Heritage Lottery Fund: 'Your Heritage' Grants
Grants between £3,000 and £50,000:
Programme Objectives
To qualify for a grant your project must:
- help people to learn about their own and other people's heritage (learning).
The project must also do either or both of the following:
- conserve the UK's diverse heritage for present and future generations to experience and enjoy (conservation);
- help more people, and a wider range of people, to take an active part in and make decisions about heritage (participation).
Eligibility
- Non-profit organisations including local authorities, educational institutions, voluntary associations and charities are all eligible to apply.
- Private owners can apply, but only for projects which create activities for the public to learn about and take part in heritage. These projects do not include conservation work.
Timetable
- This is a rolling funding programme.
- The HLF will normally make a decision within 10 weeks of receiving your completed application.
Criteria
- HLF 'Your Heritage' award grants between £3,000 and £50,000.
- Partnership funding is 'give as much as you can' but there must be a contribution to the project costs either in cash or 'in kind', for example, time, materials, premises.
- Projects with total projects over £50,000 need to have secured or have a realistic fundraising strategy to meet any shortfall.
- Projects can receive funding for up to 5 years (but in practice are more usually up to 3 years), which can be a mixture of both capital and revenue funding.
- HLF will assess, based on your application whether: your project is relevant to the UK's heritage; that your project meets HLF's aims for learning, conservation and participation; that your project is an appropriate response to a need and/or opportunity;, that the project is well planned and the proposals for managing it are sounds; that your organisation is capable of carrying out the project; and that the project is financially realistic and there is a clear need for Lottery funding.
For examples of the types of project funded see the case studies section
Application/Contact Details
HLF has Development Teams in each region and country office to offer pre-application advice. All potential applicants are strongly advised to take up this service. You can submit a pre-application advice form to the HLF online
Corporate Office Address:
7 Holbein Place, London, SW1W 8NR
Tel: 020 7591 6000
For contact details for the Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland Offices, and the nine English regional teams click here. Much more information about ther Heritage Lottery Fund, the grant schemes and previous grants awarded can be found on the website - www.hlf.org.uk.
Notes and Comments
- It is a light touch, low risk assessment process which means that the focus is on a desk assessment by the case officer, no visits are made and minimal further information is requested if all the supporting information required has been submitted
- HLF have revised the monitoring of this scheme so that it is less onerous on the recipient
- Grant awards are funded out of a regional, or home country, budget allocation
- HLF have produced a guidance note for archive projects entitled 'Archives, People and Communities' (this is also available in Welsh)
- see also Frequently Asked Questions section
