The National Lottery Heritage Fund

The National Lottery – and with it National Lottery funding for Good Causes including heritage, arts, sport and charities – was established in 1994. Every ticket sold contributes funds to good causes across the UK. To date, National Lottery players have helped to raise £50 billion for Good Causes. With more than 650,000 individual awards made across the UK, most people will have benefited from a National Lottery-funded project at some point.

National Lottery funding through The National Lottery Heritage Fund is one of The Wildlife Trusts' most important sources of income and has helped us to achieve many amazing things for people and wildlife over the years.

The National Lottery Heritage Fund, formerly known as the Heritage Lottery Fund, is the largest dedicated funder of heritage in the UK.

Since its creation in 1994, The Wildlife Trusts have worked closely with The National Lottery Heritage Fund. Together we have connected people to nature and each other, saved precious wildlife-rich places, created new woodlands, wetlands and meadows and protected rare and endangered species and habitats.

The National Lottery Heritage Fund has invested a total of £9.5bn in 53,000 heritage projects. The hundreds of Wildlife Trust projects across the UK supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund have benefited thousands of people from all walks of life helping them to experience the joy of wildlife in their daily lives.

Since 1994, National Lottery players have helped every eligible Wildlife Trust right across the UK deliver over 640 projects using money awarded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund. This has helped Wildlife Trusts to work alongside volunteers and other members of the local community to transform areas ranging from city roadside verges to vast sections of land and coast.

 Involving local communities does not just benefit wildlife – it also helps people to reconnect with wild places, improving health and wellbeing and helping people to help themselves and others by learning new subjects or life skills that can help society as a whole.

Here are just a few examples of the huge variety of projects that are run by Wildlife Trusts across the UK, supported by The National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Thanks to National Lottery players, funding will support us to lay the foundations for the future of the Rothbury Estate in Northumberland. In partnership with Northumberland Wildlife Trust, we have purchased part of the estate, with plans to purchase the remainder by October 2026. This funding will enable us to plan how the working landscape of the Rothbury Estate can play a critical role in nature’s recovery and benefit the people who live and work there. Our ambition is to transform the Rothbury Estate into the beating heart of a 40-mile nature recovery corridor across northern England.   

Wildlife Trusts Wales is delighted to be receiving support from the Welsh Government through The National Lottery Heritage Fund. This vital support is enabling the five Welsh Wildlife Trusts to scale their work collectively, build new partnerships and unlock new resourcing potential. Private finance for nature, also known as green finance, has huge potential for nature recovery at scale and safeguarding ecosystem services that we all rely on such as clean rivers, flood mitigation and soil quality. This work will make an important contribution to a more sustainable future for nature recovery and ecosystem resilience in Wales, benefitting biodiversity, climate, people, and prosperity. Financing nature’s future | Wildlife Trusts Wales

With funding from The National Lottery Heritage Fund we delivered a project to encourage more people across the UK to grow food in a wildlife-friendly way. We combined the experience of The Wildlife Trusts, Incredible Edible, Garden Organic and the Women's Institutes, to create a lasting legacy of individuals and communities growing fruit and vegetables sustainably, while also helping nature along the way. We’ve created a website packed full of information to get people started and support them along the way: Coronation Gardens | Home

In celebration of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, The National Lottery Heritage Foundation partnered with The Wildlife Trusts to deliver Nextdoor Nature, a community engagement project which empowered people across the UK to bring nature onto their doorsteps. The project engaged over 1,600 rural and urban communities (smashing the target of 200!) in micro-nature projects like turning grass verges and roundabouts into wildlife havens.