National Lottery Heritage Grants (£250,000 to £10million) is sponsored by The National Lottery Heritage Fund. Similar to the smaller grants, this program supports all types of heritage projects in the UK. Larger scale digital transformation or innovative engagement through digital platforms with potential ecommerce elements might be considered.

National Lottery Heritage Grants £250,000 to £10million | The National Lottery Heritage Fund National Lottery Heritage Grants £250,000 to £10million National Lottery Heritage Grants £250,000 to £10million National Lottery Heritage Grants £250,000 to £10million Expression of Interest: £250,000 to £10million Application questions: £250,000 to £10million Application deadlines: National Lottery Heritage Grants over £250,000 Receiving your grant: £250,000 to £10million Standard Terms of Grant: £250,000 to £10million National Lottery Heritage Grants £250,000 to £10million We fund projects that connect people and communities to the national, regional and local heritage of the UK.

National Lottery Heritage Grants is our funding programme for all types of heritage projects in the UK. Use this guidance to apply for grants from £250,000 to £10m. You must first submit an Expression of Interest and, if you are successful, we will invite you to apply.

Your application will usually go through two phases: a development phase of up to two years, enabling you work on your project proposal, and a delivery phase of no more than five years. If you think a two phase application is not right for your project, please contact your local office to discuss. Is this the right programme for you?

Is your organisation looking to care for and sustain heritage in the UK? Will your heritage project run for no more than five years (excluding the development phase)? Do you require a grant of between £250,000 and £10m?

Are you a not-for-profit organisation or a partnership led by a not-for-profit organisation? Does your project take into account our four investment principles? If you answered yes to these questions, then National Lottery Heritage Grants could be for you.

Our investment principles Four investment principles guide all our grant decision making under our 10-year strategy, Heritage 2033: 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 our strategic initiatives , will help us achieve our ambitions for heritage to be valued, cared for and sustained for everyone’s future. Your project must not start before we make a decision. You must first submit an Expression of Interest to tell us about your idea, and we will let you know if you are invited to apply.

Deadlines for development and delivery applications are quarterly Once we receive your application and all the correct supporting documents, we will assess your application within 12 weeks and, following assessment, it will be assigned to the next scheduled decision meeting. For grants under £1m, you must contribute at least 5% of your project costs. For grants over £1m, you must contribute at least 10% of your project costs.

Payments for development grants under £250,000 are made in three stages: 50% in advance, 30% in advance, and then 20% in arrears. Payments for development grants over £250,000, and all delivery grants, are made in arrears. We provide lots of good practice guidance .

We recommend that you read the guidance that is relevant to you to help you develop and manage your project. We may consider applications for over £10m for truly exceptional heritage projects. If this applies to your project, you should contact your local office to discuss this.

Explore our position and advice on using artificial intelligence (AI) tools in your grant application. We 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.

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 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.

The guidance below will help you think about what you should include in your project and the costs we can cover.

Our 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 We cannot cover existing costs or any activity that has taken place before the grant is awarded, or anything that promotes the cause or beliefs of political or faith organisations.

We will not support projects that include installing artificial grass or plants, however specialist play safety surfacing and professional sports surfaces are allowed. Some projects seek to achieve economic growth by investing in heritage. We call these Heritage Enterprise projects .

The maximum you can apply for under heritage enterprise is £5m. If your project will take place in Wales, you must include the Welsh language in all aspects of your work. Tell us how you will promote and support the Welsh language and reflect the bilingual nature of Wales.

Make sure that translations are included in your project plan and project budget under the ‘Other’ costs category within the project costs section of the application. For further information see our Welsh bilingual project guidance . Promotion and acknowledgment of funding Acknowledging your grant from the Heritage Fund is an important part of your project.

It is your opportunity to show how National Lottery funding is being used to support heritage in the UK, and to publicly thank National Lottery players for making your project possible. Planning early, and allocating appropriate budget, will help you to meet our requirements and acknowledge your grant in ways that are creative and suited to your project.

