A new era? What you need to know in 2024 with the full launch of NLHF new 10-year strategy and application forms

On Day 3 of #CraigmyleNLHFweek we take a look at what has changed in 2024 with the full launch of NLHF’s new 10-year strategy, entitled Heritage 2033, and application forms, and how should you respond.

In February 2023, the National Lottery Heritage Fund (NLHF) published its new 10-year strategy, Heritage 2033, setting out the principles that will shape its grant-making decisions over the course of the next decade. In keeping with a belief that community consultation is a cornerstone of good heritage project planning, NLHF itself engaged in a major consultation exercise ahead of the Strategy’s publication, with the funder listening to the views of over 4,000 stakeholders and members of the public.

image of NHLF strategy document

What attracted the most comment at the time Heritage 2033 was unveiled was the doubling of the upper ceiling for major grants awards from £5m to £10m. This policy change holds out the prospect for a small number of exceptional projects that they can receive a truly game-changing grant, whereas previously such projects might have seemed beyond the scope even of NLHF’s deep pockets. However, with most projects seeking grants well below the £5m level, a more important change described in the new Strategy is the introduction of four new ‘investment principles’ that will henceforth underpin grant award decision-making:

  • Saving heritage
  • Protecting the environment
  • Inclusion, access and participation
  • Organisational responsibility

Frustratingly, the initial publication of Heritage 2033 was not accompanied by any practical information or guidance to help potential applicants assess how different the new grant application forms and processes would prove to be. This uncertainty was only finally resolved with the release of new application forms in January 2024, a month prior to the first application deadline under the revised scheme.

This writer has prepared major Round 1 grant applications using both the old and the brand-new application models. The first thing that struck me on inspecting the new application form is that it is considerably shorter in length – containing roughly two thirds of the questions contained in the old version form. Most of the questions that have survived culling are identical or very similar to equivalent questions contained within the old form, and they also retain the same character count limits. It is also worth noting that the list of required attachments to the new form has not changed, although the restriction previously placed on supplying any helpful extra attachments has now been removed. Of the questions now removed from the new application form, many of these related to the applicant organisation rather than to the project seeking funding, so the overall effect has been to give the new application a more project-focused feel. Except within the investment principles section of the new form, there are hardly any brand-new questions, although one of the few new ones relates to the applicant’s plans for meeting their project’s match-funding requirements.

As mentioned, the one substantially changed section of the application form is the section dealing with the four new investment principles. These investment principles completely replace the nine ‘outcomes’ that were for so long the defining feature of NLHF applications. Moreover, while the old application model had a single mandatory outcome (‘How will your project involve a wider range of people?’) and only required applicants to address whichever of the other eight outcomes were relevant to their project, the new application model effectively treats all four investment principles as being mandatory, although they need not necessarily be equal in importance. Each new investment principle is the subject of just a single 5,000-character question. Given the importance of this quartet of questions within the overall application form, it is critical that bid-writers draft this section of the form with particular care to ensure they have fully explained the impact of their project in relation to each new principle.

Reviewing the four new investment principles, the third principle relating to inclusion, access and participation corresponds well with several NLHF priorities that were present within the former outcomes-based model. However, the other three principles appear to introduce new priorities or at least changes of emphasis that will require applicants to think more carefully about their projects, particularly if they have started to develop their thinking with the old NLHF model as a guide.

The saving heritage principle promotes the importance of the actual heritage being saved to a position of greater parity with the range of people engaging with the heritage (previously NLHF’s no.1 concern). Meanwhile, the organisational sustainability principle requires applicants to give far more attention to their business planning to ensure that the funded organisation and its project have genuinely viable futures which align with the values that NLHF seeks to promote. However, it is the protecting the environment principle that represents the most obvious break with the past. While an environmental impact question existed in the old application form, it now occupies a much more important position and carries a far greater weight of expectations under the new Strategy. Applicants will be wise to start thinking at the earliest stage and in a defined way about how their project impacts the environment – what will change during and after the project, how can any negative effects be mitigated, and what positive effects can be promoted?

It remains to be seen how Heritage 2033 changes the pattern of heritage project funding in the UK. No applicants under the new scheme have yet received news on the success or failure of their applications, with the first tranche of Round 1 announcements scheduled to be made in late June 2024. However, the new streamlined application form does seem to be a genuine improvement on the previous model and the new thinking that underpins Heritage 2033’s more expansive objectives hopefully bodes well for the encouragement and support of an exciting new crop of heritage projects across the UK over the next decade.

https://www.heritagefund.org.uk/about/heritage-2033-our-10-year-strategy

*

CraigmyleNLHFweek

Day 1 https://www.craigmyle.org.uk/tips-and-blogs/the-evolving-role-of-national-heritage-lottery-fund/

Day 2 https://www.craigmyle.org.uk/tips-and-blogs/things-to-consider-before-an-nhlf-application/

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On Day 3 of #CraigmyleNLHFweek we take a look at what has changed in 2024 with the full launch of NLHF’s new 10-year strategy, entitled Heritage 2033, and application forms, and how should you respond.

