PRESS RELEASES
6/12/2001
54 CHARITIES ARE THE FIRST TO BENEFIT FROM NATIONAL LOTTERY FUNDING
The first 54 charitable organisations, from across South Africa, to benefit from Lottery funding have been identified and are in line to receive R8million of the allocated funds from the National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund (NLDTF). And there’s more to come in the near future as more of the applications are adjudicated.

Over 2000 applications were received for Charities category of the NLDTF by the 18th May deadline. The Members of the Charities Distributing Agency met last weekend to adjudicate on 104 of the applications processed by the Central Applications Office. After deliberation, 54 applicants were found to meet the qualifying criteria and the successful organisations have access to R8million of the allocated funds in the NLDTF. Before funds can be electronically transferred to recipients, the banking account details will have to be verified and funding agreements completed. In some instances, specific projects will also be visited.

The names of first batch of recipients of National Lottery funding will be made public as soon as the verification process has been completed. The process of adjudication, for the rest of the applications received, will continue and announcements will follow each meeting of the Distributing Agency.

The qualifying criteria for funding were advertised on 25th March 2001. Organisations had 8 weeks in which to respond to the call and submit the prescribed application form duly completed with supporting documentation.

In order to access funding, charitable organisations had to show the risk of scaling down of operations, or closure, as a result of lack of finances. They also had to show that they are registered and that their audited accounts show sound financial management. Priority areas identified for this the first tranch were organisations catering for the needs of: children; youth; women; the aged; the disabled and people living with HIV/AIDS.