Community heritage

Since 1994 we have awarded £590million to more than 27,600 community and cultural heritage projects across the UK.
What do we support?
We fund projects that are researching, conserving and celebrating the heritage of a community or place.
These projects could include lots of types of heritage, such as people celebrating living customs or improving a historic green space. What's most important is that the project involves and benefits the community.
Project ideas
Our funding could help people:
- research the impact of a historical event on their town, and share their findings through displays, talks and online
- investigate the names on a war memorial
- crowdsource documents and photographs linked to the LGBTQ+ community, creating an online archive and exhibition
- set up an audio trail around a range of buildings, parks and monuments in a town
- enable a youth group to research their local history and create an animated film about their learnings
For more inspiration, see the stories below or browse projects we've funded.
How to get funding
Our National Lottery Grants for Heritage programme is open for applications.

Projects
Linen Biennale presents a new chapter in Northern Ireland’s linen history
Linen Biennale celebrates the versatility and beauty of linen with a packed events programme bringing people together to share skills and reimagine the fabric’s future.
Projects
Capturing stories of those at the 1981 People’s March for Jobs
The Giz a Job project will support a group of volunteers to produce an in-depth ‘people’s history’ of the iconic march and the right to work movement.

Projects
Outdoors for All: supporting South Asian communities in Glasgow
The founders of Boots and Beards are using their love for Scotland’s outdoors to bring together the wider South Asian community.
Projects
Multi-generational project fosters sense of connectedness amongst Luton’s Bengali community
Bangladesh Youth League Luton aims to create greater understanding of Bangladeshi heritage and culture through creative activities, sharing heritage with the public and training project volunteers.
Projects
Celebrating the rich heritage of Leeds with a landmark year of culture
In a programme of community projects, local people will come together to showcase what makes Leeds a city to be truly proud of.

News
Six projects celebrating the legacy of the Windrush generation

News
Eurovision fever in full swing across Liverpool City Region
Projects
Wordsworth rewritten by people who experience homelessness
The Refuge from the Ravens project explored and retold the stories of an 18th-century book of poetry which featured poor people of the time.

Stories
Bradford’s diverse community heritage celebrated and shared thanks to local knowledge
Projects
RoseTinted: Empowering women in Walsall and beyond
This project used heritage as a lens to engage a wider range of people, while developing skills in research, financial planning, personal care and wellbeing.

Projects
The Gardeners' House: connecting people with nature
£2.2million has been awarded to create a new green community hub in Penzance, housing 200 years of Cornwall’s natural heritage and a sensory garden.
Projects
Neurodiversity through the ages
Educating local communities in Grimsby about neurodiversity throughout human history, including – the development of psychiatry as a discipline, the history of diagnoses and how society treated neurodivergent people.