We are accepting applications from organisations and businesses that own, work with or manage heritage in England.

We will refer to these organisations and businesses as ‘heritage organisations’ throughout the rest of this guidance.

It isn’t possible to list every type of organisation that makes up our broad and varied heritage sector. If you don’t see your organisation in the list below, we still encourage you to submit an Expression of Interest.

As a guide, your organisation could be:

• Not-for-profit organisations that manage heritage sites, venues or attractions
• Local authorities, universities and other public sector bodies that manage heritage sites, venues or attractions
• Private owners of nationally significant heritage sites, venues or attractions that are normally open to the public at least 28 days a year or which host public events. By this we mean that your heritage site should be accessible to the public (for free or paid) and that the focus of the day is sharing the heritage you care for.
• For profit businesses that are a vital part of the heritage ecosystem and who generate the largest portion of their income from heritage work. This includes conservators, contractors, specialists, suppliers and cooperatives
• Organisations that manage culturally significant assets or collections      
• Organisations that provide significant support to the heritage sector
• Faith organisations that manage listed places of worship
• Non accredited museums

Applicants must be properly constituted as an organisation. The kinds of organisations that are eligible to apply include:

• Limited Companies registered at Companies House
• Community Interest Companies (CICs) registered with the CIC regulator
• Charitable incorporated organisations (CIOs) registered with the Charity Commission
• Charitable companies or charitable trusts registered with the Charity Commission
• Limited liability partnerships registered at Companies House
• Partnerships established under a partnership deed/ agreement
• Community benefit and co-operative societies regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)
• Royal Charter bodies
• statutory bodies and other public bodies including Universities and museums who run or maintain cultural services
• Private owners of nationally-significant heritage sites, venues or attractions which are normally open to the public 28 days a year or more or which regularly host events attended by members of the public

As well as being an eligible organisation type you must also be able to demonstrate that you:

• are culturally significant.
• are at clear risk of no longer trading viably within 12 weeks of the point of Expression of Interest. By ‘no longer trading viably’ we mean you can demonstrate that, without additional support through Emergency Resource Support, your organisation would not have the ability to generate sufficient income or have sufficient cash reserves (or near-cash reserves where it is appropriate to liquidate them) in order to meet operating payments and debt commitments. This is similar to the definition of cash-flow insolvency. However, given the unique circumstances of many cultural organisations (including the importance of cultural assets in their reserves) we will take a balanced view in the round as to whether your organisation is at risk of no longer trading viably, based on the evidence presented in your application.
• normally generate at least 50% of your annual income from your heritage activities. For example through exhibitions, admissions, tours, educational activities and associated food and non-food retail; heritage construction, conservation or consultancy services.

If you applied to any previous round of the Culture Recovery Fund for Heritage and were unsuccessful, you are able to apply to this programme if you meet the eligibility criteria set out above.

Museums

If you are an accredited museum or a museum working towards accreditation then you should apply through Arts Council England to Culture Recovery Fund programme. This includes organisations with a museum (accredited or working towards accreditation) as part of a wider heritage site.

All other museums should apply to this fund.

If you applied for the Culture Recovery Fund for Heritage Round One or Round Two but were unsuccessful, please follow the instructions above and ensure you apply to the correct fund.

Listed Places of Worship

If you look after a listed place of worship you do not necessarily need to be constituted as outlined above. You cannot apply for funding that would be categorised as promotion of your faith, for capital projects, such as major repairs or for the payment of staff who are not specifically employed to promote and share your heritage.

Local authorities, universities and other public sector

If you are a statutory or public body, you can apply to this programme for the relevant heritage services that you operate. You can only make one application to the Culture Recovery Fund for Heritage, either one application for a single heritage service or one application for multiple heritage services. You can also apply to the Arts Council England and British Film Institute’s Culture Recovery Fund programmes for other cultural services relevant to their programmes. You may not apply to different funds for the same costs for your heritage asset/service.

Your supporting documents should just be for the heritage service or services you are applying for and not your organisation as a whole.

We expect parent organisations to do everything possible to maintain support for individual services, and where this is not the case, to provide a clear explanation of the change in support and the reasons behind it.

Multiple heritage asset/site owners/managers

If you manage more than one heritage asset/site, please submit one application for your organisation as a whole but the costs can be linked to a single asset/site or multiple assets/sites.

