Heritage Lottery Fund

The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), distributes the proceeds of the National Lottery, for the benefit of heritage, across the whole of the UK. Funds are available for a diverse range of works across a number of targeted programmes of funding.

Repair Grants for Places of Worship (From £10,000 to £250,000)
The scheme is available for urgent, high-level repair work to listed places of worship. The project must meet two key criteria:

• the place of worship must be listed; and
• the project must be for urgent, high-level repair works.

Once complete your place of worship must be open for at least forty days outside normal worshipping hours.

It operates the scheme jointly with English Heritage and Historic Scotland. Cadw in Wales and the Northern Ireland Environment Agency also offer grants, and links can be found within the In Your Area section.

Heritage Grants (Grants above £50,000)
This is the HLF’s main programme for grants. It is aimed at all types of national, regional and local heritage across the whole of the UK (except the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man).

Your Heritage (£3,000 to £50,000)
This is the HLF’s general small grants programme for all types of heritage projects. It is a flexible programme particularly designed for voluntary and community groups and first-time applicants and available across the UK (except the Channel Islands and Isle of Man).

In order to be eligible for funding under the Heritage Grants and Your Heritage schemes your project must:

• help people to learn about their own and other people’s heritage.

Your 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;
• help more people, and a wider range of people, to take an active part in and make decisions about heritage.

Young Roots (£3,000 to £25,000)
This programme is for projects led by young people, from 13-25 years of age, finding out about their heritage, developing skills, building confidence and promoting community involvement.  To receive a Young Roots grant, your project must relate to the varied heritage of the UK and:

• provide new opportunities for a wide range of young people to learn about their own and others’ heritage;
• allow young people to lead and take part in creative and engaging activities;
• develop partnerships between youth organisations and heritage organisations; and
• create opportunities to celebrate young people’s achievements in the project and share their learning with the wider community.

The project must also create new opportunities for young people to either:

• volunteer in heritage; or
• gain skills in identifying, recording, interpreting or caring for heritage.

The HLF also provide funding for the regeneration and conservation of parks and gardens, townscapes and larger landscapes.  A full listing of HLF funding programmes is available on the HLF's website.