30 Years of The National Lottery: Transforming Communities and Changing Lives

There are moments when you realise you’re part of something much bigger—helping to carry forward the baton of history. Today, as we celebrate the 30th anniversary of The National Lottery and, as an organisation, The National Lottery Community Fund , we reflect on a legacy that we today announce has raised ￡50 billion in good causes across the UK. Truly game-changing.

A Look Back: 19th November 1994

Let’s step into a time machine back to 19th November 1994. It feels like a different era—before smartphones, social media, or even widespread internet. Amazon was still a rainforest, and mobile phones were more “brick” than “smart.” On Top of the Pops the night before, Nirvana and M-People ruled the charts. The Spice Girls were still some years from their debut.

Now, the National Lottery was the realisation of a vision that had been around some time. Elizabeth I held the original, in 1569, though it didn’t stick. Lotteries were occasionally used throughout history to fund projects, like the British Museum. In the late 1970s a Royal Commission looked into the idea of a national lottery but it wasn’t until 1994 that the John Major government made it a reality.

The first draw happened just before 8pm on 19 November 1994. More than 22 million people watched the Lottery that night, itself a shared experience of a different age. Noel Edmonds and Anthea Turner hosted - enjoy some footage below.

There was no app in those days. After the Lottery draw show, it was Casualty, then the 9 o’clock news. The thrill built up to a National Lottery live show telling you how many people had won. That night, seven jackpot winners got around ￡800,000 each in the first lottery draw.

The Start of The National Lottery Community Fund

That first night was exciting: talking to colleagues, many of us vividly recall being glued to the television set. While millions around the country dreamed of winning, something far greater began—the funding of good causes across the UK, which would grow into a ￡50 billion legacy of transformation.

The National Lottery Community Fund itself started as two organisations: The Millennium Commission and the National Lottery Charities Board. Both had the power to make grants to fund projects to mark the year 2000 and the beginning of the third millennium, and meet the expenditure of charities. A few years later, The National Lottery Act of 1998 created the New Opportunities Fund to award grants to projects focused on health, education and the environment.

The National Lottery Charities Board then changed its trading name, becoming the Community Fund. And, in 2006, under the new name – the Big Lottery Fund - the Community Fund, the New Opportunities Fund and the Millennium Commission were merged to create the organisation we are today.

Whatever name we’ve had, our purpose has remained the same: to support communities. It’s why, I think, as a national institution we have endured and become a key part of the fabric of life in England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland.

In these last three, the ‘community share’ (alongside sports, arts and heritage) has resulted in ￡18 billion in good cause funding. It has supported 290,000 projects. Projects that at any one point are benefitting more than 5 million people in our communities. And that continue: ideas for new work arrive every 3 minutes from a community somewhere in the UK.

The Impact of 30 Years: A Short History of The National Lottery Community Fund

How do you sum up 30 years of impact? It’s impossible to capture every story, but here are just a few examples that bring those numbers to life.

National Lottery Awards for All, which we recently doubled in scale, has a core part of our funding offer almost from the very start. It has provided grassroots funding to local community projects, and has been overwhelmingly our most popular grant form: roughly five in six National Lottery grants we make.

The projects funded in the run up to the Millennium included lots of major capital projects, like funding the building of 6,500 miles of cycle and walking routes, and the country’s largest canal restoration in restoring the Forth & Clyde and Union Canals and reopening the coast to coast waterway. In the southwest we funded the opening of the Eden Project, constructed on the site of a former clay pit.

For the 60th and 65th anniversary of D-Day, the Heroes Return programmes funded 55,000 veterans and their companions to visit places where they saw action.

There’s been a lot of innovation. We funded the world’s first social impact bond - on rehabilitation in Peterborough - and continued exploring their potential in the Life Chances Fund and other programmes.

We’ve backed campaigns and movements like #Iwill to support young people into social action, with Jo Cox Foundation and others on the scourge of loneliness, or the mass nature participation, Grow Wild.

We funded the creation of new bodies and institutions, like Nesta, Local Trust, and the Spirit of 2012.

