UK Government Launches Fund to Back Big Society Innovators

The UK Government has launched a new fund to find and back innovative new ideas for increasing volunteering and charitable giving.

A new £10million fund ($AUD15.4 million) was launched by the UK, Minister for Civil Society, Nick Hurd.

The Innovation in Giving Fund was recommended in the UK’s Giving White Paper published in May and forms part of a £34million package to increase levels of social action.

Minister Hurd says the fund breaks away from traditional government support to focus on new technologies and networks that can make it easier and more attractive for people to help each other.

Hurd says the fund wil;l seek out the visionary ideas that too often never get the backing they need.

The Innovation in Giving Fund will be managed by the National Endowment for Science Technology and the Arts (NESTA).

Chief Executive of NESTA Geoff Mulgan says the UK has remarkable traditions of innovation in giving, volunteering and sharing, but now new technologies and techniques are opening up possibilities that would have been unimaginable even a decade ago.

Muligan says they want to get the money to people doing the most imaginative work on the ground – but they also want to help them to be more ambitious about just how much impact their ideas can achieve.