NPO 2028-33: A Practical Guide to Applying for Arts Council England's National Portfolio
Arts Council England has published the full applicant guidance for the National Portfolio Investment Programme 2028-33. The application portal opens on 20 October 2026 and closes on 15 December 2026. Successful organisations will receive regular funding of at least £50,000 a year for five years, from 1 April 2028 to 31 March 2033.
This is the biggest funding decision most arts organisations, museums and libraries in England will face this decade. Below we set out what the guidance says, how much to apply for, how you will be assessed, and the practical steps we are taking with our own clients right now.
NPO 2028-33 at a glance
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| When does the portal open? | 20 October 2026 |
| When is the deadline? | 15 December 2026 (no late applications accepted) |
| How much can I apply for? | Minimum £50,000 a year. No maximum. Same amount each year. |
| How long is the funding? | Five years: 1 April 2028 to 31 March 2033 |
| Who can apply? | Arts organisations, museums and libraries with a registered UK address, properly constituted, delivering benefit in England |
| When are decisions? | July 2027 |
| Last date for access support requests | Monday 30 November 2026 |
| Where is the official guidance? | National Portfolio 2028-33 Applicant Hub |
What is the National Portfolio 2028-33?
The National Portfolio is Arts Council England's long-term funding programme. Organisations in it are called National Portfolio Organisations, or NPOs. For the first time the portfolio runs for five years from the outset, rather than three.
According to the Applicant Guidance, the aim is a strong, diverse and resilient cultural sector that delivers excellent work for more people in more of England. ACE will fund organisations that work directly with the public, organisations that support the wider sector, and organisations that do both. Former Investment Principles Support Organisations (IPSOs) now apply in exactly the same way as everyone else.
ACE is being very upfront about competition. In the 2023-26 round it received 1,730 applications and funded 985 organisations, with requests of just over £2 billion against a budget of £1.34 billion. It expects demand this time to be well above the money available, and says openly that not every strong application will be funded.
Key dates for your diary
| Milestone | Date |
|---|---|
| Applicant guidance published | 22 September 2026 |
| Application portal opens | 20 October 2026 |
| Access support requests (recommended latest) | 30 November 2026 |
| Application deadline | 15 December 2026 |
| Assessment and decision-making | January to June 2027 |
| Decisions announced | July 2027 |
| Funding agreement negotiation | July 2027 to February 2028 |
| Funding period begins | 1 April 2028 |
You do not need to wait for 20 October. ACE has already published the offline Application Form with every question, character limit and prompt, so you can start drafting today.
Who can apply for NPO funding?
Your organisation must already be registered as one of the following: a limited company, a CIC, a CIO, a charitable company or trust, a limited liability partnership, a community benefit or co-operative society, a Royal Charter body, or a statutory or public body such as a university or local authority.
A few other rules are worth knowing:
Museums must be Accredited or formally Working Towards Accreditation, and must achieve it by 1 April 2028.
Libraries delivering the statutory service can apply where the application focuses on creative and cultural activity.
Consortia are allowed, with one lead applicant. Each organisation can only be part of one application.
Individuals cannot apply, and neither can National Museums or bodies funded directly by government.
From 1 April 2028 every NPO needs independent governance: normally a majority of members independent of the executive, and a non-executive Chair. CICs and organisations sitting inside universities or councils will need to show how they meet this.
How much should you apply for?
This is the question we are asked most, and ACE has given more help than ever before.
You can apply for a minimum of £50,000 a year with no upper limit. You must ask for the same amount in every year of the five years, and the figure must be realistic and proportionate to the size of your organisation and the work you plan to do. ACE may offer less than you ask for.
