Whilst I was in London with Jeff Ennis MP for the formation of the Parliamentary Brass Band Group, we took the opportunity to meet with Peter Wanless, Chief Executive of the Big Lottery Fund. Brass band’s applications for funding from the Big Lottery Fund meet with about a 50% success rate. Last year bands received £109,663 and this year, until the end of June, they have been granted £53,902 from the fund. In addition to this the National Youth Band of Great Britain has received £573,000 of Big Lottery funding over the last five years through Youth Music and this figure increases year on year. Peter Wanless explained that two of the current funding schemes will be of interest to brass bands:
Awards for all
Awards for All is a Lottery grants scheme aimed at local communities. The fund awards grants of between £300 and £10,000 in a simple and straightforward way. You can apply at any time and the application form is short and simple.
Reaching Communities
Reaching Communities will give grants of more than £10,000 and up to £500,000, including a maximum of £50,000 for capital grants. The fund has set a maximum overall project size of £750,000 and £200,000 for the total capital element within a project. They will fund projects for up to five years
I asked how brass bands may better access the Big Lottery Fund and we discussed the possibility of BFBB becoming a ‘helper organisation’ for bands that wish to access funds, however, more discussions will need to be had in order to establish how this idea might work in practice. The 2012 Cultural Olympiad and the legacy trust were also discussed and further discussions are likely.
