Department For Culture Media Sport
Summary of grant funding
The Memorial Grant Scheme gives grants towards VAT on the construction, repair and maintenance of public memorial structures, for work which took place on or after 16 March 2005.
This is a UK-wide grant, available for memorials in any part of the UK (or overseas memorials in some circumstances). The grant scheme is managed by East Midlands Business Ltd on behalf of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).
If you are a registered charity or a faith group excepted from registering as a charity, this grant can help you with the cost of works like repairing and cleaning public memorials or installing a new memorial.
There are conditions on the types of memorial which are eligible, and what the funding can be used for. If your project meets these conditions, you can apply for funding towards the VAT cost of the works. The maximum grant available is the full rate of VAT (20% of project costs).
Funding can only be provided for works that have already taken place. You cannot apply for funding in advance of future works. If the work is ongoing, you can only apply for part-funding for parts of the work which have been completed.
Use the information below to check if your project is eligible for a memorial grant, and find out how to apply.
If you have questions about the grant scheme or whether your memorial is eligible, contact the Memorial Grant team for advice.
The deadline for applications to be reviewed in this round of funding is 23:55 on Friday 29 March 2024.
Applications received after this date will be reviewed in the next round of funding. How the funding works
Who can apply
You can apply for a memorial grant if you are a registered charity, or a faith group excepted from registering as a charity. Find out more about charity registration or excepted charities.
Local authorities are not eligible to apply for this grant, as they do not incur VAT costs for maintaining public memorials.
You will need to:
- provide information about your organisation
- decide who will submit and sign the application
- check whether your organisation is registered for VAT
Information about your organisation
The application form will ask you whether your organisation is a registered charity or a faith group excepted from registering as a charity.
You will need to provide evidence so this can be verified. If your organisations status cannot be verified, your application will not be accepted.
You will also need to provide bank or building society details. This is the account that the funding will be sent to, if your application is successful. The application will also ask you to confirm that the account is authorised for official expenditure in relation to the memorial.
What you will need
Evidence that you are eligible to apply:
- For registered charities, this is your charitys name and registration number, and the date it was registered.
- For faith groups excepted from registering as charities, this is your organisations registered address, and the religion or denomination of your group.
Bank or building society details:
- bank / building society name (the name of the company, e.g. High Street Bank)
- account name (the person who holds the account)
- sort code and account number
Roles and responsibilities
You will need to nominate a contact person to discuss the grant with the Memorial Grant team. You will need to provide their name and contact information. This could be you or someone else in your organisation.
You will also need 2 people to sign the form: the signatory and the counter-signatory.
Contact person
You will need to name a contact on the application form. This is the person who will be contacted by the grants team, and who will receive the payment (if the grant application is successful).
This does not have to be the person who submits the form. However, it should be someone who is familiar with the project, as the grants team can only speak to this person about the works and any funding granted.
You need to provide the contact persons:
- name
- position (for example, their job or volunteer role in the organisation)
- contact details (address, telephone number and email address)
Signatory and counter-signatory
The signatory is the person who signs the application form. The signatory should be someone from the organisation responsible for the work. This will usually be the charity or faith group that is submitting the application. It could be the same person as the contact person, or someone else from the organisation.
The counter-signatory is someone from the organisation responsible for the memorial. They sign the form to confirm that they agreed to the work and to the application being submitted for the work. This might be a different organisation than the organisation submitting the application form. For example, a charity might do repair work on a memorial which a local organisation is responsible for. The local organisation is the counter-signatory. The counter-signatory may be contacted by the Memorial Grant team to check that they gave permission for the work on the memorial they are responsible for.
Example - contact person, signatory and counter-signatory
A memorial in a churchyard needs to be repaired. The church is responsible for the memorial but a local charity offers to arrange the repair work.
The charity gets permission from the church faculty for the repairs, and then organises the work and pays the VAT-registered contractor.
The charity then submits the memorial grant application. In this case, the person who organised the work (grants officer) prepares the application and asks their manager (grants manager) to authorise it.
Roles and responsibilities:
- the named contact is the grants officer, as the charity organised the work and the grants officer is most familiar with the project
- the signatory could be the grants officer or the grants manager, as the charity organised the work
- the counter-signatory is someone who holds a position in the church, as the church is responsible for the memorial
Check if you are registered for VAT
You should also check if your charity or group is registered for VAT with HMRC. This could affect the funding you can apply for. Find out more about VAT for charities.
Charities pay a reduced rate of VAT on some goods and services. You do not have to be registered for VAT for this.
However, some charities are registered for VAT. This means they can also reclaim from HMRC some VAT they are charged, for example on supplies for the charity.
If your charity or faith group is not registered for VAT:
- you can apply for funding on any VAT charged for eligible costs
If your charity or group is registered for VAT:
1. Check the HMRC guidance on VAT for charities to find out if some or all of the VAT can be reclaimed from HMRC.
- You can only apply for funding on VAT which cant be reclaimed from HMRC.
- Costs which can be reclaimed from HMRC are not eligible for memorial grants, and should not be included in your application.
2. Check if you pay a reduced rate of VAT. This means you have agreed with HMRC to pay an effective rate of VAT which is lower than the standard VAT rate.
If you pay a reduced effective rate of VAT, you must include in your application:
- the reduced rate of VAT you pay
- evidence that this has been agreed with HMRC (make sure this shows the rate which applies to the works)
Which memorials are eligible
Memorial grants are provided for the construction, repair and maintenance of public memorial structures.
Not all types of memorials are eligible for this grant. To receive funding, the memorial must:
be a public memorial
have a commemorative purpose
have no other purpose
The memorial must meet all of these conditions in order to be eligible for a memorial grant.
An eligible memorial can be located in th