Benchmarks for new applicants
| Annual turnover | Typical award (middle 50%) | Typical award as % of turnover | Median award |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under £500,000 | £100,000 to £195,000 | 39% to 67% | £150,000 (52%) |
| £500,000 to £1 million | £123,000 to £300,000 | 19% to 44% | £216,000 (32%) |
| £1 million to £5 million | £190,000 to £612,000 | 10% to 25% | £356,000 (17%) |
| Over £5 million | £467,000 to £1.88 million | 5% to 17% | £1.14 million (9%) |
ACE is clear that these are for guidance only. They are not a target and not a prediction of what you will get. We use them as a sense check: if your request sits well outside the typical range for your size, you need a very strong reason in your budget and narrative.
If you are a current NPO
You will receive a planning figure, based on your 2026/27 funding including the recent 5% uplift. Your core proposal must be affordable and deliverable within that figure. You can ask for more in a separate section, but ACE says it is unlikely to fund most of these requests. That means your core plan has to stand on its own, even if it means doing different or less activity than you do now.
If you are asking for £1 million or more a year
You will be asked whether part of your funding could be received as capital (CDEL) for ongoing capital spending. Your answer does not affect your assessment.
How will Arts Council England assess NPO applications?
Each eligible application is scored by a panel of three ACE staff against four criteria:
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Have you delivered excellent work over the last three years, and can you show how you have learned, adapted and improved?
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Is your 2028-33 plan strong and credible? Will it create meaningful benefits, and will NPO investment help your organisation develop?
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Are you well governed and led, and do you understand and manage your main risks?
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Is there confidence in your current financial position and your future planning?
Current NPOs asking for more than their planning figure are also assessed on whether there is a strong case for the extra money.
On top of these criteria, excellence is a threshold. ACE will only invite organisations in where excellence shows in both the application and the track record. It judges excellence in your own context, looking at the quality of the work, the experience people have, the contribution you make, the quality of all your practice, and how you learn over time.
After assessment comes portfolio building. ACE looks at all the strong applications together and asks which mix best covers different places, communities, artforms and types of organisation within the budget. This is why a good application can still be turned down.
What is the Arts Council's Strategic Framework?
The Strategic Framework 2026 replaced Let's Create as an interim strategy while ACE consults on a new one. It says ACE's investment, taken as a whole, must:
support excellence
deliver for everybody
reach everywhere
An important point that often gets lost: ACE does not expect any single organisation to deliver all three. Excellence applies to everyone. "Everybody" and "everywhere" are delivered across the whole portfolio.
For this round, ACE has turned the framework into two programme priorities:
More opportunities for a wider range of people in more places, especially in places with historically lower investment and engagement, with a particular focus on Culture Priority Places and on children and young people in those places.
More investment in organisations whose governance and leadership reflect England's population, particularly Disabled people, Black, Asian and ethnically diverse people, and people from lower socio-economic backgrounds.
You might contribute strongly to both, to one, or to neither. The guidance is clear that organisations do not need to be diverse-led to be eligible, but ACE will look at the collective picture when building the portfolio.
What has changed from the last NPO round?
If you applied in 2022, a lot will feel different:
One integrated application. No separate activity plans, Investment Principles plans or attachments.
No mandatory conversations with ACE before applying.
An offline form you can share with colleagues and trustees to draft answers.
No Outcomes or Investment Principles framework to map your work against.
New local voices in decisions. A survey of more than 20,000 people, input from Mayoral Strategic Authorities, and 32 pilot Regional Boards covering issues like health, skills, growth and community cohesion.
Scores and comments for everyone. All applicants will see their assessment feedback in July 2027.
A published AI position. You may use generative AI tools, but you are responsible for accuracy. ACE does not use AI to assess applications.
12 tips for a stronger NPO 2028-33 application
These come from our work supporting arts organisations with Arts Council funding, including earlier NPO rounds and Arts Council England assessment experience within our team.
1. Decide honestly whether NPO is right for you. Five years of funding comes with five years of reporting, monitoring and accountability. If you are still building your track record, testing ideas or working project to project, National Lottery Project Grants may be the better route for now. ACE says this itself.
2. Plan backwards from 15 December. Fix your board sign-off date first, then work back. We are advising clients to aim to submit in the first week of December. Portals get busy and ACE will not accept late applications.
