WRVS Heritage Plus project funders through the National Lottery

By Nicola Benge

About the Heritage Lottery Fund

The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) was set up by Parliament in 1994 to give grants to a wide range of projects involving the local, regional and national heritage of the United Kingdom. They distribute a share of the money raised by the National Lottery for Good Causes. In 2008 the Heritage Lottery Fund will allocate around £255 million to projects in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Since 1994, the HLF has awarded £4 billion to more than 26,000 projects across the UK.

The Heritage Lottery Fund is officially known as a 'non-departmental public body'. This means that, although they are not a government department, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport issues financial and policy directions to them and they report to Parliament through the department. Decisions made about individual applications and policies by the Heritage Lottery Fund are entirely independent.

The Heritage Lottery Fund is administered by the Trustees of the National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF), which allocates around £10 million per annum to our national heritage, acting as a fund of 'last resort'.