Peppermint
New member
Gypsy Moth IV I wonder if this is why they didn\'t seek lottery funding
Bear with me it's partialy about the RNLI.
From The Times
120205
" Lottery fund not prepared to help middle-class Scouts
By Andrew Norfolk
HUNDREDS of children in a rural English town have been deemed too white, too ablebodied and too middle-class for a grant for a new Scout and Guide headquarters by the organisers of the National Lottery’s Community Fund.
Children in Alconbury, Warwickshire, were told that their £190,000 bid was rejected because the project did not “address any specific disadvantage”. The refusal is the latest in a series of grant applications by voluntary and community groups which have fallen foul of the lottery fund’s focus on directing the vast majority of its cash to “priority” groups.
These include refugees and asylum-seekers, black and ethnic minority communities, the elderly and their carers, disadvantaged children and people living in areas of economic deprivation. In recent weeks, grant bids submitted by the Samaritans, a flood rescue service and a mountain rescue team have all been rejected by the Community Fund because their work does not specifically target the disadvantaged.
The Times has established that the regional lottery committees that determine grant applications are not required to set aside any of their budget to support projects which fall outside the rigid “disadvantage” criteria that has been set out.
A director of one of Britain’s best-loved charities, the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, labelled the policy an “absurd” example of “political correctness gone mad”. David Brann, the RNLI’s director of fundraising and communications, said the charity had not applied for any grants because lottery organisers had made it clear that none would be successful.
“As a search-and-rescue organisation, we don’t fit into the fund’s aims and objectives because we don’t discriminate against anyone,” he said.
The 400 Scouts and Guides of Alconbury have been in need of a home since the town’s Scout hut was destroyed in an arson attack and the lease expired on the Guides’ rented premises. They identified a new site for a permanent meeting hall but the future of the entire scheme depended on the success of the fund application.
A long wait for the ruling ended last month in the crushing disappointment of a letter announcing that they had been “unable to demonstrate that the project would address any specific disadvantage” which would “make real improvements to the lives of disadvantaged people”.
Jeremy Howell, chairman of the Alcester Guides and Scouts joint headquarters committee, described the decision as “a slap in the face of our young people — Guiding and Scouting is open to all regardless of race, creed and disability,” he said.
During the ten years since the National Lottery began, the Community Fund has awarded a total of £2.7 billion to 56,044 good causes.
But the RNLI has received nothing, the RSPCA a mere £4,000 and the Royal British Legion £378,000.
When the money handed to charities which feature the name of a religion in their title is divided by each faith’s number of adherents in Britain, Christian bodies received 18p per follower. Hindu groups were handed £1.79 per believer, Muslims £2.45, Sikhs £7.14, Jews £9.74 and Jains £23.40. Tessa Jowell, the Culture Secretary, has promised the new funding programmes will “give the lottery back to the people”."
Bear with me it's partialy about the RNLI.
From The Times
120205
" Lottery fund not prepared to help middle-class Scouts
By Andrew Norfolk
HUNDREDS of children in a rural English town have been deemed too white, too ablebodied and too middle-class for a grant for a new Scout and Guide headquarters by the organisers of the National Lottery’s Community Fund.
Children in Alconbury, Warwickshire, were told that their £190,000 bid was rejected because the project did not “address any specific disadvantage”. The refusal is the latest in a series of grant applications by voluntary and community groups which have fallen foul of the lottery fund’s focus on directing the vast majority of its cash to “priority” groups.
These include refugees and asylum-seekers, black and ethnic minority communities, the elderly and their carers, disadvantaged children and people living in areas of economic deprivation. In recent weeks, grant bids submitted by the Samaritans, a flood rescue service and a mountain rescue team have all been rejected by the Community Fund because their work does not specifically target the disadvantaged.
The Times has established that the regional lottery committees that determine grant applications are not required to set aside any of their budget to support projects which fall outside the rigid “disadvantage” criteria that has been set out.
A director of one of Britain’s best-loved charities, the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, labelled the policy an “absurd” example of “political correctness gone mad”. David Brann, the RNLI’s director of fundraising and communications, said the charity had not applied for any grants because lottery organisers had made it clear that none would be successful.
“As a search-and-rescue organisation, we don’t fit into the fund’s aims and objectives because we don’t discriminate against anyone,” he said.
The 400 Scouts and Guides of Alconbury have been in need of a home since the town’s Scout hut was destroyed in an arson attack and the lease expired on the Guides’ rented premises. They identified a new site for a permanent meeting hall but the future of the entire scheme depended on the success of the fund application.
A long wait for the ruling ended last month in the crushing disappointment of a letter announcing that they had been “unable to demonstrate that the project would address any specific disadvantage” which would “make real improvements to the lives of disadvantaged people”.
Jeremy Howell, chairman of the Alcester Guides and Scouts joint headquarters committee, described the decision as “a slap in the face of our young people — Guiding and Scouting is open to all regardless of race, creed and disability,” he said.
During the ten years since the National Lottery began, the Community Fund has awarded a total of £2.7 billion to 56,044 good causes.
But the RNLI has received nothing, the RSPCA a mere £4,000 and the Royal British Legion £378,000.
When the money handed to charities which feature the name of a religion in their title is divided by each faith’s number of adherents in Britain, Christian bodies received 18p per follower. Hindu groups were handed £1.79 per believer, Muslims £2.45, Sikhs £7.14, Jews £9.74 and Jains £23.40. Tessa Jowell, the Culture Secretary, has promised the new funding programmes will “give the lottery back to the people”."