A People-Centred Approach to Heritage: The Experience of the Heritage Lottery Fund 1994–2014

Abstract

The strategic development of the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) from 1994 has demonstrated an increasing emphasis on pubic engagement and benefit. This paper uses evidence from HLF's evaluation and review work, along with my personal experience, to demonstrate how that increasing emphasis on people was achieved. It argues that it is this role of being a Lottery funder—with an imperative to deliver public benefit—that has been the most important factor in driving the organization's progression. The paper then assesses the limitations of HLF's people focussed approach, and the challenges it faces in more straitened financial times. I offer the paper, not from the standpoint of an academic, but as the personal perspective of a heritage professional employed at the Fund since 2004.