Cultural Facilities

Our Cultural Facilities theme aims to improve recreation, interest and education. The project could be based within a theatre, gallery, museum, concert hall, arts or heritage centre. It must be open to the public and be inclusive and inspire and promote learning, creativity and participation. Local communities should be able to enjoy, benefit and engage with collections, exhibits or performances taking place within such institutions as often as possible. The site must attract tourists or day visitors.  

Your organisation must be a fully constituted, charitable or not for profit with no share capital. We do not accept applications from local authorities, councils, and schools/colleges.  

Examples of costs that can be funded through this theme include exhibition and interpretation improvements, interactive displays, outdoor amphitheatre spaces and auditorium seating. 

The project must meet the following criteria:  

• Application value must be between £10,000 and £75,000  
• Total project cost must be no more than £200,000 including VAT  
• The project site must be within five miles of a significant Biffa Operation or within 10 miles if this is an active Biffa Landfill Site (check the project postcode using the Postcode Checker below)  
• The project site must ALSO be within 10 miles of any licenced landfill site in England and Northern Ireland – to find your nearest landfill site, telephone the regulator Entrust on 01926 488300 
• A Third Party Contributor should be identified to fund 10% of the application value (this could be from your own reserves)  
• The project must not cross over different themes  
• 75% of shortfall funding must be secured if Biffa Award is not being asked to fully fund the project  
• The facilities must offer a minimum of 104 days of published and full public access each year  
• If the organisation does not own the project site, a fully signed lease between the landowner and the applicant, with at least 10 years remaining must be in place for Community Buildings, Cultural Facilities and Recreation projects. We cannot accept any other forms of agreement, including but not limited to, heads of terms or underleases 
• If planning permission is required, it must have been granted before you submit an Expression of Interest  
• Any Biffa Award grant must be used for site-based capital improvement work, not for movable equipment, staff and core costs or storage facilities 
• Biffa Award is unable to fund requests to help an existing facility meet the requirements of the Disability Discrimination Act 

Biffa Award is unable to fund retrospectively, so you should only apply for funding for work that will take place in the future. 

Please note you cannot re-apply for funding on the same site of a previous Biffa Award grant within one year of receiving your final payment. Additionally, we can only accept a maximum of two Full Applications per financial year from any one organisation, and only one application per organisation will be considered at any Board meeting.