Sources of Funding
For information about grant-awarding organisations, and the processes involved, see The National Archives website at: https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/archives-sector/grants-and-funding/
The Inland Revenue allows for companies to include the care and conservation of their business archives, and the cost of providing access to them, in their costs before the calculation of corporation tax. For more information see the HMRC website at:
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/bimmanual/BIM42501.htm
Independent grants and charitable trust funding
Most grants to catalogue, preserve and exploit archive collections are targeted at public sector collections. Business archives donated to public sector record offices are eligible for grants. There is also a growing collaboration between private and public sector archives which is helping to unlock some grants for private business archives.
The National Lottery Heritage Fund
Since 1994, the National Lottery Heritage Fund (NLHF) has awarded millions to projects in archives. Grants are available to private sector archives who work in collaboration with public sector partners. For information about NLHF funding, visit:
https://www.heritagefund.org.uk/funding/what-we-fund
Archives Revealed
Archives Revealed is a partnership funding programme between The National Archives, the Pilgrim Trust and the Wolfson Foundation. It is the largest funding stream available in the UK dedicated to cataloguing archives. Applicants must be not-for-profit organisations. A business can look to a friends group or a charitable arm/trust that could make an application on their behalf. The programme includes two distinct but complementary strands: cataloguing grants and scoping grants. For more information visit:
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/archives-sector/finding-funding/archives-revealed/
or contact:
archivesrevealed@nationalarchives.gov.uk.
BAC Cataloguing Grants for Business Archives
Since 2010, the Business Archives Council has provided annual funding for the cataloguing of business archives held in the public or private sector. For more information visit:
http://www.businessarchivescouncil.org.uk/activitiesobjectives/catgrant/
Arts Council National Lottery Project Grants
The Arts Council National Lottery Project Grants is an open access programme for arts, museums and libraries projects. The fund supports individual artists, community and cultural organisations. For more information visit:
https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/projectgrants
Arts and Humanities Research Council
To access this funding stream you should work with academics, usually economic or business historians, whose research interests tie in with your business sector. For example, as an additional outcome of an academics AHRC bid, they could include the partial cataloguing of your collection (which makes the sources available for research). In terms of finding a suitable academic, some universities have management and history schools that employ business historians.Glasgow University and London School of Economics, in particular, have specialist business history units. Alternatively contact the Business Archives Council or the Association of Business Historians for advice.