Please include budget for acknowledgement in the ‘Publicity and promotions’ costs category within the application project costs section of the application. We recommend you base these costs on quotes from potential suppliers.

If your grant is for more than £1m towards a new exhibition space, visitor centre, community garden or other public facility, we would also like to discuss how The National Lottery might best be incorporated into the name of the space or site. Use our acknowledgement guidance to plan your activities proportionate to the size of your grant.

Good quality evaluation helps you understand your impact and provides the opportunity for others to learn from your experience. In turn, this information helps us identify the difference we are making through our grants. We recommend you build in evaluation from the beginning of your project.

Our evidence shows that the more carefully projects budget for their evaluation, the higher the quality of the final report. You will need to include budget for evaluation and reporting in the ‘Evaluation’ costs category within the project costs section of your application, for both development and delivery phases. We encourage you to consider opportunities for people to develop skills as part of your project.

This could include young people, those not in training or employment, and people not currently working in the heritage sector.

heritage skills, where there are gaps, shortages or skills at risk of being lost, such as traditional crafts, building skills or digitisation organisational skills, including project management, business development, leadership or governance skills for climate adaptation and supporting net zero You may also consider developing a skills programme, which aims to diversify the heritage workforce and support a wider range of volunteers.

You can include budget for skills development using the ‘training for staff’ and ‘training for volunteers’ cost categories within the project costs section of the application. If you are an organisation in the voluntary sector (for example, you might have a board of trustees and be funded by grants and donations), we can cover a proportion of your organisation’s overheads through full cost recovery.

Full cost recovery means securing funding for all the costs involved in running a project. This means that you can request funding for direct project costs as well as a proportionate share of your organisation’s fixed costs.

This may include costs that partly support the project, but also support other projects or activities that your organisation provides, such as salaries of staff working across projects in administration, management, HR, or fundraising, office costs such as rent or utilities and legal or audit fees.

Funding that covers some of your running costs can be important for your sustainability, so we encourage you to consider including this in your budget in the ‘Full cost recovery’ costs category if you are eligible. Recognised guidance on calculating the full cost recovery amount that applies to your project is available from organisations such as The National Lottery Community Fund .

Your contribution to project costs You must contribute towards the costs of your project at this grant level. This is known as partnership funding and it can be made up of cash, non-cash contributions, volunteer time or a combination of all of these. We use a standard rate of £20 per hour to calculate volunteer time.

If your project involves capital works, you can include the increased future costs of managing and maintaining the heritage for up to five years after practical completion as partnership funding. For grant requests between £250,000 and £1m: You must provide at least 5% of the costs of the development phase and at least 5% of the costs of the delivery phase as partnership funding.

For grant requests between £1m and £10m: You must provide at least 10% of the costs of the development phase and at least 10% of the costs of the delivery phase as partnership funding. If your project is receiving funding from other National Lottery distributors (for example, the Community Fund) this can count as partnership funding, but it cannot count towards your minimum contribution of 5% or 10%.

If you are providing the minimum required partnership funding, or you are unable to provide any partnership funding, you will need to explain why in your application. We will then consider your case for the amount of grant requested as part of our assessment. Under this programme, we accept applications from not-for-profit organisations and partnerships led by not-for-profit organisations.

Here are some examples of the types of organisations we can fund: charities, trusts and charitable incorporated organisations community and voluntary groups community/parish councils community interest companies faith-based or church organisations other public sector organisations 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 an Expression of Interest . We 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. They will take on an active role in the project and will be involved in the project. They will help to report on progress, attend regular partnership meetings and support project evaluation.

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. You must first submit an Expression of Interest and, if you are successful, we will invite you to apply. You will have 12 months in which to submit an application.

If we are not inviting you to apply, we will explain our reason. You must wait three months before you submit a new Expression of Interest. Your application will be in competition with other projects in both the development and delivery phases.

A development grant award does not guarantee that you will receive a delivery grant award. Your application should usually include a development phase to help you work on your project proposal. You should include detailed information about this phase and outline proposals for your delivery phase.

