Our Responsibilities The Good Causes
Each week Camelot generates over £30 million for good causes in the UK.
We are not responsible for allocating these funds – instead, this money is distributed through 13 independent lottery distribution bodies (see http://www.lotteryfunding.org.uk/uk/lottery-funders-listing.htm for further detail) that decide which good causes will receive funding, and determine the size of their grants.
Since we began operating The National Lottery in the UK, our players have raised over £25 billion for good causes, with more than 350,000 individual awards made across the country – an average of 119 lottery grants for every postcode district. Around half the money raised for good causes has gone to projects involving health, education, environment, and charities, with the remaining half supporting sports, the arts and heritage projects.
Supporting the projects that mean most to communities
Good causes money raised by the National Lottery supports thousands of health projects across the country. The Little Havens Children’s Hospice in Essex is just one example, providing respite breaks, symptom control and end-of-life care to children and teenagers who are not expected to reach adulthood. The care these children receive is free of charge and tailored to the child, making the service a lifeline for families in the area.
A Lottery grant helped to fund nursing care, paying the salaries of eight full-time nurses for three years. Thanks to the grant, the hospice was able to offer 24-hour nursing care, complementary, music and play therapies, sibling support services and holistic family support.
“We don’t only meet the child’s medical needs,” explains Head of Care Lauren Summers. “We also meet all spiritual and holistic needs. It’s about quality of life rather than length. We put a lot of emphasis on fun.”
Supporting the Olympic and Paralympic dream
The National Lottery is contributing up to £2.2 billion towards the funding of the infrastructure of the London 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games. Of this, £750 million will come from sales of designated lottery games.
Through mainstream funding, The National Lottery enables Britain's elite competitors to train as full-time professionals, and is building a network of junior talent programmes. All 19 Team GB gold medal winners at the Beijing Olympic Games were lottery-backed, and The National Lottery is providing £321 million to fund potential Team GB and Paralympics GB athletes to compete at future games.