We expect parent organisations to do everything possible to maintain support for individual services, and where this is not the case, to provide a clear explanation of the change in support and the reasons behind it. If budgets for next financial year are not known, a clear explanation of the assumptions being made is required.

Organisations in receipt of a loan through the Culture Recovery Fund: Repayable Finance programme.

If you are in receipt of a loan from the Culture Recovery Fund: Repayable Finance programme and are applying for Emergency Resource Support please note that you must apply as the same legal entity that holds the Repayable Finance agreement.
 

Ineligible Applicants

Under this programme we are not accepting applications from:

• Organisations that manage heritage that is not in England. If your organisation is based in Northern Ireland, Scotland or Wales and you manage heritage in England you can apply for a proportion of your organisation's costs related to the heritage in England. 
• organisations that were not operating sustainably before March 2020
• organisations that can apply for support from the Culture Recovery Fund through Arts Council England (accredited museums or museums that are working towards accreditation, combined arts and museums, visual arts, music, literature, theatre, dance) or The British Film Institute (independent cinemas)
• Organisations that manage or preserve natural habitats and species, as the main focus of their activity
• organisations that cannot provide evidence to show that they are at risk of not trading viably 12 weeks from the date of their Expression of Interest
• sole traders and individuals (except private owners of nationally significant heritage sites, venues or attractions that are normally open to the public at least 28 days a year or which host events which the public can attend on at least 28 days a year)
• DCMS and MOD sponsored museums
• private members’ clubs constituted as companies and registered at Companies House or as unincorporated associations
• local authority public library services
• organisations who have already received funding through any round of the Culture Recovery Fund grants programme administered by Arts Council England or The British Film Institute
• organisations that are not at risk of trading viably 12 weeks from the date of their Expression of Interest
• organisations that were not properly constituted, and registered with the relevant regulatory body where applicable, on or before 01 May 2019
• organisations that do not generate at least 50% of their income from heritage and heritage activities

If you feel your organisation is not eligible for this funding but that you own a heritage asset of national significance that is at risk of loss to the nation we advise you look at the funding options available through the National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF). Projects applying under the NHMF must be concerned with buying, maintaining or preserving objects, collections, buildings or land that are of particular importance to the national heritage of the UK or the item/s must also be in some way outstanding. This could be because of rarity, quality, association with a historic figure or event or designations.

For a full list of other funding opportunities from both the National Lottery Heritage Fund and Historic England please visit our websites. You can also find the details of other funding options on Historic England’s website or the Heritage Funding Directory.

This section applies to past Culture Recovery Fund for Heritage recipients only. If you have previously been awarded a grant through an earlier round of the Culture Recovery Fund for Heritage, as well as being an eligible organisation type you must also be able to demonstrate that you:

• are at clear risk of no longer trading viably within 12 weeks of the point of Expression of Interest. By ‘no longer trading viably’ we mean you can demonstrate that, without additional support through Emergency Resource Support, your organisation would not have the ability to generate sufficient income or have sufficient cash reserves (or near-cash reserves where it is appropriate to liquidate them) in order to meet operating payments and debt commitments. This is similar to the definition of cash-flow insolvency. However, given the unique circumstances of many cultural organisations (including the importance of cultural assets in their reserves) we will take a balanced view in the round as to whether your organisation is at risk of no longer trading viably, based on the evidence presented in your application.
• are on track to spend the majority of any previous grant you were awarded under the Culture Recovery Fund for Heritage (please note this does not include any portion of a previous grant awarded to top up reserves).

We would not expect organisations awarded recent Emergency Resource Support or funding through Culture Recovery Fund for Heritage: Continuity Support to make an application to this fund. However, we may, by exception, consider an application where the application is able to present a clear and credible rationale for why further funding is needed based on substantial changes to your circumstances from your original application, for which adaptability could not have been factored into your original plans.

This strand of funding is to cover core operating costs for organisations, up to a point where they can demonstrate a return to financial viability. Funding cannot extend beyond 31 March 2022. It will support organisations who are at imminent risk of failure to ensure they have sufficient funds as we transition out of lockdown, resume business activity and the public starts to engage with England’s diverse heritage once again.