The development phase allows you to gain a better understanding of the costs, resources, timeline and the needs of your audiences. You should use this information to create detailed proposals for your delivery phase application. You may take up to two years to complete this phase.

The development phase is likely to include: consultation with people outside your organisation a review of your governance, business planning and any legal issues detailed design and planning work any surveys or investigations needed Reviewing your development phase We will review your project during this phase to see how you are progressing with your delivery phase application.

For projects involving capital works, we will look at your plans when they are in line with RIBA work stage 2.

The main purpose of the review is to confirm that: the project is developing well and is following the approved purposes costs and partnership funding updates indicate a viable project there is a draft conservation plan for projects involving capital works for land or buildings The review also provides the opportunity to review any significant changes and highlight any areas where further work is needed.

If there are serious concerns, your project may fail the review and we will recommend that you do not submit a delivery phase application. We will discuss your delivery phase application with you during your development phase. You should provide detailed information about your delivery phase proposals in your application.

If you are awarded a delivery grant, you will have up to five years to complete your project unless we have agreed a longer project duration with you. There are quarterly deadlines for development and delivery phase applications.

In exceptional circumstances, we may consider a fast-track application process, if there is a compelling need for a faster decision (for example, if you have an opportunity to buy a heritage item at an auction but need to move quickly). If you think this applies to your project, you should contact your local office to discuss this.

Use this checklist to make sure you are ready to apply: I have read the application guidance and application questions I have read the terms of grant for this programme I have submitted an Expression of Interest We aim to respond to your Expression of Interest within 20 working days. If you are successful, we will invite you to make a full application.

Please note: an invitation to apply does not guarantee a grant from us in the future, but it does show that we see potential in your initial proposal.

Step two (if my Expression of Interest is successful, and I am invited to apply): I have drawn up a project plan and budget and checked my costings I have prepared all the mandatory supporting documents including my organisation’s accounts I have considered any permissions or licences I will need, for example a bat licence or listed building consent I have planned how to evaluate my project I have planned how to acknowledge my grant, if my application is successful Apply for or manage funding for a heritage project .

You will need to provide relevant supporting documents, outlined in this section, as part of the application process. Some documents are required during the development phase of your project, while others are required during the delivery phase. You will also need to provide updated versions of some of the documents provided with your development phase application as part of your delivery phase application.

Not all of the other documents listed below will apply to your project. The additional information and the application questions guidance will help you decide if they are relevant. Please do not submit any extra documents, as we will not use them in assessment.

Additional supporting documents are required for applications that refer to Heritage Enterprise projects. Additional supporting documents may be required for applications that involve acquisitions. See further information in the Acquiring buildings, land or heritage items section.

Development phase supporting documents You must provide the following mandatory documents: a governing document (unless exempt) a timetable for both the development and delivery phases a risk register for the development and delivery phases a document outlining the main risks after the project is complete a detailed cost breakdown for the development phase your organisation’s current business plan Governing document (for example, constitution) You must provide a copy of your organisation’s governing document.

You must have at least two people on your board or management committee who are not related by blood or marriage, or living at the same address.

Your governing document should include the following: the legal name and aims of your organisation a statement that prevents your organisation from distributing income or property to its members during its lifetime a statement which confirms that, if your organisation is wound up or dissolves, the organisation’s assets will be distributed to another charitable or not-for-profit organisation and not to the organisation’s members the date when it was adopted and the signature of your chairperson or other authorised person We are unable to fund your organisation if your constitution does not include the above.

The Charity Commission provides guidance on creating a governing document.

We do not need to see your governing document if you are: a public organisation, for example, a local authority or university a charity registered with the Charity Commissions for England, Wales or Northern Ireland, or the Scottish Charity Regulator You must provide your most recently audited or accountant verified accounts for the last three year and your management accounts for the current year.

If your organisation’s accounts are older than 18 months, or your organisation was set up less than 14 months ago and does not have a set of audited accounts, you must provide your last three bank statements or a signed letter from your bank. You must submit a risk register for both the development and delivery phases.

