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Culture Recovery Fund: Grants

Key Information

Welcome to the Culture Recovery Fund: Grants Programme. This fund offered financial support for cultural organisations that were financially stable before Covid-19, but were at imminent risk of failure.

Total fund: Up to £500 million

Grant range: Minimum of £50,000 up to a maximum of £3 million

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Applicant guidance

You can download the guidance for applicants below, where you can find all of the information you need including the eligibility criteria, the application process and the questions and character counts in the application form.

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About the programme

What is this funding for? 

This grants programme is part of the Government’s £1.57 billion package to protect the UK’s culture and heritage sectors from the economic impacts of Covid-19. This fund supports cultural organisations.
 
This fund is to enable cultural organisations that have been affected by the Covid-19 crisis to stay afloat, providing them with support over a 6-month period to ensure that by 31 March 2021 they can reopen, either fully or partially, or operating on a sustainable, cost-efficient basis until they are able to reopen at a later date.  

Who was eligible for Recovery Grants? (updated 5 August 2020)

This programme is open to arts and cultural organisations, including charitable and non-profit organisations as well as private organisations and commercial for-profit ventures.

The lead organisation (the organisation submitting the application) should be properly constituted as an organisation. The kinds of organisations that are eligible to apply include:

  • limited companies registered at Companies House
  • community interest companies (CICs) registered with the CIC regulator
  • charitable incorporated organisations (CIOs) registered with the Charity Commission
  • charitable companies or charitable trusts registered with the Charity Commission
  • limited liability partnerships registered at Companies House
  • partnerships established under a partnership deed/ agreement
  • community benefit societies regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority
  • Royal Charter bodies
  • statutory bodies and other public bodies including Universities and museum who run or maintain cultural services

The lead organisation must also be able to provide at least one year’s independently certified or audited financial statements. 

Organisations must have been financially sustainable before Covid-19 but are now at imminent risk of failure and have exhausted all other options for increasing their resilience.  

Why have you changed the eligibility criteria? (added 5 August 2020)

We have reverted to eligibility criteria similar to those we used for the 2018-22 National Portfolio to ensure that as wide a range of organisations as possible can be supported through the Culture Recovery Fund.

What is the budget for this fund?

The budget for Recovery Grants is up to £500 million – it comes directly from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and is part of the £1.57 billion package they announced to protect the UK’s culture and heritage sectors from the economic impacts of Covid-19. 

As part of the Culture Recovery Fund, £2.25 million has already been allocated to provide immediate emergency support for grassroots music venues through a separate fund.  

How much can I apply for? 

Organisations can apply for grants between £50,000 and £3 million.  

What if I need more than £3 million? 

Another element of support through the Culture Recovery Fund administered by the Arts Council is repayable finance. Details of this programme will be announced at a later date. An additional £270 million will be available through this programme, any organisation that requires £3 million or above should apply to this programme only (there is no upper limit on the amount that can be applied for). 
 
Loan terms are expected to include an up to 20-year repayment, an initial repayment holiday of up to four years, and a 2% interest rate per annum.  
 
You cannot apply to both grants and repayable finance, we will publish guidance on repayable finance as soon as possible to enable potential applicants to make decisions on which scheme to choose.  

When can I apply for the Culture Recovery Fund: Grants programme? 

There will be two consecutive rounds of this fund. For Round One, the portal will open for applications at 12pm (midday) on Monday 10 August and close at 12pm (midday) on Friday 21 August. Round two will open at 4pm on Friday 21 August and close on Friday 4 September at 12pm (midday).  

Are the deadlines to apply for over £1 million the same as if I apply for under £1 million? 

Yes, the deadlines are the same across both rounds regardless of how much you apply for. 

Can I apply to both Round One and Round Two? 

No, you can only submit one application to one round for Culture Recovery Fund: Grants. 

I missed the deadline for Round One. Will I need to start a new application for Round Two? 

No, the application you started for Round One will still be on our system, so you can complete and submit it ahead of the deadline for Round Two applications.

Can I use a third party bid writer to write my application?

Although you are in your right to use a third party to fill out your application on your behalf, it could be costly for you, and everything you need to know to make a successful application, from our application process to the fund criteria, are already clearly explained on our website here.

If I am successful, when would I receive the funding? 

Round One applicants requesting up to £1 million will be notified on Monday 12 October - this is a delay to the originally stated notification date of Monday 5 October, and all applicants were made aware of this change on Friday 2 October. Applicants requesting over £1 million will be notified by 5pm, Friday 23 October.  
 
Round Two applicants requesting up to £1 million will be notified by 5pm, Friday 16 October. For those requesting over £1 million, you will be notified by 5pm, Friday 6 November.  

What will the success rate be? 

In these unprecedented circumstances, we can’t pre-empt success rates as we do not know how many organisations will apply. 

However, we expect to allocate at least 75% of the overall budget in Round One of this fund and would strongly encourage applicants to apply to this round if possible.  

How are decisions being made?  

Applications for under £250k will progress to a decision meeting in the Area in which you are based – this meeting will review and decide on your application. 

Applications for over £250k will be assessed against the criteria set out in guidance, we will recommend if an application is suitable for funding based on the ratings of these assessments and this will be considered at a decision meeting (please see page 23 of the guidance for more details). 

Applications for over £1m will be treated similarly to over 250k however they will also be shared with the Culture Recovery Board appointed by DCMS and ask them for comment before a final decision is made. 

Who sits on the Culture Recovery Board?  

Members of the Culture Recovery Board have been appointed by DCMS, it is chaired by Sir Damon Buffini.  

The full list of board members on the Culture Recovery Board is as follows: 

Independent Chair Sir Damon Buffini
Commissioner for Cultural Recovery and Renewal Neil Mendoza
Arts Council England Sir Nicholas Serota, Chair of Arts Council England
Historic England Sir Laurie Magnus, Chair of Historic England
National Lottery Heritage Fund Rene Olivieri, Chair of NLHF
British Film Institute Jay Hunt, BFI Governor (Board Member)
JP Morgan Carol Lake, Managing Director, Corporate Responsibility
National Lottery Heritage Fund, René Olivieri, Interim Chair of The National Lottery Heritage Fund
DCMS Emma Squire, Director for Arts, Heritage and Tourism

Independent Board Members: 

  • Claire Whitaker 
  • Baroness Kate Fall 
  • Hemant Patel 
  • Samir Shah
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