You can bid for a grant to support the costs your organisation faces as it works to become financially viable and transitions towards full reopening. This funding will support your organisation to build up or sustain your operations and begin a programme of heritage activity to help it re-establish itself, with a view to ensuring that by the end of March 2022, your organisation will be operating on a viable and sustainable basis

You will need to consider the most effective route to full reopening and future sustainability for your organisation. This funding is only available for organisations requiring support to return to sustainability, and have a plan to maintain this sustainability through the financial year 2022-23.

Assumptions about social distancing and the public health context for business planning

For consistency of assessment, all applicants should apply using the assumption that the public health measures at the time of application will remain in place throughout the grant period. However, as set out elsewhere in this guidance, you should make clear if and how your plans would be impacted by changes in the public health situation.

Eligible costs

Through this programme, you can apply to cover costs associated with shortfalls in income and costs to stabilise your business up to 31 March 2022.

Costs that you can request to be covered under this programme are:

Operational expenditure

• staffing: including existing staff, rehiring, recruiting staff or contract staff and paying for redundancy
• overheads: to cover utilities, core operating costs or any fixed monthly costs

We would not expect the combined total for these two cost headings to be more than your average turnover (pre-COVID-19) for the period of costs that you are applying for. For example, if you are applying for a grant to cover a shortfall over 3 months’ worth of costs we would expect your request to be less than 25% of your annual turnover.

In your application and Business Action Plan and Cash Flow you will need to make the case that this shortfall is the result of reduced income and other available funds, as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic. Templates will be provided.

Debt repayments

Full or partial repayment or clearance of Covid-related debt incurred since 1 April 2020 is eligible through this programme, though this does not include affordable lending. If you are past recipient of funding through the Culture Recovery Fund for Heritage you can only claim for Covid-related debt that falls after your most recent Grant Expiry Date.

You will not be able to apply for the full or partial repayment of any government loans such as Coronavirus Business Interruption Loans and Bounce Back Loans.

Reserves

If you can demonstrate that you will have less than eight weeks reserves at the point of application you can include costs to build your reserves back up to cover a maximum of eight weeks turnover from the end of your grant period (Local Authorities and Universities and organisations that have previously received a loan through the Culture Recovery Fund: Repayable Finance programme cannot include these costs).

Business support

Grantees are expected to include some form of business support within their application to enable a review of your governance/management/operational model and/or finances. We would not expect this to be more than 10% of your total grant request.

If your organisation has already undertaken this type of work you do not need to include this expense in your costings but you will need to evidence what work has taken place. If you do not evidence this work and/or include it in your application budget, your application will be withdrawn from assessment.

Guidance on the standards we expect you to meet when procuring this service will be outlined in your Receiving a Grant Guidance if you are awarded a grant.

Future income generation

In addition to your ongoing costs, we acknowledge that there may be additional “one-off” costs associated with restarting your business and to help you to become financially sustainable and increase your ability to generate income. These “one-off” costs should be up to a maximum of 20% of the operational expenditure (staffing and overheads) you apply for. These can’t be for new projects but should allow you to adapt any existing activities and core business. Costs can include:

• purchasing or installing essential COVID-19 related equipment

• stabilising heritage that is at immediate risk (for example, scaffolding or urgent minor conservation work that does not require consent or permission)

• adaptations to help you operate and comply with social distancing requirements (for example, personal protective equipment (PPE) for staff and volunteers, screens and contactless payment methods, shelters for queues or additional toilets)
• essential IT equipment and connectivity costs to support homeworking
• activities to enable your organisation to put information online and to interact with your community/customers if your site is closed, for example, digital expertise, equipment or customer relationship management systems

Ineligible costs

• covering costs/losses eligible to be supported through other sources (for example other COVID-19 support schemes, such as the Job Retention Scheme)
• the optional salary costs not covered by the Government’s Job Retention Scheme for hours not worked by staff on furlough, or any additional optional salary costs for hours not worked above the furloughing cap
• any operational costs incurred before the date of your application and operating costs beyond 31 March 2022
• clearing significant historic debt incurred before 1 April 2020
• anything that contravenes Government’s advice on COVID-19
• new projects or activity that is not essential to your continued operations or that is unrelated to the reopening of businesses in a COVID-safe manner
• costs already covered through other emergency support funding.
• full or partial repayment of Coronavirus Business Interruption Loans or Bounce Back Loans
• full or partial repayment of historic structured loans
• full or partial repayment of a Repayable Finance loan
• full or partial repayment of tax bills and fines
• costs that are supported by an insurance pay-out (eg: if planned activity does not take place)
• capital works, such as major repair projects
• paid for lobbying, which means using grant funds to fund lobbying (via an external firm or in-house staff) in order to undertake activities intended to influence or attempt to influence Parliament, Government or political activity or attempting to influence legislative or regulatory action
• using grant funds to directly enable one part of government to challenge another on topics unrelated to the agreed purpose of the grant
• using grant funding to petition for additional funding
• expenses such as for entertaining, specifically aimed at exerting undue influence to change government policy
• input VAT reclaimable by the grant recipient from HMRC
• payments for activities of a party political or exclusively religious nature
• any costs in excess of £1million
• any costs that are not listed in the ‘Eligible Costs’ sections but may be/have been eligible under previous rounds or strands of the Culture Recovery Fund
• costs related to promotion of faith
• costs that are covered by any previous Culture Recovery Fund grant you may have received

