What are the 25th Birthday National Lottery Awards?
24th July 2019
Ever wondered what happens to the millions of pounds raised by National Lottery Players each week? It goes to thousands of amazing projects around the UK aimed at helping communities. Across the UK there are more than 565,000 projects and the awards celebrate your favorites. There's a lot to know about The National Lottery Awards, so we’ve answered some of the big questions below.
What are The National Lottery Awards?
The National Lottery Awards are an annual search for the UK’s best National Lottery funded projects. These projects are chosen by you, the public. In previous years, projects such as the Taxi Charity and Grow Wild have been among the winners
The Awards start in February with nominations. Anyone can nominate a National Lottery funded project of their choice. From parks and local community centres to apps and sports clubs. Anyone who has received any amount of National Lottery funding can enter.
Voting starts on July 24th after a panel of experts have whittled all the nominations down to 50 special projects, the public can then vote for their winner! The winner in each category wins £10,000 for their project and gets to appear on a special BBC One Awards show!
How many awards are won at The National Lottery Awards?
There are now 4 awards to be won at The National Lottery Awards in 2018. The awards are:
Arts, Culture and Film award
Sports Award
Heritage Award
Community & Charity Award
There are also awards for individuals, who have done amazing things thanks to National Lottery players. They are:
Sporting Legend
Young Achiever
Lifetime Achievement
Special Recognition
There are also some local awards that are given to some amazing local projects and people. We’ll tell you more about those, later in the year.
Wow! That Sporting Legend category looks new... Tell me more:
Well, it’s kind of new… The Sporting Legend is the natural change to the Athlete of the Year category. We made the change because we are celebrating our 25th Birthday and wanted to celebrate all of the athletes we have funded throughout the years as well as the ones we have now. Did you know that since National Lottery funding started for athletes in 1997, Team GB have gone on to win over 860 medals at the Olympic and Paralympic games?
The National Lottery has helped to fund some amazing names in sport like Olympic Gold Medal winner Jess Ennis-Hill, Tour De France winner Geraint Thomas and IBF, WBA and WBO world heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua.
The 12 Athletes competing in the Sporting Legend category are all well deserving not only for their sporting prowess and legacy, but for inspiring the next generation too.
You can check out the 12 finalists in the Athlete of the Year category at www.lotterygoodcauses.org.uk/awards
When do the National Lottery Awards happen?
You can watch the National Lottery Awards on BBC One in November. On the awards show, you’ll not only get to see all of the winning projects but also meet the amazing people behind them.
If you can't wait until then, you can watch last year’s National Lottery Awards on YouTube
You’ll be able to get a behind the scenes peek at the amazing celebs and projects that come out to celebrate the great people behind some inspirational projects.
How can I get involved in The National Lottery Awards?
If you play the National Lottery, then you're already a part of The National Lottery Awards by funding all these amazing projects. So far, you’ve raised more than £40 billion so thank you!
You can get even more involved by voting for your favourite local National Lottery funded projects on social media and watching the awards itself in November. You can also vote on Twitter too! Dont forget to click "tweet my vote" at the end of voting on the website.
If you are a National Lottery funded project, this year's awards are now closed for new entries but set a reminder in your calendar, nominations and entries will start again soon!
To keep informed about The National Lottery’s good causes all year round, follow @LottoGoodCauses on Twitter or sign up to our newsletter here: