Heritage

These funders specialise in grants for heritage projects, including building restorations, museums, archives and war memorials.

As with any charitable project, it’s worth considering the funders that will fund various projects.

This page is updated annually. If you spot an error? Please let us know.

 

National Lottery Heritage Fund

Grants from £3,000 to £5m for projects that connect people and communities to the UK’s national, regional and local heritage. The What We Fund page explains the fund’s scope, which covers a wide range of projects and types of expenditure. There are four levels of funding:

• Grants of £3,000 to £10,000 for non-profit organisations and private owners of heritage for projects up to one year.
• Grants of £10,000 to £250,000 for non-profit organisations, private owners (up to £100,000) of heritage and partnerships for projects up to five years.
• Grants of £250,000 to £5m for non-profit organisations and partnerships for projects delivered over five years.
• Heritage Enterprise grants up to £5m to help rescue neglected historic buildings and sites and return them to viable productive use. Applicants are accepted from partnerships between non-profit and commercial organisations.

National Heritage Memorial Fund

NHMF will help charities, non-profit organisations and public bodies acquire heritage assets, including works of fine and decorative art, museum collections, archives, manuscripts, transport and industrial history items, and historic buildings and land. There is no upper limit to its awards, but it operates as a fund of last resort, so you must be able to prove that you have explored, or are exploring, all other possible sources of funding.

Historic England

Historic England administers various funds for heritage projects, including:

• Heritage Protection Commissions Programme for local authorities, universities, charitable trusts and limited companies for strategic research and to build skills and capacity in England’s historic environment.
• Regional Capacity Building Programme for local and regional projects which promote the understanding, management and conservation of the historic environment.
• Repair Grants for Heritage at Risk for the conservation of listed buildings, scheduled monuments and registered parks and gardens.
• War Memorials for the conservation and repair of war memorials.
• Grants to Underwrite Urgent Works Notices to support local authorities in using their statutory powers to ensure that urgent repairs of a vacant or partly occupied listed building are undertaken.
• Everyday Heritage Grants: Celebrating Working Class Heritage for grants of up to £25,000 for projects that raise awareness of overlooked historic places and celebrate working-class histories. This fund closes on 23 May 2022.

The Architectural Heritage Fund – Transforming Places Through Heritage

The Architectural Heritage Fund (AHF) has various grants supporting restoration projects for redundant or underused community-owned historic buildings in town centres.

• Project Viability Grants: up to £15,000 for early viability and feasibility work
• Project Development Grants: up to £100,000, for capital project development costs
• Crowdfunding Challenge Grants: up to £25,000, to match-fund crowdfunding campaigns
• Transformational Project Grants: up to £350,000, for transformational capital projects
• Community Shares Booster Grants: a funding scheme to support community share offers

Historic Houses Foundation

Grants from £1,000 to £250,000 for individuals or organisations for repairs and restoration work required to prevent loss of or damage to historic buildings, their gardens, and any outbuildings, located in England or Wales. Most grants are less than £50,000.

The Esmee Fairbairn Collections Fund

Grants of up to £90,000 are available to UK museums and galleries for projects that develop existing collections and demonstrate the special potential of museums to make a difference to people’s lives. Projects can last up to three years.

Headley Trust

Part of the Sainsbury Family Charitable Trusts, The Headley Trust offers grants on arts and heritage themes including:

• Regional museums and galleries, with special consideration for curatorial support and acquisitions
• The display, study and acquisition of British ceramics
• Conservation of industrial, maritime and built heritage
• Archaeology
• Headley Museums Archaeological Acquisition Fund (intended to help museums secure and display notable finds)
• Restoration and improvements to cathedrals and churches

The Wolfson Foundation – Museums and Galleries

Grants for museums and galleries undertaking projects to improve the display and interpretation of nationally significant collections for the public. Grants are generally awarded towards refurbishing or creating new galleries and, occasionally, education and learning spaces. The total project costs must be above £15,000. Match funding must usually be secured before applying.

War Memorials Trust

Grants of up to £30,000 are available (up to 75% of total eligible project costs) to protect and conserve freestanding war memorials (but not graves) in England. Individuals, organisations and councils can apply. The fund covers repairs but not routine maintenance.

National Churches Trust

Grants up to £50,000 are available to support the conservation and sustainable use of church buildings in the UK, with priority given to urgent structural repairs or the introduction of kitchens and accessible toilets. Grants will cover up to 50% of the project cost. The average grant is around £15,000.

