What Are Some Top Tips When Applying for Heritage Funding?

What is this advice about?

This advice is for individuals considering applying, or who have already successfully applied for, heritage funding such as Historic England's Everyday Heritage Grants.

Recipients who have completed their Everyday Heritage Grant projects have learned many helpful lessons along the way and have kindly shared these to benefit future grant recipients. We have adapted these lessons to apply to any heritage grant.

What are the key points?

Top tips

Working with partners

Most Everyday Heritage Grant recipients worked in partnership with other organisations, including local authorities, universities, churches, museums, or charities working with specific communities.

It is essential to ensure, before starting your project, that all partner organisations are aware of the time and work commitment required for the project, and that all partners share the same aims and outcomes.

Making your budget work

It is important to ensure that all items in your budget are planned and accounted for. If your budget has been approved by the grant provider, your project will need to stick to the planned outgoings, with invoices and receipts accounted for.

When planning your budget, check if the grant you are applying for includes room for contingency spending, as not all grants do. It is understandable that there might be unexpected costs associated with your project, such as the Cost-of-Living crisis and inflation. It is essential that you raise these issues with your grant provider or Project Assurance Officer as soon as you become aware of any potential cost increases.

It is also important to ensure that the grant total you request is sufficient for the planned work and that you have carefully considered staff time and other expenditure items.

Working with schools

If you plan to work with schools, it is essential to consider whether there is sufficient space in the school’s timetable and curriculum to fully participate in the project.

Make sure to contact schools and teachers before applying for your grant to ensure they are on board and able to participate, and to avoid running a project with participants who can't commit.

Time and work commitments

Heritage projects can, depending on the size and aims of your project, be a large time and work commitment. It is important to ensure that your project is realistic and appropriately budgeted.

If you are running the project alongside another job or other personal commitments, it is essential to ensure you can fully commit to the project without overextending yourself or risking burnout.

Permissions

Some Everyday Heritage Grant projects involved legacy outputs, such as the planting of new trees, the opening of new market stalls, the installation of plaques, or the creation of permanent public art. These outputs often require permissions from relevant authorities, and it is the recipient (not the grant provider) who is responsible for obtaining these.

This can sometimes take a long time, so we encourage applicants to initiate conversations about permissions as soon as possible and to ensure that this is acknowledged on the risk register and that mitigations are in place.

Realistic community goals

When co-creating, it is better to work with communities you have already established a relationship with or work in partnership with an organisation that has direct connections to the community.

Co-creation is at the heart of Everyday Heritage grants and other heritage grant programmes, and community members should be involved at every stage of your project. Building relationships, trust, and buy-in from communities takes time.

The outdoors

Be sure to consider the weather when planning outdoor events. This could include planting trees, archaeological excavations, or community events in parks.

Large delays can occur if important parts of the project are delayed due to inclement weather, with no alternative plan in place, which can create difficulties in meeting the grant timeline.

Make sure to consider who you are working with and the accessibility of outdoor spaces as well. Include weather in your risk register, and don't forget that hot weather can be just as disruptive as rain.

Participant appropriate outputs

When deciding on the outputs of your project, consider what the most appropriate media output is for the demographics you aim to work with.

Some projects, for example, have found that while they had planned to create oral history-based podcasts and online films, a large portion of their participants and audiences were more interested in less-technology-heavy media.

Your outputs should always be led by your community co-creators to ensure that they are most appropriate.

Time to plan and evaluate

If you are successful in your application, allow plenty of space in your timeline at the beginning and end of the project.

Getting projects off the ground can take time owing to the different organisations, people, venues, and community members involved; many recipients underestimated this.

It is essential to allow for this initial phase, as well as sufficient time at the end of the project for final reports and evaluations to be written and submitted to Historic England.

Conclusion

While heritage projects should, above all, be enjoyable and beneficial to both those who run them and those who participate, they can also be a significant commitment involving considerable planning.

However, don’t let this deter you from applying for heritage funding. With these tips and further reading, you should feel more confident when starting your project.