Heritage Emergency Fund

The £50 million Heritage Emergency Fund openied for applications on Wednesday, 15 April 2020. The National Lottery Heritage Fund has published the guidelines and the frequently asked questions.

The National Lottery Heritage Fund (NLHF) has set up the £50 million Heritage Emergency Fund to support the heritage sector as an immediate response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. The funding is for organisations that cannot secure funding from other sources.

The Heritage Emergency Fund is designed as short-term funding to support the immediate actions required to stabilise operations and manage unforeseen risks.

To be eligible, applicants must be:

A not-for-profit organisation.
A current or previous recipient of a grant directly from the Heritage Lottery.
An owner, manager or representative of heritage, or be able to show they have delivered participatory heritage activity.

Priority will be given to organisations that:

Have limited or no alternative access to other sources of support, for example, from Governments, other National Lottery distributors, other emergency funding from trusts and foundations.
Have already tried other options to stop being at risk such as putting projects on hold, rephasing milestones, repurposing other funding to support day-to-day operations, minimising costs but maximising the function of existing projects (value engineering).
Are in greater financial risk from COVID-19 due to a reliance on trading or community fundraising income streams.
Are in greater financial risk due to limited reserves.

As a guide, organisations can apply for funding to cover costs to:

Stabilise their organisation in the immediate term to make sure the vital heritage they 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 them plan and initiate mothballing of (putting aside or withdrawing from use) their 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 their organisation
Reconfigure business plans, governance and activity needed to help safeguard the future of their organisation
Cover essential operational costs, for example, site security, maintaining climatic conditions for collections, or managing livestock on habitats.

Applications will be accepted from 15 April until 30 June 2020.

Full details…