Friday 16 March 2007

Life's a lottery...especially in the voluntary sector

So, the government's screwed the third sector again. Yet more overspend on the Olympics, so the lottery will be mined deeper still to make up the short fall. For all the talk of supporting the voluntary and community sector, there never appears to be much action. Or money. Take a look at government grants available. They have a whole website listing them. Only they're virtually all closed to applications. Recent changes to the lottery opened it up to a wider range of applicants including government bodies, and at the same time "targeted" a lot more of the money, reducing the chance for organisations to bid for projects based on need, rather having to come up with projects that deliver to a particular agenda.

As well as the direct impact on bodies applying to the lottery, this affects those who don't even want lottery money, as the demand for funding from charitable trusts etc. is in higher demand.

I guess this is all part of the great nanny state thing. We can't have local people accessing funding for what they need. Far better if central government tells them what's best.

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