Deadline: Ongoing Opportunity
Creative Scotland is inviting applications to support organisations who seek funding to undertake creative activity such as a specific project or production, a programme of creative work, or a period of research and development.
Purpose
- The National Lottery Open Fund for Organisations is an update of the Open Fund: Sustaining Creative Development Fund which Creative Scotland administered between 2020 and early 2023.
- The fund can also support business change and development projects, such as those that make the organisation more financially sustainable or focus on broader organisational development.
- They expect this will be a highly competitive fund that is aiming to support a wide range of activity. To make informed decisions about which activity to support they require applicants to provide them with a level of detail so as to enable them to make the best decisions in accordance with the published criteria.
Funding Information
- Eligible organisations can apply for funding between £1k and £100k for projects or programmes lasting up to 18 months.
Funding Criteria
- There are six main funding criteria that they will look for in an application – five of these are mandatory and one is optional. Applicants will be required to tell them about how their plans will address the following:
- Quality and Ambition: supporting people and organisations working in art and creativity to make work of quality and ambition that enriches life in Scotland for everyone.
- Engagement: ensuring more people from all parts of society access, participate in and value a range of artistic and creative activities.
- Equalities, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI): supporting a more diverse range of creative people, communities, and activity, and promoting an equality of opportunity to create, participate and engage.
- Environmental Sustainability: helping tackle the climate emergency and supporting the growth of sustainable creative businesses and organisations across Scotland.
- Fair Work: promoting fair pay, conditions, and employment opportunities across the creative sector.
- International (optional only for applications involving international activity): developing innovative and sustainable ways of strengthening international collaboration and promoting artistic and cultural exchange
What the fund cannot support?
- There are some specific activities that they are not able to support through this fund. Again this list is not exhaustive.
- Activity which is not directly related to the Creative Scotland’s remit to support the arts, creative and cultural sector.
- Activities which have already happened or are scheduled to begin before they reach a decision on your application.
- Start-up business costs for new companies, and/or ongoing running costs at profit-distributing companies.
- Film, screen or TV industry projects or activity: Production and distribution of creatively-driven live-action, animated and documentary feature films or broadcast content intended for commercial UK and/or International distribution through any platform are ineligible for support through this fund and organisations seeking funding for these projects should visit Screen Scotland’s website. If the project relates to artists’ film, or video, animation and audio content where film/video/animation/ audio is the medium for the artist’s work (for example, visual artists’ film, creative documentary that involves artists, dance for/on screen, spoken-word films, creative podcasts, artist-led radio drama, and sound art) then organisations are eligible to apply through this fund.
- Activity which is related to academic studies in Further or Higher Education, including funding for activity led by or involving full-time students, funding for FE/ HE tuition fees, or projects which are part of an accredited course or core curriculum activity.
Eligible Activities
- Examples of the types of activity that the fund can support are below. It is not exhaustive and is provided to give applicants an indication of the types of activity that can be applied for.
- The development, curation, production, presentation, of new work
- Networking and collaborative opportunities
- Research and development
- Organisational development activity, where the activity is likely to contribute to greater organisational sustainability, greater public engagement, greater environmental sustainability or the development of knowledge/skills within the organisation
- Professional development including training, mentoring, skills development for staff, board, artists and creative workers
- Activity that supports artists and addresses inequalities
- Audience development
- Widening participation and engagement in creative activity
Eligibility Criteria
- Any type of constituted artistic, creative or cultural organisation based in Scotland can apply, but as the funding comes from the National Lottery, and is intended to support activity that maximises public benefit, any project that seeks support for commercial activity where the primary purpose is to create a profit is unlikely to be successful.
- Organisations based outside Scotland but operating with a UK-wide remit, can apply if the funding is for activity taking place in Scotland, and which will be of direct benefit to people in Scotland.
- All other applicants based outside Scotland can only consider applying for support if they are delivering activity that takes place in Scotland, they are working with Scotland-based partners, and they are able to demonstrate that their work is directly benefiting those based here.
- All applicant organisations must have a UK bank account in the same name as the applicant organisation.
Ineligible
- Please note that the following is not definitive and if you have any queries about your organisation’s eligibility to apply to this fund, please contact the Enquiries Service before starting your application:
- Organisations seeking funding for activity which is not part of Creative Scotland’s remit and is not related to the arts, cultural and creative sector.
- Creative Scotland’s Regularly Funded Organisations (RFOs). An RFO can be cited as a partner in an application made by another organisation to the National Lottery Open Fund for Organisations – but RFOs cannot apply and should not be the main beneficiary of any funding awarded.
- Organisations based outside Scotland seeking funding for activity taking place outside Scotland.
- Organisations in administration, receivership and liquidation.
- Unconstituted artists’ groups, collectives or bands (these should apply through the Open Fund for Individuals). The National Lottery Open Fund for Organisations fund requires evidence of a constituted structure – this may include types such as a partnership, a company limited by guarantee, a registered charity, a Scottish Community Interest Organisation or a Community Interest Company.
- Individuals and Sole Traders (these should apply to the Open Fund for Individuals).
For more information, visit Creative Scotland.