Grant Funding: Arts Council England National Lottery Project Grants Scheme

Project Grants can support individual practitioners, communities and cultural organisations with projects that focus on: Combined Arts including festivals and carnivals Dance Libraries Literature Museums Music Theatre or Visual Arts What is Project Grants? The funding comes from the National Lottery.

Grants they make usually range from £1,000 to £100,000. Project Grants is always open so you can apply at any time. You can choose whether you would like to apply for up to £30,000 or over £30,000 for your project. When they say ‘project’, they mean a series of activities or a piece of work. Your project will have a start and an end date, and a set of measurable aims that you’d like to achieve in that time.

Is Project Grants for you?

If you are a creative practitioner or cultural organisation in England, Project Grants is open to you. Whatever your background, a grant can help your work reach the people and communities that you’d like to engage. Project Grants and Let’s Create Before you apply to Project Grants you should read their ten year plan called Let’s Create. The plan is made up of 3 Outcomes and 4 Investment Principles. Outcomes are what they want their plan to do. Investment Principles are what Arts Council England believe in. They think about their principles before they give money to people or organisations.

The 3 Outcomes are:

• They want creative people
• They want cultural communities
• They want a creative and cultural country

The 4 Investment Principles are:
• They believe in ambition and quality
• They believe in being flexible, they call this dynamism
• They believe in being environmentally friendly
• They believe in being inclusive and relevant Depending on how much you apply for, your Project Grants application might talk about more than one Investment Principle.

They’d like all applications to think about Inclusivity and Relevance. Inclusivity and Relevance means how your project will include the people you’d like it to, and how it will be relevant to the people you’d like to work with.

How to apply?

Prepare

• Understand if this is the right fund for you
• Take the Quiz
• Find out what you need to apply
• Contact Access support if you need it

Timescales

• Timescales vary but as a guide: it usually takes 10 days for a new Grantium account to be approved.
• Once you’ve submitted an application it takes up to 12 weeks to make a decision (less for applications of £30,000 or under).

Register

• Wait for your Grantium profile to be approved before starting an eligibility questionnaire or application

Apply

• Make sure you have read the Guidance for Applicants
• Check for updates on the webpages
• Allow plenty of time to hear about your decision

Deadline: No deadlines, rolling grants

Grants/Funds up to: Over £100,000

How to apply: https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/ProjectGrants/national-lottery-project-grants-how-apply