What the National Lottery Heritage Fund looks for

What they fund

The Heritage Fund supports projects that connect people and communities with heritage. This is broadly defined: it includes buildings, landscapes, habitats, traditions, stories, and collections. They run several funding programmes, ranging from small grants under ten thousand pounds to major projects over several million. Each programme has its own criteria, but the thread running through all of them is engagement: heritage that involves people, not just preserves it.

What they do not fund

The Fund does not generally support projects that are primarily academic research, statutory obligations, or core operational costs without a heritage project attached. They do not fund retrospective work: your project must be planned and ready to start. They are also clear that they are not a funder of last resort, so applications made in financial distress without prior planning are unlikely to succeed.

What makes an application strong

Strong applications demonstrate partnership: evidence that you have worked with the community your project serves, not just for them. They show a clear heritage outcome alongside the engagement outcome. They include a realistic budget with a funding mix, not a reliance on one grant. And they name a project team with the skills to deliver, not just the vision to propose.

Strong applications demonstrate partnership: evidence that you have worked with the community your project serves, not just for them.

Timeline and process

Applications go through an initial expression of interest, then a development phase, then a full application. The full process from first expression to decision typically takes six to nine months. Planning for this timeline is essential: the Fund does not operate on rolling deadlines for larger programmes.