Costs period

The costs you can apply for should cover the period from your point of application to 31 March 2022.

Partnership funding

There is no partnership funding requirement for this programme.

Expression of Interest

Update on 18 January 2022: the deadline for submitting an Expression of Interest – a required first step in this funding – has now passed. 

Before you are able to make a full application to the Cultural Recovery Fund for Heritage you will be required to submit a short Expression of Interest (EOI) form. We are using an EOI stage to ensure that the funding is targeted to organisations that really need it and that organisations do not spend time applying to a fund that might not be suitable for them.

In this form you will need to outline how you meet the eligibility criteria for this funding. Please read the Expression of Interest questions and prepare your answers in advance. You must complete your EOI in one go, you cannot save and return to it.

We will use the information you provide to decide whether to invite you to submit a full application. An invitation to apply does not guarantee a grant from us under this programme but does indicate that your organisation may meet the minimum eligibility criteria (as outlined in the ‘eligible organisations’ section) to apply for this funding.

We aim to respond to your EOI within 5 working days of receipt. If your organisation is invited to submit a full application, we will contact you to inform you of the next steps. Please note that our offices will be closed from 27 December 2021 until 4 January 2022 and will therefore not count as part of our 5 working days to review EOIs.

If your organisation is not invited to submit a full application we will explain our reason. If you are not invited to submit a full application after your EOI, you can review the reasons and if your situation changes, you may submit another EOI.

We recognise that an organisations situation may change during the time that this fund is open.

If you submitted an EOI under Emergency Resource Support and were not invited to submit an application you can submit a new EOI for the reopened scheme, if you think that you would now be eligible.

Submitting your Expression of Interest

You can submit an EOI at any time from 24 November 2021 until noon on 18 January 2022. Please note that our offices will be closed from 27 December 2021 until 4 January 2022.

Application

Update on 4 February 2022: the deadline for submitting an application has now passed. 

If your organisation is invited to submit a full application, we will send you an email advising you on the next steps. You can submit the application from any time you are invited until noon, 3 February 2022. We encourage you to submit your application as soon as possible to ensure we can pay your grant as soon as possible.

We may not be able to offer detailed feedback on your Expression of Interest so we advise you to read the application questions which will be provided by email and prepare your answers in advance. You must complete your application in one go, you cannot save your application or return to it, so we recommend you draft your answers before starting an application. When preparing your answers in advance, please ensure you keep within the 3,000-word limit for the application form.

There is a character limit of 4000 characters per text box. Given the overall 3000 word limit and the number of questions, we would not expect anyone to include more than 4000 characters per question. However, if there is vital information on a particular question you cannot fit into the box you can send the additional text as a supporting document.

Alongside your application form you will need to submit mandatory supporting documents. You must use the templates which can be downloaded from our supporting documents page. 

Please note: your application is not complete until you submit the mandatory supporting documents on the templates provided. The deadline for supporting documents is within one working day of you submitting your application. We cannot start to assess your application until your supporting documents are received.