In February 2023, the National Lottery Heritage Fund (NLHF) published its new 10-year strategy, Heritage 2033, setting out the principles that will shape its grant-making decisions over the course of the next decade. In keeping with a belief that community consultation is a cornerstone of good heritage project planning, NLHF itself engaged in a major consultation exercise ahead of the Strategy’s publication, with the funder listening to the views of over 4,000 stakeholders and members of the public.

image of NHLF strategy document

What attracted the most comment at the time Heritage 2033 was unveiled was the doubling of the upper ceiling for major grants awards from £5m to £10m. This policy change holds out the prospect for a small number of exceptional projects that they can receive a truly game-changing grant, whereas previously such projects might have seemed beyond the scope even of NLHF’s deep pockets. However, with most projects seeking grants well below the £5m level, a more important change described in the new Strategy is the introduction of four new ‘investment principles’ that will henceforth underpin grant award decision-making:

  • Saving heritage
  • Protecting the environment
  • Inclusion, access and participation
  • Organisational responsibility

Frustratingly, the initial publication of Heritage 2033 was not accompanied by any practical information or guidance to help potential applicants assess how different the new grant application forms and processes would prove to be. This uncertainty was only finally resolved with the release of new application forms in January 2024, a month prior to the first application deadline under the revised scheme.

This writer has prepared major Round 1 grant applications using both the old and the brand-new application models. The first thing that struck me on inspecting the new application form is that it is considerably shorter in length – containing roughly two thirds of the questions contained in the old version form. Most of the questions that have survived culling are identical or very similar to equivalent questions contained within the old form, and they also retain the same character count limits. It is also worth noting that the list of required attachments to the new form has not changed, although the restriction previously placed on supplying any helpful extra attachments has now been removed. Of the questions now removed from the new application form, many of these related to the applicant organisation rather than to the project seeking funding, so the overall effect has been to give the new application a more project-focused feel. Except within the investment principles section of the new form, there are hardly any brand-new questions, although one of the few new ones relates to the applicant’s plans for meeting their project’s match-funding requirements.

As mentioned, the one substantially changed section of the application form is the section dealing with the four new investment principles. These investment principles completely replace the nine ‘outcomes’ that were for so long the defining feature of NLHF applications. Moreover, while the old application model had a single mandatory outcome (‘How will your project involve a wider range of people?’) and only required applicants to address whichever of the other eight outcomes were relevant to their project, the new application model effectively treats all four investment principles as being mandatory, although they need not necessarily be equal in importance. Each new investment principle is the subject of just a single 5,000-character question. Given the importance of this quartet of questions within the overall application form, it is critical that bid-writers draft this section of the form with particular care to ensure they have fully explained the impact of their project in relation to each new principle.

Reviewing the four new investment principles, the third principle relating to inclusion, access and participation corresponds well with several NLHF priorities that were present within the former outcomes-based model. However, the other three principles appear to introduce new priorities or at least changes of emphasis that will require applicants to think more carefully about their projects, particularly if they have started to develop their thinking with the old NLHF model as a guide.

The saving heritage principle promotes the importance of the actual heritage being saved to a position of greater parity with the range of people engaging with the heritage (previously NLHF’s no.1 concern). Meanwhile, the organisational sustainability principle requires applicants to give far more attention to their business planning to ensure that the funded organisation and its project have genuinely viable futures which align with the values that NLHF seeks to promote. However, it is the protecting the environment principle that represents the most obvious break with the past. While an environmental impact question existed in the old application form, it now occupies a much more important position and carries a far greater weight of expectations under the new Strategy. Applicants will be wise to start thinking at the earliest stage and in a defined way about how their project impacts the environment – what will change during and after the project, how can any negative effects be mitigated, and what positive effects can be promoted?

It remains to be seen how Heritage 2033 changes the pattern of heritage project funding in the UK. No applicants under the new scheme have yet received news on the success or failure of their applications, with the first tranche of Round 1 announcements scheduled to be made in late June 2024. However, the new streamlined application form does seem to be a genuine improvement on the previous model and the new thinking that underpins Heritage 2033’s more expansive objectives hopefully bodes well for the encouragement and support of an exciting new crop of heritage projects across the UK over the next decade.

https://www.heritagefund.org.uk/about/heritage-2033-our-10-year-strategy

*

CraigmyleNLHFweek

Day 1 https://www.craigmyle.org.uk/tips-and-blogs/the-evolving-role-of-national-heritage-lottery-fund/

Day 2 https://www.craigmyle.org.uk/tips-and-blogs/things-to-consider-before-an-nhlf-application/