The AHF is delighted to be able to announce that, thanks to new financial support from Historic Environment Scotland’s Organisational Support Fund, we are able to offer small grants to support community and not-for-private profit organisations and their heritage regeneration projects across Scotland.
Recognising that these are not normal times, and that many organisations may be struggling to survive, we have made some changes to our grant programmes, at least for the short term.
When things return to normal, community-led economic regeneration will be even more important than before, and we want to make sure the projects we support are still thriving and able to use our important built heritage to deliver real and lasting change.
For current and recent grantees:
We will continue to offer advice, support and help signpost groups to other sources of support as needed;
We will automatically extend current grant offer periods to allow for more time to deliver so you do not have to worry about deadlines;
We will be as flexible as possible to amend previously agreed funding outputs to allow for changing circumstances - if you would like to make any potential changes, please get in touch and we can confirm this;
For current and previous grantees only, where organisations and/or an ongoing project is at immediate risk due to urgent financial pressures, we have set aside some specific short-term additional funding to help in these cases. This includes the need for additional emergency core funding to replace loss of earned income, where funding is not available to you from elsewhere.
If you are eligible to apply for this additional funding we will be contacting you directly when the scheme launches.
For organisations looking to start or further develop their ideas, our grant programmes are still open for business to help you develop new ideas for using historic buildings to help deliver economic and social benefits to your immediate and wider communities:
Our Project Viability Grants can help pay for work to test ideas and establish if a project might be viable or not – this can include work towards business planning, options appraisals, and helping organisations get set up and become a legal entity. This grant is now available for up to £10k per project, and now does not require any match funding to be in place to be able to apply.
Our Project Development Grants can help support organisational capacity by funding a key staff role such as project organiser or fundraiser. They can also help meet the cost of design team or other professional fees to help projects get ready to apply elsewhere for larger capital funding support. This grant is now available, with projects able to apply multiple times up to a cap of £40,000.
If you would like to know more please complete an initial Enquiry Form and we will get back to you as soon as we can to discuss your needs.
200 different grant offers have been made
95 project viability grants
89 project or community development grants
16 tailored support fund grants
159 different organisations have been supported
56% of grants were to organisations undertaking their first heritage related project
171 different building regeneration projects have been developed
76% of projects relate to a Category A or B listed building
45% of projects involve buildings on the Buildings at Risk Register
£1.7M total grant funding has been offered through AHF
Individual grants range from £700 to £49,000
Grant programmes funded by Historic Environment Scotland and the William Grant Foundation
£6.8M in further immediate funding has been leveraged
Longer term, over £124m of funding for completed projects secured
AHF has made 25 loan offers totalling more than £5M to Scottish project
About the Architectural Heritage Fund
The AHF are the leading heritage social investor and the only specialist heritage lender operating in the UK. In the last 15 years, 293 historic buildings across the UK have been regenerated thanks to over £46 million of AHF investment.
About Historic Environment Scotland
Historic Environment Scotland are the lead public body charged with caring for, protecting and promoting the historic environment. HES lead on delivering Scotland’s first strategy for the historic environment, Our Place in Time. Historic Environment Scotland is a registered Scottish Charity. Scottish Charity No. SC045925
