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Generate cash, regenerate community
Alex Klaushofer explores the motives and methods of a federation that consistently hits the Lottery jackpot
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Groundwork is one of the country’s most successful regeneration
organisations. It is also a recipient of lots of Lottery funding: to date Groundwork UK has secured more than £24m for its national
pro-grammes. And although the federation does not keep a record of successful applications made separately by its local trusts, the Department of Culture’s database reveals that they have netted a further £6.5m. Between them, the federation and its trusts have won 78 Lottery awards from nearly all the main
funders. Since the first trust was established on Merseyside 21 years ago, Groundwork has developed a community-oriented way of partnership working. It has 46 trusts in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, though, strangely the organisation has never had a base nor been invited to work in Scotland. Each trust is a charity with its own board that works with residents, local and regional government and businesses, and is supported at national level by Groundwork UK. While Groundwork began as an environmental
organisation, these days its approach – characterised in its slogan ‘people, places, prosperity’ – reflects the shift that has taken place across the regeneration sector from physical regeneration to social inclusion. Groundwork projects work with disadvantaged communities, and aim to build local people’s skills and confidence while improving the environment.
Changing Places, a five-year environmental scheme completed in 2001, was Groundwork’s largest national
pro-gramme so far. Twenty-one community-led projects transformed derelict areas into green space, creating 1,000 hectares of new land for community use. The Millennium Commission funded £22m of the project’s £55m costs –the organisation’s largest Lottery award.
Groundwork has also secured several six-figure tranches of funding from the Community Fund. In the latest award, announced last month, the Community Fund granted £356,000 to continue Young Voices, a project involving young people in decision-making, run in partnership with Save the Children. Sue Scott, who as Groundwork UK’s national development coordinator is responsible for Lottery bids, attributes this success to good preparation. ‘Where we’ve generally succeeded is to have a very clear focus, particularly with Community Fund applications. We’ve always tried to do prior research and consultation,’ she says.
Scott acknowledges that the resources available to Groundwork as a large, well-established organisation place it in a better position than small community groups when preparing Lottery bids. The organisation carries out research, consultation and even pilot projects which provide useful evidence of a scheme’s viability, and can strengthen the case on funding applications. ‘I don’t think we would get funding from the Lottery for
Distributors such as the Community Fund have been open to new projects that traditional sponsors would be reluctant to support
baseline research,’ she says. But she is keen to stress how distributors such as the Community Fund have been open to new projects that traditional sponsors would be reluctant to support. ‘The Lottery is perfect, because they will take that chance. They are great for ground-breaking innovative work,’ she says.
At trust level, getting Lottery funding can be more difficult. Groundwork Creswell, which covers the East Midlands and South Yorkshire, is one of the largest trusts. With 110 members of staff, its turnover of £3.7m for 2001-2002 is estimated to grow to £5.7m next year. Phil
Lakin, the funding manager, has recently begun to submit bids. ‘The main problem is the perception of Groundwork. The Lottery distributors see us as a green
organisation. They fail to see we can offer more than that,’ he says. The trust has had one success, however: last June the Heritage Lottery Fund awarded it £25,000 for a pilot scheme involving young people in conservation work.
Groundwork’s federal structure means that trusts have other routes to Lottery funding. Many benefit from the funding awarded nationally: as part of the Changing Places
programme, Groundwork Creswell received £1m towards the £3m it needed to create a country park in a disused colliery area. Lakin says the trust is also an ‘indirect recipient’ of Lottery funding through its close working with community groups. The trust is currently helping Miners’ Welfare Hillstown prepare an application to Sport England to create new sports facilities. If the community organisa-tion’s bid succeeds, the trust’s New Deal clients will find places on the project.
A report on Groundwork published by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation to mark its 21st anniversary in January found that the organisation was good at working with the most disadvantaged communities often neglected by other agencies. The study identified Groundwork’s key strengths as the high degree of local involvement achieved by its projects, and its wide-ranging partnership working. The research also found some weaknesses. Some trusts were reluctant to engage in detailed monitoring of their projects, while others failed to market themselves sufficiently. Lakin claims that Groundwork Creswell is ‘in a constant process of monitoring’, but concedes the criticism of poor publicity. ‘That’s certainly true of our trust,’ he says. ‘We’ve been told off in the past for that. We’re not good at coming forward.’ Groundwork’s national profile, given its size and longevity, is surprisingly low. Diane Jones, head of fundraising at the British Trust for Conservation Volunteers, which works with Groundwork, attributes this to the organisation’s focus on local communities. ‘Groundwork are the back-room boys who get the job done,’ she says. ‘When there’s publicity, everyone wants to read about the local group, but they don’t necessarily hear about the organisa-tion behind the group.’