We’ve been shoulder to the wheel on shifting agendas into the mainstream like lived experience, participatory grant-making, integrated multi-agency support, and community power. We’ve helped communities mark important national moments, like the Olympics, several Commonwealth Games, and the 70th anniversary of Windrush.

We’ve been there funding vital work through national crises and challenges like Covid-19 and cost of living. And throughout all this supporting the long, hard and often hidden work for the people in our communities and society who need help the most – refugees, homeless, those experiencing food and poverty relief, tackling domestic abuse, and more.

I could continue with a much longer history at this point. If you want to read more, my wonderful evidence and learning colleagues have published some case studies in story form here: Three decades of making a difference | The National Lottery Community Fund.

My summary: it’s been real stuff, with meaning and purpose that strengthens society and improves lives and is for the betterment of the communities we all live in and are part of.

My own story

I can also see the transformative impact in my own life.

I'm from Nottingham. In many ways, it’s a city where two halves of the country meet. People from Nottingham don’t need anyone outside to tell them the meaning of ‘place’. It’s deeply ingrained in our identity—from Robin Hood, the world’s oldest football club (as well as another), the Lace Market, Trent Bridge, the Left Lion, mining, D.H. Lawrence, cobs and jitties.

At the top of the hill where I lived was Gedling Colliery. It had stopped mining and shut only a few years before 1994. Living near industrial heritage evokes a mix of nostalgia, pride, loss, and change—feelings many communities across the UK can relate to.

This is what it looked like on 19th November 1994.

The Colliery is at the top of the hill. Halfway up that hill was the newsagent where I got a ticket. Some years after that 1994 evening, thanks to many partners with the National Lottery, Gedling Colliery has been transformed into Gedling Country Park. It has play areas, parks, nature trails that incorporate the mining heritage. It’s a wonderful space for the community, a vibrant hub of activity, a place that provided people with a lot of peace and tranquility during Covid and has continued to do so since.

And this is what it looks like now:

It’s one of countless examples of community transformation the National Lottery has made possible.

Nowadays, I live in Brixton, in south London. Contrary to the image I had of London growing up, this area has a strong community feel. I know a good hundred of my near neighbours by name and we do a lot together. It’s a bustling, diverse part of the country, though also with its fair share of poverty and need.

Here’s what The National Lottery and The National Lottery Community Fund has funded within roughly twenty minutes walk of my house. Each dot represents a project funded and story—a playground restored, a cultural archive preserved, a life in some way changed.

So, what do you see there? Plenty of National Lottery Awards for All grassroots projects. A Parks for People at Brockwell Park with the National Lottery Heritage Fund that created a children’s playground, paddling pool and wet play area, restored a historic walled garden and temple building, historic ponds, park paths, boundary railings and park entrances. And more recent work from our good colleagues at the Heritage Fund to re-develop Brockwell Hall.

You see rehabilitation at HM Prison Brixton: like the restaurant run by serving prisoners, Clinks, and theatre and arts work. You see the Black Cultural Archives, a captivating collection of black, culturally important material and artefacts. You see some vital community development work, like resident-led neighborhood work with Local Trust. You see some major capital investments in early years - the Jubilee Children’s Centre and stay at play facilities.

And these are just projects funded in the last ten years.?

Looking Forward: The Next Chapter

Today, on The National Lottery’s 30th birthday it’s a moment to celebrate and recognise the work communities have achieved. With our new strategy, we’re rooted in communities and committed to partnering for bigger, longer-term impact in the years ahead. I can’t wait for what’s to come as we deliver on our strategy between now and 2030, distributing at least ￡4 billion of further game changing funds.

We remain unapologetically focused on supporting grassroots community action. I recently met with one of some of the team at Newbigin Community Trust in Birmingham, where the fantastic Louise Jones summed it up perfectly:

“It’s about asking people what they want to do - and let’s make that happen.”?

?Watch this short video to find out about them and some of the amazing projects we’ve funded in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Share Your Story at 30 Years

But what about you? What does 1994 remind you of? How has The National Lottery impacted your community?

Let’s celebrate this milestone together. Share your reflections, memories, or stories of change in the comments below.

#ItStartsWithCommunity

#NationalLottery30