Resilient Heritage grants between £3,000 and £250,000 will fund a range of tailored activity specifically designed to help organisations improve the way they manage heritage for the long-term.

In a challenging and constantly changing economic landscape, one where there is less public funding available, safeguarding the country’s heritage is all about building resilience the HLF said.

The new fund will enable organisation to apply for grants for specific areas that will improve their resilience such as building fundraising capacity and tapping into new income streams with Resilient Heritage grants helping them secure the skills and knowledge needed. The grants can also facilitate a new business operating model or new approach to governance and leadership that would put an organisation on a more resilient footing.

Resilient Heritage builds on HLF’s Catalyst, Transition and Start-Up Grant programmes launched in 2012, in partnership with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and ACE. Catalyst responded to the growing needs of the heritage sector to build financial independence and resilience in a changing economic landscape of reduced public funding.

Ros Kerslake, HLF Chief Executive, said: “Catalyst showed us there is an appetite from heritage organisations to adapt and grow in order to build a firm financial footing. Resilient Heritage brings together all that we have learnt, providing a tailored package of support that responds to the individual needs of organisations so they can not only survive in these challenging financial times, but thrive.”

Resilient Heritage Grant Possibilities:

  • Acquire new skills or knowledge to help build fundraising capacity or open up new income streams
  • Explore new business operating models or introduce new approaches to governance and leadership
  • Identify opportunities to reduce negative environmental impacts and make efficiency savings
  • Create partnerships between heritage organisations to provide training and capacity building
  • Prepare to take on new responsibility for heritage, such as through community asset transfer

For more information about application deadlines or to review the programme guidance visit the Resilience Heritage page.

Organisations can also find out how resilient they currently are with our new online Resilient Heritage strength checker tool.

On Thursday 4 August HLF will host a live chat on its Online Community where we’ll answer all the Resilient Heritage application and assessment questions we can fit in an hour.

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Middleport Pottery, which received a £1.5m HLF grant in 2012 and was saved by the Prince’s Regeneration Trust, is now a shining example of how redeveloped industrial heritage can benefit communities.

Through its latest Resilient Heritage grants it is hoping that established organisations will be able to utilise funds to make them more resilient.

Photograph by Tim Crocker