Micro-grants for new organisers

We want to encourage people to share stories that are not currently well represented across the festival. Examples might include, but are not limited to: disability history, LGBTQ+ history, Global Majority history.

We recognise not everyone uses the term 'Global Majority' as it is only one of the many evolving terms describing racialised communities. For example, some other terms used are; Minority Ethnic, People of Colour, Visible Minority Ethnic, Black and Asian minoritised backgrounds, BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour), and BAME (Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic). 

No, we welcome applications from anyone wishing to take part in the festival and hold an event. 

If you are set up as a sole trader, or taking part with an organisation or charity, we will make a payment directly and you can spend your funding. If you are applying in a personal capacity, please note we cannot process payments directly to personal bank accounts, but we can spend on your behalf if you need to purchase something for your event, pay an invoice or hire a venue. Regardless of your set up we will support you as best as we can to put on a great Heritage Open Days event. 

If you have any further questions about eligibility do get in touch with [email protected] 

We will allocate a minimum of 20 grants across the two strands. 

Your £350 of funding is for supporting the delivery of an event for Heritage Open Days 2025.

It can be spent on areas such as:

• Marketing and publicity.
• Services and product hire to facilitate your event.
• Staff time for delivering your event, paying people to work on your project, volunteer expenses, supplementary training that is essential for the delivery of your event.
• Any other reasonable costs that you can demonstrate are essential to deliver your event. 

We understand that your plans may change throughout the programme as you develop your event and we will support all reasonable uses of funds as you progress through the programme. 

It cannot be used to:

• Facilitate personal gain.
• Cover core costs such as rent or utility bills.
• Cover work that has already taken place.

All applicants must use the grant to run an event for this year's festival.  All festival events must meet all three of our general entry criteria:

1. FREE from entrance to exit

It is possible to raise money over the festival BUT admission to the main attraction of your event has to be free of charge. Running a free tour if visitors have to pay a site entrance fee doesn't count!

2. Offer something special

• Open a site / part of a site that isn’t usually open to the public.
• Launch a new online activity/event.
• Offer free entry to a usually charging site/activity.
• If your site is open free of charge all year round - then something out of the ordinary! Such as: have volunteer stewards on site to greet visitors and answer questions / put on some activities or a competition / invite other groups to showcase their work – eg artists, choirs, local history societies.

3. Take place within the festival dates

The festival covers ten days in early September and your event must take place at some point during this time. However, it doesn’t have to be open on all days or even for a full day. (Heritage Open Days 2025 = 12-21 September)