The Fund’s aim is to defend the most outstanding parts of the national heritage of the UK. This is achieved by providing grants to enable organisations based in the UK to buy items of outstanding interest and of importance to national heritage. These must either be at risk or of memorial character.
Value Notes
There is no set minimum or maximum amount of funding.
The Fund is essentially a ‘last resort’. Applicants must be able to prove that they have explored, or are exploring, all other possible sources of funding.
The Fund will only pay for the total cost of a project or acquisition in exceptional cases.
Match Funding Restrictions
Assistance will only be given where there is no other source of funding, as the Fund is essentially a ‘last resort’. The Fund will only provide 100% funding in exceptional circumstances.
Who Can Apply
Applications will be considered from:
- Local authorities.
- Other public sector organisations, such as a school or a university.
- Some not-for-profit organisations which are not in the public sector.
Restrictions
The following are not eligible for funding:
- Items that have already been purchased, or that have been secured with a down payment or deposit.
- Yearly revenue funding.
- Day-to-day running costs or maintenance.
- The costs of payroll staff.
- Development studies.
- Research projects.
- Costs of general furniture, fittings and equipment.
- Private individuals.
- Commercial businesses.
The funders will not normally consider heritage which is less than 10 years old, since it is generally difficult to judge the importance of such items.
Eligible Expenditure
The Fund can be used to help organisations buy:
- Works of fine and decorative art.
- Museum collections.
- Archives.
- Manuscripts.
- Items of transport, industrial and maritime heritage.
- Historic buildings.
- Land.
- Archaeology.
Projects must meet the following criteria:
- Importance to the national heritage – projects 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; however items which are less than 10 years old will not normally be considered, since it is generally difficult to judge national importance of items below this age.
- Outstanding interest – the item(s) must be in some way outstanding. This could be because of rarity, quality, association with a historic figure or event or designations.
- At risk – applicants must be able to prove that the item(s) will be at risk in some way should they not be able to acquire them.
- Last resort – applications must demonstrate that all other possible sources of support have been explored and show why these have not been possible, including The National Lottery Heritage Fund. Applications should show that support from the Memorial Fund is the last chance for the heritage to be safeguarded.
The Fund does not give a definition for heritage, importance or risk; applicants must make their own case for each of these categories.
All applicants must:
- Ensure the price of the item(s) they wish to buy does not exceed the current market value.
- Commission an independent valuation and submit it with their application. (Valuations are not required for export-stopped items or those declared treasure.)
- Be able to demonstrate that they can provide an appropriate, permanent and secure home for their chosen item(s).
- Demonstrate how the item(s) will be made publicly accessible. If an object is too fragile for long-term display or unrestricted access to land or a building could put it at risk, then managed or restricted access can be considered.
How To Apply
Applications can be made at any time.
The first step in making an application is to submit an expression of interest via the online funding portal. Applicants who are successful at this stage will be invited to submit a full application.
The assessment process is as follows:
- Normally three months from application to decision for urgent cases (those with a fixed deadline for purchase).
- Normally six months from application to decision for non-urgent cases.
Full details are available on the National Heritage Memorial Fund website.