NCVO (National Council for Voluntary Organisations) also welcomed the funding news:

“BASIS gives a much needed boost to local and national infrastructure services.

It will enable infrastructure organisations to build on the excellent planning and partnership work it has been doing in recent years.”

Full eligibility criteria and application packs are available to download from the Big Lottery Fund website.

There will be three rounds of grants made, in 2006, 2007 and 2008 and funds will be allocated following a two-stage process, with the deadline for 2006 bids on Friday 30 June 2006.

BIG’s regional staff are holding a series of stakeholder events to ensure that those who are eligible are fully briefed on the opportunities presented by the programme. For further details contact your regional office (details below).

UK-wide, the Big Lottery Fund will distribute through its new programmes & allocations funding worth over £2.6bn between now and April 2009.

Further information

Big Lottery Fund is the joint operating name of the New Opportunities Fund and the National Lottery Charities Board (which made grants under the name of the Community Fund).

BASIS programme - Building and Sustaining Infrastructure Services (Scroll down for documents)

BASIS leaflet

Change Up

Capacity Builders

NACVS (National Association of Councils for Voluntary Service)

NCVO (National Council for Voluntary Organisations)

Big Lottery Fund Region Enquiries number

East of England - Cambridge 01223 449000

East Midlands - Nottingham 0115 934 9300

London 020 7842 4000

North East - Newcastle 0191 376 1600

North West – Warrington 01925 626800