The Olympic Lottery Distributor (OLD) is tasked with ensuring the appropriate, timely and effective distribution of Lottery money to fund the facilities, infrastructure and services necessary or expedient, for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Over its lifetime, the OLD will utilise £1,835m of Lottery funds to ensure the successful delivery of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Since it was established in 2005, the OLD has granted funding to the Olympic Delivery Authority for the buildings and infrastructure for the Games; to LOCOG, for the Cultural Olympiad and the national network of Live Sites Screens; and to the East London Business Alliance for three community projects: Represent London, Transformers and In the Parks which are based in five of the Host 2012 boroughs.

When making grants the OLD seeks to ensure the principles of a lasting legacy and environmental and social sustainability. The OLD is accountable to Parliament and it seeks to ensure that best value is achieved with Lottery Players’ money. The OLD also strives to be transparent and details of its grant decisions can be found on the OLD website: www.olympiclottery2012.org.uk.

The OLD is providing £16.6m of National Lottery funding to the Cultural Olympiad, supporting a number of major projects and events across the United Kingdom which will be part of the Cultural Olympiad and its culmination, the London 2012 Festival. 

Specifically, National Lottery funds are supporting the following Cultural Olympiad projects and commissions:

World Shakespeare Festival

River of Music

Film Nation – the Film Nation Shorts project and a number of film commissions

Discovering Places – including a number of commissions across the UK: Lakes Alive: Les Commandos Percu; the Deborah Warner coastal installation; the Martin Creed Bells project; and the SistemaScotland/Big Noise project

Unlimited

Outdoor commissions including the East London Series and Olafur Eliasson