Since 1994 we have awarded over £510million to more than 24,600 community and cultural heritage projects across the UK.

We provide grants for heritage projects from £10,000–£10m to help preserve the cultures and memories of the UK’s different communities, from traditional practices to people’s unique perspectives on the past. 

What do we support?

Intangible Cultural Heritage

We fund projects which help to save, celebrate and pass on  traditions, customs, skills and knowledge. 

This cultural heritage is also known as living heritage. This is because it is constantly changing to meet the needs of people and communities and kept alive when practiced or performed.

Intangible cultural heritage can include:

• crafts
• culinary practices
• nature, land and spirituality
• oral expressions
• performing arts
• social practices
• sports and games

Our good practice guidance has tips and inspiration for running intangible cultural heritage projects.

Memories

We also fund projects which document and share people’s memories and experiences, ensuring they are accessible now and in the future.

This could involve:

• running reminiscence sessions
• sharing community stories through exhibitions or films
• recording and archiving oral histories

Our oral history good practice guidance includes advice on planning and running oral history projects. It also explains how they are different from other kinds of memory-sharing projects.

Project ideas

Our funding could help people:

• train others in traditional skills and crafts, from dry stone walling and blacksmithing to basket weaving and textile making
• explore the origins of culture, such as music, theatre or dance, and create performances influenced by past styles
• share the history and fun of celebrations, festivals or rituals with new audiences, from games and cooking to carnivals and fayres
• research and preserve oral traditions, such as storytelling or local dialects
• capture accounts of traditional knowledge or pass it on, such as woodland management or home remedies
• record and archive the stories of ordinary people through oral histories, for example about growing up, migration or work
• retell people’s memories about a place or event, such as a long-stay hospital, the miners' strikes or the punk movement

How to get funding

Our National Lottery Heritage Grants programme is open for applications.