National Lottery Heritage Grants open for applications, plus more funding news
Melanie May | 1 February 2024 | News
Apply for grants for heritage projects, to improve mental health and wellbeing, inclusion, and learning and skills development in local communities, and more.
National Lottery Heritage Grants open for applications
The Heritage 2033 National Lottery programme has opened for grants from £10,000 to £10million.
The Fund says that rather than defining heritage itself, it asks applicants to tell it what they think is important and should be preserved. This could be anything from historic buildings, the UK’s industrial legacy and the natural environment, to collections, traditions, stories and more.
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Its Heritage 2033 strategy is centred around four investment principles:saving heritage; protecting the environment; inclusion, access and participation; and organisational sustainability.Applicants must take all four principles into account in their application.
Entry level grants have been increased to £10,000 this year in response to the increased costs for goods and services, and trends in the Fund’s grant application data. Previously it increased its earlier upper threshold increase to £10m but says it may consider investing above £10m for ‘truly exceptional heritage projects’.
More information here on grants from £10,000-£250,000.
More information here on grants from £250,000 to £10mn.
Funding to help charities & CICs supporting young people’s mental health improve their work
The Prudence Trust is offering funding to enable charities and CICs supporting young people’s mental health to better understand the impact of their work and find out how they could improve.
UK registered charities or CICs with an annual income above £250,000 are eligible to apply if they have a track record of running mental health support services or services for young people for at least two years.
The total grants budget is £1 million, with The Prudence Trust anticipating awarding 5-8 grants of various sizes.
Some examples of what the funding could cover include:
- Consultancy support for work such as strategy review, theory of change, creation of an evaluation and change plan.
- Upskilling of staff responsible for monitoring and evaluation
- Costs to work with an external evaluator or academic on specific programmes.
- Staff or consultant time to review evidence of similar services.
- This opportunity won’t award funds for:
- The costs of service delivery
Retrospective funding (for costs incurred after June 2024)
The first application stage opens on 5 February, with a deadline of 8 March. There are two optional information webinars, the first on 8 February, and the second on 12 February.
Laughology’s Happiness Fund reopens
Laughology’s Happiness Fund is for UK grassroots, neighbourhood-based community projects throughout the UK, and enables and supports projects that improve mental health and wellbeing, inclusion, and learning and skills development.
The objective is to build happy, strong and resilient communities with the fund intended to help new groups and activities be successful. Applicants will need to indicate how the activity/group can become self-sustaining or able to attract funding from other sources in the longer term.
It is open to individuals and other organisations, including CICs, but not the public sector, and awards up to £5000. There are two rounds annually and the next deadline is 29 February.
SIA grants available for UK charities & community groups using cash confiscated from criminals
The Security Industry Authority has opened its SIA grant for good causes fund for 2023 to 2024. Registered charities and community interest companies in the UK have until Sunday 18 February 2024 at 11:59pm to apply. Eligible organisations must show how a grant will benefit the UK private security industry and/or support public safety.
Through the fund, the SIA, which is the UK’s private security industry regulator, distributes money recovered through proceeds of crime confiscation orders to good causes in the UK. Since 2019, the SIA has awarded nearly £180,000 to organisations including Young Enterprise, The EY Foundation and The Prince’s Trust.
Big Society Capital invests £10mn into Octopus Affordable Housing Fund
Big Society Capital has invested £10mn into the Octopus Investments Affordable Housing Fund, which has been set up to accelerate the delivery of good quality, affordable and sustainable homes in the UK.
This follows the Fund announcing its first close in December, with a £50mn capital raise from London CIV, the investment pool for 32 of London’s Local Government Pension Schemes.
The Fund has made its first deployment through forward funding, committing to acquire 26 homes in Great Haddon, Peterborough, from Vistry Homes. The scheme comprises eight houses and 18 flats and will offer a mix of both affordable rent and shared ownership tenures. The properties will be suitable for both couples and families and will be Energy Performance Certificate B.
The scheme will serve an area of high housing need, where the provision of new affordable housing over the past four years has been less than 50% of the required amount. The homes will be owned by NewArch Homes Limited, the Fund’s Registered Provider of Social Housing. All units are expected to be delivered by April 2025.
For Big Society Capital, the investment aligns with its goal to increase the supply of social and affordable housing in the UK, particularly for the most vulnerable. Its investments to date in this area have helped to finance nearly 7,000 homes which will house over 17,000 people.
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About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.