Opportunity

Heritage Emergency Fund Open Now

The National Lottery Heritage Fund are providing a package of support for the heritage sector as a response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis.

Accepting applications until 30 June 2020

Open Until:

Posted: 10/03/2022


The Heritage Emergency Fund is accepting applications for funding from £3,000 to £50,000.

The application form will be available from Wednesday 15 April and you will be able to apply until 30 June 2020.

To apply for the Heritage Emergency Fund, you must be:

  • a not-for-profit organisation
  • a current or previous recipient of a grant directly from us
  • an owner, manager or representative of heritage, or be able to show you have delivered participatory heritage activity

You must meet all three criteria above to apply for funding through the Heritage Emergency Fund. If you do not meet these criteria, you may be eligible for other support as we develop our longer-term strategic support or other initiatives.

We are not accepting applications from:

  • statutory organisations, for example, local authorities, even if you have previously received funding from us
  • private owners of heritage, even if you have previously received funding from us
  • organisations that have previously only received funding from us for activity-based project grants of £10,000 and under
  • organisations mainly funded by UK and devolved Governments
  • organisations that have already accepted emergency funding from another National Lottery distributor. As part of our focus on maximising the impact of National Lottery Good Causes investment in communities, organisations that have been funded by different National Lottery funders should, in the first instance, choose the most relevant fund and apply only to them.

What will we fund?

The Heritage Emergency Fund is short-term funding to support the immediate actions needed to stabilise operations and manage unforeseen risks. You can apply to us for a grant between £3,000 and £50,000 to cover unavoidable costs you will otherwise be unable to meet for up to four months. You should only apply to us for essential costs.

Partnership funding is not required.

We want to support organisations to actively deal with immediate risks, to help you become more stable, so you can work towards longer term recovery and (if applicable) revised delivery plans for your projects.

As a guide you could apply to us for costs to:

  • stabilise your organisation in the immediate term to make sure the vital heritage you care for is not put further at risk by COVID-19 (for example, staff costs to allow you to respond, design and deliver plans)
  • help you plan and initiate mothballing of (putting aside or withdrawing from use) your heritage asset/s and other approaches to protecting heritage that is at risk
  • run immediate risk management reviews and the actions identified as needed to safe-guard your organisation
  • reconfigure business plans, governance and activity needed to help safeguard the future of your organisation
  • cover essential operational costs, for example, site security, maintaining climatic conditions for collections, or managing livestock on habitats

What won’t we fund?

  • costs that are eligible to be covered by Government support, for example, furloughing
  • the remaining 20% salary costs for staff on furlough or any additional salary costs above the furloughing cap
  • redundancy costs of staff not funded by a current National Lottery Heritage Fund project
  • costs that are avoidable in the short term. We will let you know if we think this is the case and remove these from your grant request.
  • costs you will incur beyond four months from the point of your application.
  • anything that contravenes Governments’ advice on COVID-19.

Find out more and apply online


"Just to say a huge thanks ... I am looking forward to progressing with this project thanks to your support, advice and guidance"

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