| We are planning to make our church more accessible so that it can be used for a variety of activities, but this will take a great deal of money. Will the Heritage Lottery Fund help us?
THE SHORT answer is: yes, no, and it depends. The Heritage Lottery Fund seeks to help people in the UK learn about their own and other people’s heritage, and to either conserve that heritage or help more people to take an active part in, and make decisions about, heritage.
Take a good look at their website, including the many projects that have already been funded. The most common misunderstanding among the churches I meet is that, because theirs is a listed church, members think that adapting it for wider use in order to make it viable is an issue for the Heritage Lottery Fund. It is not.
First, it must be a heritage project, not a community or religious project, that can have a heritage gain as a by-product. So, for example, you might plan to open a heritage centre in your church, to be open on a daily basis, with space for a variety of programmes for and by local people. You will, however, in the course of developing the project, have to show how you will market the heritage; how you will help with interpretation and education; and how you will involve a wide variety of people.
If your primary aim is to create community facilities and meeting space, or arts and performance space, the Heritage Lottery Fund is not your best target-source — even if it is a heritage building.
Your first task, therefore, is to be specific about who will use your adapted building, for what activities, and at what times. Undertake an audit with local residents, schools, arts providers, voluntary groups, and the local authority, to see if there is a demand for space and activities.
Much of the work starts at your desk, but consultation will include meetings, questionnaires, and face-to-face conversations. This will enable you to determine the level of interest, and whether people will take up the opportunity to learn about their heritage in your church. This is one of the first questions that the Heritage Lottery Fund asks in its pre-application form.
By the time you get around to filling out the main form (it is done in two stages, so that you do not do too much work before finding out whether the Heritage Lottery Fund is interested in funding your project), you will need a great deal of information about local demand, about how you will communicate about your project to new audiences, and about a variety of other issues including heritage interpretation, education, volunteering, and community participation.
You will also need to have a preliminary business plan, with a solid idea of how the money will be used over the short- to medium-term, how the management will happen, and details of a strategy that will ensure that the project is sustainable in the long term.
Your pre-application form will trigger a meeting with an officer of the Heritage Lottery Fund, who will advise you on how to develop your project in line with their guidelines.
The Heritage Lottery Fund process is thorough, and will take a considerable amount of time; so a great deal of useful development and planning work will be done that will help to clarify your project.
www.hlf.org.uk
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