Supporting Documents

You will need to provide:

• Financial accounts: we will want to see your accounts for financial years 2018/19, 2019/20 and 2021/21. You should submit accounts that have been independently audited or certified, though we understand this may not always be possible in the timeframe available. Please ensure the financial documents are for the organisation named in your application. For example, providing consolidated accounts for the full charity if it contains subsidiaries.
• Your current management accounts: by management accounts we mean a log of your income and expenditure for 2021/22 from the start of the financial year up to the date of application.
• Balance sheet: this should show your organisation’s current financial status at point of application and should include evidence of your current reserve levels. 
• Costs: a completed cost template outlining the costs that you are applying for.
• Cashflow template: this should demonstrate the income and expenditure for your organisation from point of application to March 2023.
• Business action plan: this should be completed using the action plan template. This plan must include the steps you will take to make your organisation financially viable up to March 2023 and should be based on the public health assumptions laid out earlier in this guidance. Within this we expect you to clearly lay out how you would spend your grant up to 31 March 2021 and your plans for future sustainability up to March 2023.
• Government loans and grants checklist: you should complete the template we will email to you and let us know whether or not you have been able to access any other government loans, how much money you have been given and the time period this covers.
• Governing document (for example, constitution): Your governing document should include the following:
  • the name and aims of your organisation
  • the date when it was adopted and the signature of your chairperson (or other authorised person)

We are unable to accept your application if your constitution does not include the above. We do not need to see your governing document if you are a public organisation (for example, a local authority) or a private owner of a heritage asset.

If your organisation has already completed a review of how it operates (governance/financial/business plan etc) and you are therefore not including these costs in your application you should also attach:

• Evidence of business support work: this should be the final report with recommendations that your review made and evidence that the business has/will action these recommendations.

If you are a Local Authority, University or other public body

Your supporting documents should just be for the heritage service or services you are applying for and not for your organisation as a whole.

Submitting your Application

If your organisation is invited to submit a full application your assessor will share the link to our application portal. This link will allow you to submit your full application.

Submitting your Supporting Documents

You will receive an email after you submit your application with instructions to upload your mandatory supporting documents.

Please do not change the subject title of the email as it may delay your application. It contains a unique identification reference, which consists of numbers and letters. We use this to match your supporting documents to the right application. 

You must send us your supporting documents promptly after receiving this email and use the templates we will provide that we have provided for your costs and business action plan.

Please only submit the supporting documents set out above as we will not be able to assess additional documents. Allowable formats for supporting documents are jpg, xls, xlsx, jpeg, pdf, doc, docx, pptx, and ppt.

When sending us your mandatory supporting documents, please use the document names above so we can easily identify each document. Failure to use the correct document names may delay your application.

You must submit your supporting documents within one working day of submitting your formal application through our portal. If we do not receive your supporting documents within this deadline your application will not be assessed and will be withdrawn.

Support with your application

We have designed the application process to be as straightforward as possible and we are requesting only the information we need. Please read this guidance before you start your application.

If your organisation is invited to submit a full application we may provide you with some feedback when we respond to your EOI to ensure you provide us with enough information to assess your application. Feedback will be dependent on levels of demand. If we receive more EOIs than anticipated we will not be able to offer this.

For queries about the programme, and for technical support or assistance with accessibility, please contact our customer service team by email at enquire@heritagefund.org.uk or telephone at 020 7591 6044.

Decision Dates

There will be two decision meetings, one in late January 2022 and one in March 2022.

• To have a decision in January 2022 you will need to submit your application by noon, 13 December 2021.
• To have a decision in March 2022 you will need to submit your application by noon, 3 February 2022

Whilst we aim to work as quickly as possible through the process, we cannot guarantee a timeframe by which we will reach a decision as we may need more information or time to explore each proposal depending on the complexity or scale of the request.

You can download the templates from our supporting documents page, which includes the following:

• a Business Action Plan
• a cashflow
• a government support template
• a cost breakdown
• a preview application form
• Opening Up Access Milestone Plan template
• Opening Up Access plan guidance

Once you have submitted your EOI we will check that your organisation is eligible against the criteria outlined in this guidance. If your organisation is not eligible to this programme you will not be invited to submit a full application.

If your application is eligible, we will be in touch to provide you with further details on how to submit your full application.

When assessing your application, we will consider whether your organisation meets the essential criteria for the programme. If you do not meet the essential criteria, we will not assess your application further.

We will also consider if your plans and risk level are proportionate to the amount of funding you are applying for and the size and scale of your organisation.

Essential Criteria

You should only apply for this funding if you are able to meet all of the essential criteria:

• you must have been financially viable before COVID-19 (March 2020)
• you can demonstrate that you have exhausted all other reasonable financing options and need a grant to cover your anticipated shortfall
• your business action plan demonstrates that you have a plan towards future financial viability that minimises your anticipated shortfall and presents value for money.

