Lottery handouts - ideas please!

[Tealeaf]

Once again, I choked on my cornflakes while reading this:


http://www.kingstonguardian.co.uk/ne...reepress.co.uk

The amount of money in question is £268,000! Yep...that's two hundred and sixty eight thousand quid to find out why someone has thrown a few 'owd slippers up a tree.

Now, if they can get this amount of dosh over in the Chilterns, imagine what we could get in Hyndburn...half a million to find out why your wheelies ain't emptied...a million to discover the mystery of the Broadway pound shops. Can we think of something - the crazier it is, the more likely we can get some cash. I'm sure Gayle can handle the application form.

[Gayle]

Yep, certainly seems like the dafter the idea the more chance it has of getting funding.

In its defense - and I have no idea why I feel obliged to defend it - but I feel I must - the money that they get will go in to the local community. People look at the (ridiculous?) amounts of money given to projects and don't realise who the real beneficiaries are.

I don't know enough about this project so am only guessing but would imagine that local people will earn money by working on the project i.e. writers, workshop tutors, printers, etc, might even be a local book binder who'll benefit from the project.

When organisations or groups get funding for these projects it isn't for that organisation or group to make a profit, it's for them to pay for the project to be run.

I'll illustrate it with a project that I do know about - International Women's Week events. Hyndburn Women's Forum applied for the money but they didn't keep any of it for profit they spent it on local suppliers or tutors. We had a budget of £9,500 - people who benefitted included - 6 manicurists who worked for a morning, 5 artists who worked for a full day, 6 workshop tutors who provided dance activities, local design company that produced the display panels, printers who produced the leaflets and literature, toy shops who we bought the games off, Lidl who we bought tea and coffee from, room hire at venues (providing staff employment), local caterer who provided lunch, etc etc

What I'm trying to say is that a lot of local people benefit from this type of money coming into an area.

Anyway, as for the tree project - yes it sounds daft but sometimes the dafter ideas are more likely to get funding because they're original, quirky and more likely to get press attention (case in point!).

Come up with an idea and I'll give it a go!

[Basher]

No ideas here I'm afraid but, I'd just like to say that this is one of the reasons why I don't do the lottery.