The Architectural Heritage Fund

🚨 📢 Our new strategy has arrived! Since 1976, we have supported nearly 2000 historic building reuse projects across the UK, through £90m of loan offers and £33m of grants invested in the community-led regeneration of historic buildings and places. Today, we are really pleased to launch our new 2023-28 Strategy, which sets out our mission, values and priorities, and describes our strategic aims for the next five years, including our 50th anniversary in 2026. Learn more: ➡️ https://bit.ly/45pbHq3 Thank you to all our partners who help to make our work possible - we look forward to working with you all over the next few years. National Lottery Heritage Fund, Historic England, Department for Culture, Media and Sport, Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, Historic Environment Scotland, Cadw, Department for Communities, Pilgrim Trust, Garfield Weston Foundation, and the William Grant Foundation. #Strategy #StrategyLaunch #Heritage #Historic #Regeneration #Community #Building #BuildingReuse #Reuse #Restoration #Project #RegenerationProject #Charity #SocialEnterprise #Funding #SocEnt

🏛 Enabling community-led regeneration across Scotland. 🙌 Great to read this positive evaluation of The Architectural Heritage Fund (AHF)'s work in Scotland, which recognises its role as a catalyst for enabling community-led projects to develop their plans. Demand for support with community-led heritage regeneration here is high compared to other parts of the UK: Scotland, with just 8% of the UK population, was responsible for around 27% of all applications to the AHF in the last five years! We're pleased to help it meet some of that demand by providing funds it can award to projects that might otherwise not get supported - including for non-listed buildings that are nonetheless valued by their communities. A couple of stats that stood out for us in this report: Around one-third (35%) of projects are on the Buildings at Risk Register and just over two-thirds (68%) are in areas of deprivation (30% most deprived on Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation). Another thing that really comes through in the report is how approachable, supportive and expert are AHF's "small but mighty" team here in Scotland. That's certainly our impression and we're grateful to them for helping our funding get to where it can make the biggest difference.

It's official: In Scotland, we are ‘small but mighty’; our funding is ‘very carefully targeted’ and ‘grows this really big scale impact,' all made possible by our key Scotland funders, Historic Environment Scotland and the William Grant Foundation, as well as The National Lottery Heritage Fund. 📣 We are delighted to be sharing our Scotland Programmes Evaluation Report. This new report summarises the research findings of RF Associates, demonstrating the impact of AHF grant and loan programmes in Scotland between April 2019 and March 2024. 💡 Interesting fact! During this five-year period, we offered £2.4M of grant funding across all parts of Scotland, to a total of 193 different non-profit organisations, supporting 201 different built heritage regeneration projects, and made loan offers totalling more than £3M to 15 organisations. The report includes more facts and figures from the last five years, as well as an analysis of our Scotland programmes and the wider impacts that our work is having within the Scottish heritage sector. Find out more and read the full Evaluation Report here: ➡️ https://bit.ly/3ATKmkO #Heritage #Regeneration #Evaluation #Report #Funding #Scotland #SocialImpact #Impact 📸 1. Kerrera Old School, now a community hub. Credit - Kevin McGlynn. 2. An infographic showing facts and figures from the last five years of the AHF's grant and loan programmes in Scotland. 3. The cover of our new Evaluation Report.

Happy #InternationalDayOfCharity! We would like to say a huge thank-you to all our wonderful supporters and funding partners. Your help enables us to continue supporting fantastic heritage and community-led regeneration projects across the UK, just like these. 👇 Passionate about heritage? You can help us support more communities across the UK to conserve and repurpose treasured historic buildings by becoming a Friend of the AHF today. 👉 https://bit.ly/3MXlTfU #DayOfCharity #Charity #Heritage #Regeneration 📸 1. Inverness East Church, Scotland. Credit - Cultarlann Inbhir Nis. 2. The Norwegian Church Arts Centre, Cardiff Bay, Wales. Credit - The Welsh Norwegian Society. 3. St Columb’s Hall, Derry, Northern Ireland. Credit - St Columb’s Hall Trust. 4. The Giles Shirley Hall, Bromborough Pool Village, England. Credit - Autism Together.

