Deadline: 31-Oct-24
The Architectural Heritage Fund (AHF) is offering grants in Northern Ireland to help with assessing the viability of a project, or to help fund development costs.
The Architectural Heritage Fund (AHF) helps communities find enterprising ways to revitalise the old buildings they love. The funds support charities and social enterprises in developing sustainable new uses for historic buildings that are redundant or under-used. They aim to both enable the conservation of historic buildings and also to help groups own and manage historic buildings for the long-term.
They do this by providing grants for early-stage project development; and loans at any stage.
The development work that they fund enables groups to test out ideas for re-using a building and to prepare detailed plans to the point of being ready to commence the works. In Northern Ireland, projects may be located anywhere – in cities, towns or rural areas.
Funding Categories
- Harnessing Heritage programme Project Viability Grant (PVG) or Village Catalyst PVG
- Maximum £10,000
- Project Viability Grants are designed to fund studies to look at potential uses for a building and at its current condition, and to produce a Viability Report to a standard template.
- Successful completion of this will be used to judge whether applicants can then apply for a Project Development Grant which can be used to secure further funding elsewhere. This grant is administered on a rolling basis. They aim to let you know whether you have been successful within six weeks.
- Harnessing Heritage programme Project Development Grant (PDG)
- Maximum £20,000
- Project Development Grants are intended to assist an organisation to cover some of the costs of developing and co-ordinating a project to enable it to secure capital funding and take it towards the start of work on site.
- To qualify, an organisation must have established that the end use of the project is likely to be viable and that they have decided to take the project forward.
- Village Catalyst Project Development Grant (PDG)
- Maximum £20,000
- If you would like to apply for a Village Catalyst Project Development Grant, please check the eligibility criteria, read the guidance and complete the Expression of Interest form below. If you are eligible, they will send you a link to the online form.
Eligible Projects
- In general, your project will be eligible if all of the following apply:
- your project involves an historic building, which they define as:
- Listed – Category A, B+, B1 or B2
- unlisted but in a Conservation Area and/or
- highly valued by the local community for its demonstrable historic interest;
- your project involves a change of primary use and/or a change of ownership;
- your project is being led by a not-for-private-profit organisation
- your project involves an historic building, which they define as:
Ineligible Projects
- work that has started before a decision to award a grant
- on site capital works
- repair costs that are not part of a larger scheme to find a new sustainable use
- ongoing maintenance costs
Eligibility Criteria
- Your organisation must be one of the following not-for-private-profit organisations, or lowest tiers of local government
- Unincorporated organisations (e.g. charitable trusts and associations) intending to incorporate (for Project Viability Grants only)
- Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO)
- Charitable Company Limited by Guarantee
- Charitable Community Benefit Societies
- Community Benefit Societies
- Not-for-private-profit companies Limited by Guarantee
- Community Interest Companies (CICs) Limited by Guarantee
- Co-operatives
Ineligible
- Private individuals
- Local authorities or other public sector bodies (unless applying on behalf of an organisation still in formation)
- Universities, colleges and other mainstream educational institutions, including independent schools
- For profit companies, unless in a partnership led by a not-for-profit organisation
- Unincorporated organisations (e.g. charitable trusts and associations) that are not intending to incorporate
- Organisations with less than three Trustees or Directors (if there are only three Trustees/Directors none of these should be spouses or otherwise related to each other)
- Limited liability partnerships
- Churches or other places of worship, where the building or the space within the building you are enquiring about will be used as an active place of religious worship – defined as hosting regular religious services or religion-based activities such as prayer or religious study. If you are unclear as to whether your project is eligible on the basis of religious activity taking place within your building, please reach out to one of the Officers who will be able to provide further guidance.
For more information, visit AHF.