If your application meets the criteria outlined above, you will also need to demonstrate that your organisation achieves at least one of the criteria below:

• high heritage significance

or

• high economic and cultural impact in your place

Heritage significance

Priority will be given to applicants that are regionally, nationally or internationally significant. To assess this, we will consider whether applicants:

• are recognised as nationally or internationally excellent within their sector
• care for designated heritage
• deliver a service that is nationally or internationally important, irreplaceable, or scarce in their place or region.
• have a national remit or responsibility that impacts on the wider heritage landscape, and their failure would risk the future of their sub-sector. For example, they may have a convening role, provide significant support for their wider sector or play a significant role in nurturing growth, diversity and creativity in the sector
• lead or deliver strategically important national and/or international activities or partnerships

Economic and cultural impact in your place

Priority will be given to applicants that play an important role in levelling-up for their place. We will consider the relationship between the applicant, the heritage, and the local area, including:

• how many cultural organisations there are in the area, and what impact the loss of the organisation or heritage would have on cultural engagement locally
• what opportunities local people have to engage with culture and heritage, particularly those in underserved audiences, including young people
• how the organisation fits into the local community, and whether it plays a vital role in tourism, supply chains, developing creative skills, or bringing other cultural and community organisations together
• whether the heritage is unique or has particular resonance with the local community. This might include whether heritage is formally designated, is in a conservation area, or is featured in a local heritage list. You should tell us about any support you have from local decision makers . For example, you may wish to set out local support of your role such as from a council or councillors, Local Enterprise Partnership or Member of Parliament 

Previous Culture Recovery Fund for Heritage recipients

If you are a previous recipient of a grant through the Culture Recovery Fund for Heritage we will assess your application against the following:

• you can demonstrate that you have exhausted all other reasonable financing options and need a grant to cover your anticipated shortfall
• your business action plan demonstrates that you have a plan towards future financial viability that minimises your anticipated shortfall and presents value for money
• whether funding from previous Culture Recovery Fund grants was used appropriately

We will also use your previous assessment to support the decision-making process.

Application balancing criteria

Before each meeting we will assess demand against the overall budget. Should demand be too high to fund all eligible applications, our decision makers will have the option to use the following criteria to balance the investment:

• Geographic spread: we want to support organisations across England. We will also consider whether your organisation is based in an area of low cultural engagement, provision, or of economic disadvantage.
• Types of organisation: We want to support a mix of heritage organisations across a range of sizes and scales.
• Range of heritage: we want to support a range of organisations across the heritage ecosystem including built heritage and monuments, places of worship, designed landscapes, archaeology, industrial, maritime and transport heritage, museums, libraries and archives.
• Opening up access and participation in culture: we want to support organisations who are committed to opening up access by developing diversity within their audiences, participants, workforce, and governance, and for those organisations which are important to their local places and audiences and which promote understanding of diverse communities across the country.

We will use this to ensure a good spread of funded projects and to differentiate between fundable applications. To inform geographic spread balancing discussions we will also consider whether your organisation is based in an area of low cultural engagement, as per the Active Lives Survey.

Decision Makers

Decisions will be made by trustees of The National Lottery Heritage Fund, taking into account recommendations from staff and Trustees at The Heritage Fund and Historic England.

If you have applied for more than £1m we may share your application with the Culture Recovery Board (or a subset of the board) appointed by DCMS and ask them for comment before a final decision is taken.

Where applications are judged to be complex these may also be shared with the Culture Recovery Board.

Conditions of funding

If you are awarded a grant, we will require you to sign up to the terms of this grant, and meet specific requirements from DCMS, including:

• where contracts allow, and organisations are legally able to do so, pay freeze for all senior staff (those earning £100,000 per annum or more) for at least 18 months, plus 10% pay reductions to pre-COVID pay for those above a £150k threshold, including cancelling bonuses.
• the organisation will demonstrate a commitment to open up access and increase the diversity of its audiences, visitors and/or participants, as well as its organisational diversity.
• demonstrate a commitment to Government targets on achieving Net Zero by 2050 and to climate disclosures
• demonstrate a commitment to increase educational outreach
• ensure you take reasonable steps to protect the heritage assets you are responsible for, in particular their physical estates
• participate in the proportionate monitoring and evaluation of this programme
• the organisation will comply with legislation relating to Subsidy Control
• keep a full audit trail of all expenditure related to the grant award and all receipts and documents may be requested at any time for checking
• Where costs included in your application are also covered by insurance and a claim is successfully made, or a pay-out for an existing claim is received, your CRF grant may be affected or reduced. In such a situation you will need to notify us.