A risk register is a document, usually set out as a table, that lists all the risks identified by an organisation and prioritised in order of importance. We know all projects face challenges and risks. We will want to see what risks you have considered, the impact the risk would have on your project and how you would plan to manage each risk.

the nature of the risk, for example technical, market, financial, economic, management, legal a description of the risk the probability of the risk happening, using a percentage value or low, medium or high grading the effect the risk could have on project costs, time and/or performance the overall effect the risk may have on project delivery how you would deal with the risk You must provide a spreadsheet detailing the costs you outlined when completing your application.

We require a detailed spreadsheet of project expenditure and income, with reference to the budget headings used in your application, itemising each aspect. For example, you may have included repair and conservation work in your initial budget, with a headline summary of 'roof repairs, £100,000'.

You should elaborate on this in your detailed cost breakdown, providing a spreadsheet that contains an itemised list of the materials and labour involved with a separate row for each cost. You must submit your organisation’s current business plan. If you do not have a business plan please submit the document you work with to manage your heritage.

If you are an organisation that manages multiple sites or are, for example, a Local Authority, please submit the documents most relevant to the heritage in your application. A business plan sets out the financial and organisational aspects of your business.

It shows: an overview of your organisation the financial status of your organisation the context in which your organisation sits how you wish to develop your organisation A business plan is not the same as a project plan. It focuses on the overall organisation and not specific project activities, but should convey how your proposed project aligns with your ambitions as an organisation.

For further information see our business plan guidance . You must provide a timetable for both the development and delivery phases. This should include detailed information about the development phase and outline information for the delivery phase.

This should also include references to the milestones you expect your project to pass, providing a comprehensive overview of how you expect your project to evolve over time. Job descriptions (if applicable) If you plan to recruit new staff or apprentices to help deliver your project, you need to provide a job description for each new post. Each job description should include the proposed salary and working hours.

Briefs for commissioned work (if applicable) Briefs describe any work you plan to buy in during your project. If you are commissioning work, for example, from an artist or architect, then you should provide a brief. The brief should describe the works, how long they will take, how much they will cost and the skills required.

Find out more information and use our briefs template . Calculation of full cost recovery for the development phase (if applicable) If you have included full cost recovery as a cost heading in your project costs, you must provide a document that shows how you have calculated this based on recent published accounts.

Recognised guidance on calculating the full cost recovery amount that applies to your project is available from organisations such as The National Lottery Community Fund . We cannot accept applications that include full cost recovery from public sector organisations (for example, government-funded museums, local authorities or universities).

Project images (if applicable) If relevant, please provide up to six images that help illustrate your project. Evidence of support (if applicable) Provide up to six pieces of evidence of support, for example letters, emails or feedback forms, from other organisations or individuals who are supporting or taking part in your project.

Providing evidence of support is a good way of showing us that you have spoken to other people and that they are interested and committed to your project. Partnership agreements (mandatory if applicable) If you plan to work with any other organisations to carry out your project, you will need to provide a partnership agreement. This document should outline all partner’s roles and responsibilities and should be signed by all parties.

This document should reflect the needs of your project and you may need to seek independent advice on how to best write an agreement. Condition survey (if applicable) If your project involves the conservation of heritage, you must provide a condition survey or another appropriate document to tell us the current condition of the heritage and the works that are needed to return the heritage to a good condition.

The survey or report should also indicate the relative priority of the proposed works so you know which are the most critical and need to be tackled most urgently. There are other types of survey which may be relevant to include as part of a condition survey, such as a building performance and energy efficiency survey.

Ownership documents (if applicable) If you are planning any capital works, or intending to purchase buildings, land or heritage items, you will need to provide copies of any documents relevant to your ownership. This could be Land Registry ownership documents, or a lease or heads of terms.

Delivery phase supporting documents When completing a delivery phase application, you must provide updated versions of the following documents to reflect the new understanding of the costs, resources, timeline and the needs of your audiences you have gained during the development phase of your project: full cost breakdown including additional columns comparing costs at the award of your development grant, your development phase review and the submission of your delivery phase application risk register for the delivery phase and after the project is complete a timetable for the delivery phase calculation of full cost recovery for the delivery phase, if applicable briefs for commissioned work, if applicable job descriptions for the delivery phase, if applicable partnership agreements, if applicable ownership documents, if applicable You must also provide the following documents as applicable.

