National Lottery Heritage Grants £10,000 to £250,000

Open (ongoing) Archives and artefacts Arts, culture and heritage Buildings and built environment Built heritage Craft and design Cultural heritage Cultural, events and festivals environment Health promotion Health, wellbeing and sport Natural environment and climate organisational development social enterprise Social inclusion Social welfare and poverty Trading Antrim & Newtownabbey Ards & North Down Armagh City, Banbridge & Craigavon Belfast City Causeway Coast and Glens Derry City and Strabane England Fermanagh and Omagh Great Britain Lisburn and Castlereagh Mid and East Antrim Mid Ulster Newry, Mourne and Down Northern Ireland Scotland Wales Large (over £60,000) Medium (up to £60,000) Small (up to £10,000)

Track grant Notes

Overview

Investment principles

Four investment principles guide all their grant decision making under their 10-year strategy, Heritage 2033:

saving heritage
protecting the environment
inclusion, access and participation
organisational sustainability

You must take all four principles into account in your application. The strength of focus, and emphasis on each principle, is for you to decide and demonstrate.

The investment principles, and their strategic initiatives, will help them achieve their ambitions for heritage to be valued, cared for and sustained for everyone’s future.

What they fund

They fund projects that value, care for and sustain heritage for everyone across the UK, now and in the future.

Heritage can mean different things to different people. It can be anything from the past that you value and want to pass on to future generations.

This could include nature and habitats, historic buildings and environments, or cultures, traditions and people’s memories. Explore a wide range of the types of heritage that your project could include.

They fund projects that:

clearly focus on heritage – this can be national, regional or local heritage of the UK
take into account all four investment principles
have a clear plan with a defined start, middle and end
have not already started
can demonstrate the need for National Lottery investment

It is important to plan your project carefully, including costs, timescales and getting support for your project before you start to fill out an application.

Their heritage grants can support a broad range of activities and direct project costs, such as:

volunteer expenses, new staff posts and training costs
capital works, repair, maintenance and conservation
professional fees, event costs and activities to strengthen your organisation
acquisition of heritage and costs associated with the purchase
costs to join Fit for the Future, a UK-wide environmental sustainability network

Existing staff posts or organisational costs will not be covered unless calculated through Full Cost Recovery which means securing funding for all costs involved in running a project. So you can request funding for direct project costs and also for part of your organisation’s overheads.

Who can apply?

Under this programme, they accept applications from not-for-profit organisations, private owners of a heritage asset and partnerships.

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

charities, trusts and charitable incorporated organisations
community and voluntary groups
community/parish councils
community interest companies
faith-based or church organisations
local authorities
other public sector organisations
private owners of a heritage asset, for example a building, land, object or collection

Organisations need to have a bank account, a governing document, and two or more members that are not related or living at the same address.

If you are unsure whether you are eligible to apply, get in touch with your local team by submitting a Project Enquiry.

Partnerships

They encourage you to work with other people to develop and carry out your project. A partner is another organisation or third-party body that is integral to the delivery of your project.

Partners are not subcontractors. If you plan to work with any other organisations to carry out a significant proportion of your project you must formalise your relationship with a partnership agreement. See Guidance for further details.

Private owners of heritage

As a private owner of a heritage asset, for example a building, land, object or collection, you must demonstrate that the public benefit of your project outweighs any private gain.

If your project includes any capital work, you will need to show us that your project:

will significantly increase public access and public engagement with heritage
has clear public enthusiasm and support
needs National Lottery investment

If the owner of the heritage is not making the application, they will ask them to sign up to the terms and conditions of your grant.

Things you need to know

Your project must not start before they make a decision.
There is no deadline so you can apply whenever you are ready.
You can get advice on your project before you apply by submitting an optional Project Enquiry.
Once they receive your application and all the correct supporting documents, they will assess your application and aim to give you a decision in eight weeks.
Payments for this grant level are usually made in three stages: 50% in advance, 30% in advance, and then 20% in arrears.
They provide lots of good practice guidance. You can read the guidance that is relevant to you to help you develop and manage your project.