In considering any future application you make to The National Lottery Heritage Fund or Historic England, we will take into consideration whether these conditions have been implemented.

If your application scores ‘not met’ against ‘opening up access’ we will ask for you to produce an opening up access milestone plan as a condition of your final payment.

If we award you a grant, we will send you a letter, which outlines the conditions of the grant and includes the amount you have been awarded.

You will need to complete and sign a permission to start form to confirm that you are accepting the grant and signing up to the terms of the grant. When you have completed this process, we will make your first grant payment.

Reduced award offer

When assessing your application, we will make a judgement on whether there is sufficient evidence provided to support the level of funding requested. We may offer a reduced amount of funding. We will deduct any ineligible expenditure from your grant request, and may make other reductions based on the level of demand for funding. Within your grant notification letter, we will explain the reasons for reducing any grant offered.

Insurance

Where a grant is for activity that is also covered by insurance, and the activity does not take place, resulting in an insurance payout to cover the costs, your Culture Recovery Fund grant may be affected. In such a situation your final payment will be reduced unless you can show that the grant was spent on other eligible costs in line with the original purposes of the grant.

How we will pay the grant

The funding can only be paid into a UK based bank account.

You will receive 50% of your grant upfront. You can claim a further 40% when you provide your first progress report, showing proof of expenditure of the first 50%. You can claim the final 10% at the end of your project.

When you submit your request for each payment we may review your organisation's financial viability. If your organisation is in a stronger position than you had predicted in your original application, we may decide to reduce your total grant in line with your financial need.

More details on how to claim your grant will be provided to you in our receiving a grant guidance.

Publicising your award

All successful applicants may be asked to publicise their grant in a proportionate manner. We will provide more information on how to do this in your grant award letter. The names, location, and geography of successful applicants will be published by the NHMF and by DCMS.

Reporting on your progress and evaluation

All grantees will be required to participate in monitoring and evaluation of this programme. Over the next few months we will monitor the health of your organisation.

DCMS will be evaluating the impact of the whole fund and will require you to take part in some data collection to support this work. We will provide more information about this requirement as soon as it is available.

Opening up access

If you receive funding and your application scored Not Met against “Opening up access to heritage”, we will ask for you to provide an Opening up access Milestone Plan as a condition of your grant. See our supporting document page for an Opening Up Access template plan and guidance document.

At the point of publication of this Guidance for Applicants, public funding for organisations is no longer governed by the European Commission’s ‘State aid’ rules as set out in Article 107-109 of the Treaty of the Functioning of the European Union and associated regulations and guidelines. Instead all grant decisions made after 11pm on the 31st December 2020 are subject to the new UK subsidy control regime, the principles of which are set out in Chapter 3 (Subsidies) of Title XI (Level Playing Field) of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement. Read further guidance from the Government website.

A consultation has been conducted and there will possibly be new legislation in this area to build upon the principles. You will be expected to comply with the principles of the subsidy control regime and to satisfy any future requirements. Agreements that have been entered into will be reviewed and varied accordingly. We reserve the right to impose further requirements and additional conditions in relation to this matter. 

It is an applicant’s responsibility to check whether State aid or subsidy control clearance is required. Applicants should seek independent legal advice if they are unsure whether a project will require clearance.

We understand that you may be disappointed with the outcome of either your EOI or application. We can only review our decision again if you make a complaint about how we have dealt with your Cultural Recovery Fund for Heritage application. We have a two stage complaint process for this fund.

We will only be able to consider and investigate the complaint if:

• we did not follow the published procedures for assessing your application
• you can show that we have misunderstood a significant part of your application
• you can show that we did not take notice of relevant information

A complaint must be made in writing by emailing enquire@heritagefund.org.uk within 10 working days of receiving your feedback from your EOI or your application decision. We aim to acknowledge your complaint within three working days.

Your complaint will initially be reviewed by an area/country director from The National Lottery Heritage Fund, who is independent of recommendation and decision panels for this fund.

We aim to communicate a decision within 15 working days from when you submitted your complaint.

For assistance, contact our Customer Services Team on 020 7591 6044 or email enquire@heritagefund.org.uk.