Heritage Grants

Overview

Under this programme, they fund applications from:

• Not-for-profit organisations
• Partnerships led by not-for-profit organisations.

If you are applying as a partnership, you will need to nominate a lead applicant. The lead applicant should provide a signed partnership agreement showing the involvement of each partner and how the project will be managed. If private owners or for-proit organisations are involved in a project, they expect public benefit to be greater than private gain.

Here are some examples of the types of organisations they fund:

• Community or voluntary groups
• Community Interest Companies
• Charities or trusts
• Social enterprises
• Community/parish councils
• Local authorities
• Other public sector organisations, such as nationally funded museums.

Heritage includes many diferent things from the past that they value and want to pass on to future generations, for example:

• Archaeological sites
• Collections of objects, books or documents in museums, libraries or archives
• Cultural traditions such as stories, festivals, crafts, music, dance and costumes
• Historic buildings
• Histories of people and communities
• Histories of places and events
• The heritage of languages and dialects
• Natural and designed landscapes and gardens
• People’s memories and experiences (oten recorded as ‘oral history’)
• Places and objects linked to our industrial, maritime and transport history
• Natural heritage including habitats, species and geology.

They fund projects that make a lasting difference for heritage, people and communities in the UK.

When they say project, they mean work or activity that:

• is defined at the outset;
• has not yet started;
• will take no more than five years to complete;
• will contribute to achieving the outcomes they describe.

Costs they can cover

Your application should include all costs that are directly incurred as a result of the project.

Direct project costs include:

• new staff posts to deliver the project;
• extra hours for existing staff to deliver the project;
• the cost of filling a post left empty by moving an existing member of staff into
• a post created for the project;
• payments/bursaries for trainees;
• professional fees;
• capital work;
• activities to engage people with heritage;
• evaluation;
• promotion; and
• extra costs for your organisation, such as a new phone, extra photocopying, new computers or extra rent.

Full Cost Recovery

For voluntary organisations, they can also accept part of an organisation’s overheads (sometimes called ‘core costs’) as a part of the costs of the project.

Your contribution

They ask you to make a contribution towards your project. The funder describes this as ‘partnership funding’ and it can be made up of cash,

volunteer time, non-cash contributions, or a combination of all of these. Some of your partnership funding must be from your own organisation’s resources.

If your project involves capital work, the value of increased future costs of management and maintenance for up to five years after practical completion can be included as partnership funding. This cannot be used

as your only partnership funding contribution from your own resources.

• If your total grant request is less than £1million, you must contribute at least 5% of the costs of your development phase and 5% of the costs of your delivery phase.
• If your total grant request is £1million or more, you must contribute at least 10% of the costs of your development phase and 10% of the costs of your delivery phase.

Grant requests over £100,000 and under £1million (including development funding)

First-round applications are assessed within three months, after which funding decisions are made at the next quarterly decision meeting.

Please note: the last deadline for applications for all grants over £100,000 under our current Strategic Framework will be 16 August 2018 for a decision in November or December 2018.

Second-round submissions must be received up to 24 months after the first-round decision. They are also assessed within three months, after which a decision is made at the next quarterly decision meeting for your area.

Deadlines

They must receive your first-round application and all supporting documents by:

• 4 December 2017 for a decision in March 2018
• 12 March 2018 for a decision in June 2018
• 18 June 2018 for a decision in September 2018
• 16 August 2018 for a decision in December 2018

Grant requests of over £1m and under £5m (including any development funding)

First- or second-round applications and all supporting materials must be received by:

• 7 December 2017 for a decision in March 2018
• 15 March 2018 for a decision in June 2018
• 14 June 2018 for a decision in September 2018
• 16 August 2018 for a decision in December 2018

Later dates for second round applications to be agreed with your local office.

Second-round application and supporting materials must be received by one of the dates set out above for grant requests of £1m - £5m. Second-round applications can be submitted up to 24 months after first-round approval.

Grant requests of £5m and over

First-round applications and all supporting materials must be received by 1 December 2017 for a decision in April 2018.

They will not be funding grants requests of £5m and over (Major Batch) in 2019, so there will be no deadline in 2018.

Second-round applications can be submitted up to 24 months after first-round approval.

Previous Grants

For a database of awarded projects, visit the website here

For FAQ's visit the website here

For further information email northernireland@hlf.org.uk or telephone 028 9031 0120.