Funding from the Scottish Children’s Lottery continues to make a meaningful difference to children and young people across Scotland.
In 2025, nearly £500,000 was distributed to good causes, taking the total raised since 2016 to over £9.3 million. This funding helped support 165 charities and reached an estimated 40,000 children and young people in communities across the country.
The projects supported are wide-ranging, from grassroots sports clubs and educational initiatives to organisations tackling poverty, improving wellbeing and helping young people build confidence, skills and brighter futures.
Scottish Children’s Lottery funding is raised in Scotland and stays in Scotland, supporting the communities where our players live and work. By keeping our funding flexible, we allow charities to tell us what they need most and respond directly to the challenges facing the children and families they support.
As demand for funding continues to grow, this support has never been more important. Every pound raised helps keep vital services running, opportunities open and support accessible to young people across Scotland.
£9.3M
raised for good causes
1000+
grants awarded to charities
300,000+
children & young people supported
Strange Town is a Leith-based youth theatre that has spent over 17 years helping young people build confidence, creativity and self-belief.
Last year, the charity reached over 1,800 young people across its activities, giving many of them access to experiences that can shape their confidence, skills and future opportunities.
With a £6,000 grant from the Scottish Children’s Lottery, Strange Town has been able to keep its Youth Theatre for All project running, giving young people aged 5 to 18 the chance to take part in theatre, regardless of their family’s financial circumstances.
Many of the young people supported live in areas of Leith where child poverty is high. For families already stretched by everyday costs, activities such as drama and performance can quickly become unaffordable. Scottish Children’s Lottery funding helps remove that barrier by supporting staff costs, bursaries, equipment and venue hire, allowing activities to be fully subsidised or offered free.
More than 190 young people now take part in weekly sessions at accessible local venues, led by professional directors. These sessions help participants develop performance skills, make friends and grow in confidence.
The results are powerful. Last year, 100% of participants said they made new friends, while 95% reported improved confidence and 95% said they were proud of what they had achieved.
For many young people, Strange Town is far more than a theatre group. It is a place to belong, express themselves and discover what they are capable of.
Strange Town changed my life. I developed confidence, social skills, the ability to work in a team, how to perform under pressure and many more important life skills.”
For young people growing up on Lewis and Harris, the path into work, training or further education can be especially challenging.
Food costs are higher than on the mainland, transport links are limited, and social isolation has increased since the pandemic. For young people with additional support needs, mental health challenges, neurodivergent conditions or learning difficulties, those barriers can feel even harder to overcome.
With a £9,050 grant from the Scottish Children’s Lottery, Volunteering Hebrides has been able to create the Building Futures Hebrides Work Experience and Learning Academy. The programme supports young people aged 12 to 21 who need extra help to build confidence, develop skills and take their next steps.
Delivered in cohorts across the year, the programme combines group workshops, one-to-one support, activity weeks, volunteering opportunities, accredited qualifications and practical work experience. By the end of the grant period, three cohorts will have completed the programme, supporting eight young people aged 12 to 16 and twenty young adults aged 17 to 21.
The impact is already clear. One participant, who had repeatedly been knocked back by employers, arrived with very low confidence and often apologised before speaking. With patient support, they now volunteer weekly and have progressed into a front-of-house role.
Another young person, who struggled with social anxiety, gradually began joining team activities, speaking with volunteers and building confidence through regular support.
For Volunteering Hebrides, the programme is not just about employability. It is about giving young people someone in their corner, helping them recognise their strengths and opening up possibilities for the future.
“We’ve watched their confidence transform – from apologising before every sentence to confidently taking on a front of house volunteering role. It’s been a privilege to see them grow.”
We’re supporting hundreds of good causes across Scotland every year.
We’re always trying to find ways to support organisations at all levels to get a little bit extra out of the extraordinary work that they do.
For this reason, the Scottish Children’s Lottery has launched our latest Impact Report. Created with one goal in mind: showcasing how flexible funding is making a tangible difference for grassroots charities, which in 2025 alone allowed us to distribute £486k to support 165 charities and reach an estimated 40,000 children across Scotland.
You can find out more about the incredible projects we support, our journey to passing £9 million raised since 2016, and our push to hit the £10 million milestone by downloading the 2025 Impact Report. You can also review the specific funding distributions from previous years by downloading our Grant Awards document.
Download the 2025 Impact Report
See the Charities We’ve Helped Support
Charities supporting children in Scotland can apply for grants via our charity website at Jackpot Community Trust (Charity Number SC052059) who manage and distribute the good cause funding generated through the Scottish Children’s Lottery.
The charity has a group of trustees that will determine which applications will be successful for funding.
To be eligible to apply for a Jackpot Community Trust grant, applying organisations should meet the following criteria:
Charities are asked to have a level of match funding in place to support their project or activity, however this isn’t essential.
We will not fund:
For further details about prizes, proceeds and grants, please visit our More Information page.