Activity plan or area action plan You must provide an activity plan or area action plan as applicable. If your project relates to activities and people, you must produce an activity plan. If you are working on an area-based project, you must produce an area action plan.

An activity plan sets out everything you will do as part of your National Lottery-supported project to achieve positive outcomes for the people involved. These might be participants, visitors, volunteers or trainees but might also include new and existing staff and your trustees or steering group. You will need to decide which specific groups of people you want to reach with your funding.

Then set out all of the activity – in detail and properly costed – you will do to meet their needs and achieve our investment principles within your project. Your activity plan is specific to the heritage project you are asking us to fund. It is not the same as your plans for everyday work or a general development plan for you organisation’s activity.

If applicable, your area action plan should include: a summary that explains the distinctive character of your area and how this has evolved over time – including all land, biodiversity, structures, buildings and features that make or could make positive contributions to the area's overall distinctiveness information on how the area is currently managed and protected, including assessment of current strategies and policies against appropriate sector benchmarks, and availability and need of heritage skills analysis of the area's demographic, social and economic conditions; an assessment of the different interest and concerns of stakeholders such as owners of heritage, local communities, business community, and visitors your organisation’s agreed vision for the area information which will help you design activities which you will run as part of your scheme to engage local people with the area's heritage your rationale for your area's boundaries an assessment of policies and statutory powers that need to be put in place to protect the area’s character and sustain the benefits of your scheme in the long-term for the benefit of the heritage and local communities threats to the area and opportunities to address these such as climate change; broader political environment and policy issues; social and economic changes; and local attitudes and understanding of the heritage summary of the type and category of work which could be carried out to preserve and enhance the character of land, biodiversity, structures, buildings, features and the overall area plans for the intended long-term legacy of your project and how this will be secured details of how you will evaluate your area-based project and what resources you will need to complete this evaluation Your area action plan should be uploaded in a document such as a PDF.

Include an executive summary no longer than a single A4 page and a contents page. We provide further details on how to create an area action plan . You must provide a complete overview of the cash flow of your organisation throughout the duration of your project.

This should include a monthly report of your bank balance, alongside any monthly cash surplus or deficit. If you have a trading subsidiary, please prepare a consolidated cash flow for the parent organisation and the subsidiary. Explain the assumptions you are making regarding any reasonably anticipated income from any other funding sources.

Income and spending forecasts for five years following project completion You must provide a general financial assessment of your organisation as it relates to your project, representative of your day-to-day operation and your financial model including your main sources of funding, as you intend to operate for the five years following project completion.

This should include a forecast income and expenditure account, a cashflow forecast showing the expected monthly cashflow and statements of assumptions underlying the forecasts. Include detail of assumptions made in your calculations. An assumption is anything that you are relying on to make forecasts.

For example, the average number of visitors you are expecting based on the previous year, or any unknown costs of materials. Make sure you also include details of any reserves that may impact your report. Project management structure You must provide a document to explain the management structure of your project, with reference to decision-making processes and lines of communication and reporting.

It may be relevant to provide a simple organogram/network diagram to show your organisation’s governance, management and staffing structures as they pertain to the project.

Management and maintenance plan (if applicable) If your project involves capital works, the creation of new material, or the purchase of a historic building, structure, transport heritage or land, we will ask you to prepare a management and maintenance plan as part of your delivery phase application.

The management and maintenance plan tells us how you will look after your heritage once the project is complete, including how you expect to maintain the benefits of your project in the future. We will expect you to make sure that the work we have funded is kept in good condition.

We will expect your organisation to adopt your management and maintenance plan, to integrate it into your existing policies for management and care, and to provide financial resources to implement that plan for the duration of your grant contract.

Your management and maintenance plan should detail how your project's results will be maintained, who will do it, what skills they will need, when things need to be done and what cost the cost of this work will be. Your plan should