🚨 Funding news! Grade II*-listed St Teilo's Church in Llanarth, Monmouthshire, has been closed to the public since 2013. Now, the Village Alive Trust is working on a project to conserve this historic former church for a variety of community uses. Specific plans include the creation of a flexible, open space for activities and events in the nave, as well as a bell ringing school in the prominent three-storey tower. We have supported this project since 2019 and are delighted to announce that we have now awarded a further grant to help build on existing development work. Learn more: ➡️ https://bit.ly/4gdBQ0r 📸 Village Alive Trust #Heritage #Regeneration #Church #HistoricChurch #Grant #Funding #AHFsupported #Wales

📣 If you’re looking for funding for your charity's work, or to conserve or revitalise a historic building, here's a reminder that we're joining SCVO (Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations)'s next online Meet the Funder session on 10th September at 11am. 💻 Not only will you hear from our Scotland Development Manager, Gordon Barr, and our Investment Manager, Andrew Hitches-Davies, about the support available, but you will also have the opportunity to ask questions to help give yourself the best chance of securing funding. Do come along and join us! Book your place: 👉 https://bit.ly/3Av5gGS #Webinar #Funding #Grants #SocInv #Charities #SocEnt

Read all about it. 🗞 The Observer Building in Hastings has been brought back into use! The former HQ and printworks of the Hastings and St Leonard's Observer closed in 1984. Now, thanks to a major renovation and re-purposing project by one of our #HeritageDevelopmentTrusts, Hastings Commons, it has been saved from dereliction and transformed into a lively and important new resource for the local community. It was also recently featured as a case study demonstrating the impact of historic building re-use on the local creative economy in Historic England’s ‘Cultural Heritage, Creativity and the Creative Economy’ research. We are very pleased to have played a part in the regeneration of this landmark building, providing #HeritageImpactFund loan investment towards the first phase of the project. Learn more: ➡️ https://bit.ly/4dPzLpi 📸 Justin Lycett #Heritage #Regeneration #HistoricBuilding #Printworks #Newspaper #News #Community #SocialImpact #SocInv #SocialInvestment #LoanFinance #Hastings

Are you looking for funding for your charity's work, or to conserve or revitalise a historic building? We're excited to be joining the People's Postcode Trust for SCVO (Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations)'s next online Meet the Funder session. Come along to: ⭐️ Hear from our Scotland Development Manager, Gordon Barr, and our Investment Manager, Andrew Hitches-Davies, about our funding in Scotland. ⭐️ Get guidance on how to ensure your funding application is as strong as possible. ⭐️ Get top tips on finding the right funds for your organisation. ⭐️ Ask us questions! 📆 10 September ⏰️ 11.00-12.00 Don't miss out. Book your place now: 👉 https://bit.ly/3Av5gGS #Funding #Grants #Loans #SocInv #Funders #Charities #Charity #SocEnt #Webinar

It has been over a year since the completion of the Energise Project! Through the project, underutilised floors of Bridgwater Baptist Church have been restored and repurposed to support wider community use and enterprise activities, and to promote social and personal wellbeing. We're pleased to have supported the Energise Project renovations with a capital grant from our Transforming Places through Heritage programme. Read more: 👉 https://bit.ly/3yBgQzL 📸 1. The Cellar Coffee Bar at Bridgwater Baptist Church before the Energise Project renovations. 2. The Cellar Coffee Bar after the Energise Project renovations. 3. The Enterprise Hub Offices at Bridgwater Baptist Church before the Energise Project renovations. 4. The Enterprise Hub Offices after the Energise Project renovations. #Heritage #Regeneration #HistoricBuilding #TransformingPlaces #Community #SocialImpact #Wellbeing #Enterprise

We are delighted to have had our Chair, Ros Kerslake CBE, and our Support Officer for Northern Ireland, Leah O'Neill, in Derry to celebrate the launch of 17-20 Magazine Street, a fantastic project by one of our #HeritageDevelopmentTrusts, Inner City Trust. 👇