Friday 1st December was not a good day for FFLAG. We finally received a letter from the Big Lottery Fund, Reaching Communities.

Unfortunately our application for funding has not been successful and we will not be awarded any money from the Reaching Communities grant fund.

This is of course really disappointing news for FFLAG and means that our future is now in doubt as our existing funds will only last for about another six months.

It also means that our plans to expand and develop our work will have to be put on hold as we will not now be able to take on another member of staff or increase our range of publications to include family members other than parents.

Saddest of all it means that we do not, at present, have the funds to arrange another “networking day” for all the wonderful volunteers who give up their time for FFLAG and enable us to offer helplines and support groups across the UK. Previous events have proved both successful and beneficial to all who attended.

Despite a huge amount of hard work on the bid, including a one hour telephone interview with the Big Lottery our bid failed at the final assessment stage.

We were told that our bid had many good points but that there were other applications that better met the priorities and outcomes of the Reaching Communities fund.

The Reaching Communities fund is still open so it is possible that we will be able to amend our bid and reapply but without detailed feedback as to why our original application failed this will prove to be a challenge.

We still have another bid in to the Advice Plus stream of the Big Lottery. A decision on the first part of this process is expected by the end of May 2007, having been delayed from February 2007 due to the number of applications submitted. If we are successful at this stage we will be awarded a percentage of the grant to enable us to develop the work and produce a business plan. If the plan is approved then the whole grant will be awarded.

Whilst we wait for the Big Lottery Fund decision the search for alternative sources of funding will continue. The Board of Trustees are developing a five year plan for the future of FFLAG and this will include a fundraising strategy to give us long term sustainability.