FREE HelpDesk
0800 2 798 798

Olympic Lottery Campaign

NCVO believes that the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games are an exciting opportunity for the capital and the rest of the country, providing thousands of volunteering opportunities and the potential for urban and environmental regeneration of local communities.

However, we remain concerned about the impact of the Olympics on lottery proceeds for good causes. Voluntary and community organisations doing vital work throughout the UK should not lose out to the rising costs of the infrastructure for the Games - an event that should unite us all.

Latest news

16 January 2008: The campaign by NCVO, Voluntary Arts Network, CCPR and Heritage Link secured a firm commitment from Government on 15 January that it would make no further raids on the National Lottery to fund the 2012 Olympic Games. Whilst we remain concerned about the continuing diversion of good cause funds, the Minister’s announcement means that we have a firm commitment that will ensure that Lottery funding is protected.
25 May 2007: The Government has published its response to the petition on the Lottery raid to pay for the Olympics. Whilst NCVO welcomes the commitment that the voluntary and community sector's funding from the Big Lottery Fund will be protected - we remain concerned about the impact of the further diversion upon arts, sports and heritage charities and community groups.
23 April 2007: Arts, sports and heritage organisations have united today with NCVO to oppose the diversion of further Lottery funds to the 2012 Olympics. The Guardian gave front page coverage to the campaign and further coverage in the newspaper, including a comment piece by Jackie Ashley and an editorial comment. The joint press statement from NCVO, the Voluntary Arts Network, CCPR and Heritage Link outlines our concerns about the impact of the Lottery diversion on arts, sports and heritage charities and community groups.
16 April 2007: The Culture Secretary, Tessa Jowell, responded in yesterday's Observer to criticism that money is being diverted from the arts to fund the Olympics. In the article, the Culture Secretary states that this diversion should be seen as "more of a loan than a withdrawal". She continues: "Ken Livingstone and I have agreed that after the Olympics, when much of the land is sold, the first call on any profit will be to repay the lottery."
22 March 2007: Following the Government's announcement that £675m of Lottery funds will be diverted to the 2012 Olympics, NCVO is working with Voluntary Arts Network, CCPR and Heritage Link to ensure that charities and community groups that receive funding from the arts, sports and heritage Lottery distributors are not adversely affected. This was mentioned briefly in Professional Fundraising's story on the Olympic funding announcement.
15 March 2007: NCVO has welcomed a commitment from the Government today that voluntary and community sector funds from the Big Lottery Fund will be protected. This includes both existing programmes and future resources for the sector. The Culture Secretary, Tessa Jowell, told Parliament that "it is the Government's intention that no existing lottery project need be affected, and we have also agreed with the Big Lottery Fund that resources to the voluntary sector will be protected. They will continue to receive £2bn from the Big Lottery Fund between now and 2012."
The Third Sector Minister, Ed Miliband, also released a statement. This confirmed: "The Government and Big Lottery Fund have protected resources earmarked for the third sector and a transfer of £425 million will instead come from the third of Big Lottery Fund resources which would have gone to statutory agencies."
The Big Lottery Fund's statement says that "the Government has confirmed there will be no further diversion from our good cause".
NCVO would like to thank the thousands of individuals and organisations that signed the petition, wrote to their MP and to Government ministers and sent postcards to the Chancellor. Your campaigning ensured that this commitment was secured. In particular we would like to highlight the important role of NAVCA.
It is now vital that we hold the Government to this commitment. We remain concerned that arts, sports and heritage charities and community groups may lose out as a result of the diversion and are seeking further details on exactly how this commitment will be kept.
We have therefore set three tests for the Government. They must make assurances that there will be no further raid on Lottery funds; that any diversion of Lottery funds from the statutory sector will not have a serious knock on effect for charities and community groups; and that they will commit to dialogue to ensure that arts, sports and heritage charities and community groups are not adversely affected by the Lottery diversion.
21 February 2007: New polling by YouGov has demonstrated that the public support our campaign. Over two thirds of people polled did not believe that any further Lottery good cause funds should be diverted to meet the increased cost of the Games.
2 February 2007: The National Audit Office has reported today that the "cannibalisation" of Lottery funds by the Olympics will be £135m greater than expected. This is because Olympic lottery games are expected to reduce the money available to other good causes by diverting sales from the mainstream Lottery games. The report also states that a major risk to the success of the 2012 Games is the lack of a final agreed budget. More details can be found in the Telegraph and the Guardian. As the Financial Times states: "The revision will increase the pressure on the chancellor not to raid the lottery any further to fund the cost overruns".
24 January 2007: The House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee's report, "London 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games: funding and legacy", has been published today. As expected, the cross party committee of MPs warns the Government against any further raid of the National Lottery to fund the increased cost of the Games.