National Archives – Archives Revealed – Cataloguing Grants

Grants up to £45,000 are available to public sector bodies, registered charities and other not-for-profit organisations to create catalogues of important archival collections. There’s also a Scoping Grant scheme, which offers up to £3,000 to fund an assessment report incorporating expert advice on a range of areas relating to collections management and the development of a collection.

The Sackler Trust

The Sackler Trust supports charitable activities in the fields of medical science, healthcare, and access to education and the arts, as well as supporting community organisations, heritage sites and projects which promote social good.

The Skinners Company Lady Neville Charity

The Skinners’ Company The Lady Neville Charity, provides grants that make a clear and significant contribution to grass-roots charitable organisations working in designated priority areas.

They offer grants to registered charities or not-for-profit organisations and will support only capital projects with a grant of up to £1,000.

Lord Barnbys Foundation

Lord Barnby’s Foundation offers grants to registered charities in England and Wales for general charitable purposes, the advancement of health or saving of lives, disability, the prevention or relief of poverty, environment, conservation and heritage.

 The Charles Haywood Foundation

The Charles Hayward Foundation is a grant-making charitable trust offering grants to charities registered in the UK.

The Main Grant Programme makes grants in the following categories:

• Heritage and Conservation
• Social and Criminal Justice

Generally, when funding projects, the Foundation value projects that develop, expand and replicate a tried and tested approach but are also interested in supporting creative solutions to problems which seem to be entrenched and elude resolution.

The Barron Bell Trust

The Barron Bell Trust makes grants towards the provision, installation, inspection, repair and maintenance of carillons of bells in churches.

No maximum grant size is specified, but grants are typically between £1,000 – £3,000.

The Beaverbrook Foundation

Grants are typically under £5,000 and can be made for capital expenditure, i.e. to acquire or upgrade physical assets such as buildings, fixtures and fittings, machinery, furniture and other equipment; for revenue/running costs; and for special projects. The Trustees will not normally consider grants to cover expenditure which has already been incurred or committed.

Prism Fund

The Preservation of Industrial and Scientific Material (PRISM) Fund awards grants of up to £20,000 towards the costs of acquisition and conservation of items or collections which are important in the history and development of science, technology, industry, and related fields. Eligible organisations include charitable bodies or Accredited museums, specialist libraries, archives, and libraries formally linked to local authorities or eligible bodies such as universities and religious organisations.

Historic Houses Foundation

The Historic Houses Foundation awards grants of up to £250,000 to either organisations or private individuals. The applicant must be legally responsible for repairing the historic building, its gardens and its grounds. Grants are to be used for:

• The repair and conservation of rural historic buildings and structures located in England and Wales, including, where appropriate, their gardens, grounds and outbuildings, and
• The conservation, maintenance and restoration of works of art and objects of outstanding artistic, scientific and historic interest

The Pilgrim Trust

Grants are available to registered charities, public bodies and registered friendly societies for projects in the UK concerned with social welfare and preservation:

•  Social Welfare: grants are for projects that have a positive impact on the lives of women and girls facing severe and multiple disadvantage, particularly where their vulnerabilities put them at risk of offending
•  UK Heritage: the main emphasis is on projects that conserve historical buildings, monuments and collections.

Grants can be used for project costs, revenue costs (including staff salaries), the costs associated with initial exploratory work for organisations seeking to rescue important buildings and monuments, and capital costs.

The Swire Charitable Trust

The Swire Charitable Trust aims to help deliver positive and lasting change to UK society. They do this by making grants to UK-registered charities working in one of their three core funding programme areas: Heritage, Community and Social Welfare, Education and Training.

Heritage
Restoring neglected buildings and monuments can contribute to community regeneration, particularly in areas of deprivation.

The Trust would especially like to hear from smaller heritage charities that focus on providing employment or volunteering opportunities for the local community – and contribute to the area’s regeneration.

The Wolfson Foundation

 Grants are given to charities and organisations with charitable status (or equivalent). They can apply for grants to fund capital projects, such as buildings, refurbishment, and equipment. About 85% of our funding is for capital infrastructure – buildings (new builds or refurbishments) and equipment. These awards support excellence across education, science & medicine, heritage, humanities & the arts and health & disability.

This page is updated annually. Spotted an error? Please let us know.