Funder: Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF)

Funder:  Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF)

We know, that everything cost right… and to develop the Retired Caribbean Nurses & the NHS project from an idea into reality we would need funds.  One of the funders known to us were the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF).   We visited their website,learnt more about them, understood the type of projects they would fund.  Decided, that we would apply to this funder for our project Retired Caribbean Nurses & the NHS’  they were a good match for this heritage project.  We decided, that we would give it a go (nothing ventured, nothing gained).  We first approach the HLF  in 2012, but this first application was unsuccessful.  We received a written feedback as to why the application was unsuccessful.  This did not prevent us from being disappointed with not being successful with this our first application.  It took several months for us  to revisit the application with the intention of maybe, reapplying again.

 From the archaeology under our feet to the historic parks we love, from precious memories to rare wildlife…we use money raised by National Lottery players to help people across the UK explore, enjoy and protect the heritage they care about.

https://www.hlf.org.uk/

‘We distribute the heritage share of National Lottery funding, supporting a wide variety of projects across the UK.’

https://www.hlf.org.uk/about-us/what-we-do

It took several months of lengthy discussions, considering should we scrap the project idea completely, or go the extra mile it would take to reapply to HLF again with this project proposal.  There were doubts and concerns, that time spent on reapplying, would this be a good investment of time, commitment and limited resources.

Conversations were had with the HLF Project Officer, the application form was revisited, and rewritten and finally resubmitted to HLF in mid 2013 . Looking back  it was a good decision.

In 2014, we received a letter  from HLF letting us know, that the funding for this project  had being successful.  To accept the offer, the next step would be to acknowledge acceptance of the offer letter and start the project on receipt of the first part of the grant payment.

Hooray, a successful application for funding, meant that we could fund the development of the project and bring the idea to life.  With funding, it would be possible to pay for expenditures relating to the project.