3. Start with the offline form this week. Share it with your senior team and trustees. Draft rough answers now so you can see where the evidence gaps are while there is still time to fill them.
4. Build your budget from the bottom up, then sense check it. Cost your planned work properly, including staffing, programme, access, evaluation, environmental responsibility and organisational development. Then compare your request with the benchmark table for your turnover band.
5. Remember the figure is flat for five years. You must request the same amount each year. By 2032/33 that money will buy noticeably less. Show ACE you have thought about this in your financial planning and income strategy.
6. Current NPOs: make the core plan work on its own. Do not quietly rely on the uplift. Write your core proposal so it is clearly deliverable at your planning figure, then make a separate, evidence-led case for any extra.
7. Evidence excellence in your own terms. The last three years matter. Use evaluation, audience and participant feedback, reviews, peer recognition and data. Show what you changed as a result of what you learned, not just what went well.
8. Know your place. Use ACE's Culture and Place Data Explorer and your own postcode data to show where your audiences and participants come from. If you work in or near a Culture Priority Place, say so clearly and show what you do there.
9. Read the Overviews. ACE has published Overviews on artforms, places and sector resilience. You do not have to respond to them directly, but assessors and decision-makers are reading the same context you are.
10. Get governance in order now. Check you will meet the independent governance expectations by April 2028. Collect your board and leadership diversity data early. If you need to recruit trustees, start today.
11. Keep your figures consistent. Your numbers, dates and claims must match across every answer. ACE can ask for clarification, but it will not use a Further Information Request to fill gaps or strengthen a weak application.
12. Get an outside read before you submit. Character limits are a maximum, not a target. A fresh pair of eyes will spot jargon, repetition, unanswered questions and budget mismatches that you can no longer see. If you are using AI to help draft, read our guide to using AI on Arts Council applications first.
Bonus: book access support early. If anyone on your team needs access support to apply, contact ACE well before 30 November 2026. You can also include essential access costs for your core delivery team in your funding request.
Arts Council NPO webinars
ACE is running free webinars for different groups. Each topic runs twice with the same content, so you only need one. Recordings will be available afterwards. Register through the National Portfolio webinars page.
| Who it is for | Dates |
|---|---|
| Diversity Development Programme alumni | 13 October (10 to 11am) or 3 November (2 to 3pm) |
| New applicants (not currently NPOs) | 14 October (10 to 11am) or 4 November (2 to 3pm) |
| Current NPOs | 15 October (10 to 11am) or 5 November (2 to 3pm) |
| Applicants asking for £1 million or more (capital) | 21 October (10 to 10:30am) or 10 November (2 to 2:30pm) |
How Alira Arts can help with your NPO application
Alira Arts is a specialist arts fundraising consultancy supporting theatres, dance companies, galleries, museums, festivals and creative health organisations across the UK. Our team includes experience inside Arts Council England, local government commissioning and frontline arts fundraising.
For NPO 2028-33, our application writing and editing slots are currently full. We are, however, still taking requests for an NPO Critical Review service, an independent read-through of your draft before you submit, priced separately from our full ACE application support.
Find out more about our Arts Council England application support, browse our free arts funding templates and guides, or contact us to book a call. With the deadline under 12 weeks away, the sooner we talk the more we can help.
Frequently asked questions about NPO 2028-33
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The application portal opens on 20 October 2026 and closes on 15 December 2026. You can start drafting now using the offline Application Form on the Applicant Hub.
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A minimum of £50,000 a year, with no maximum. You must request the same amount in each of the five years. ACE has published typical award levels by turnover to help new applicants decide.
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Five years, from 1 April 2028 to 31 March 2033.
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It is the amount current NPOs are given to plan their core proposal around, based on their 2026/27 funding including the 5% uplift. The core proposal cannot exceed it. Extra requests go in a separate section.
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A CIC can apply if it is registered and can show suitable independent oversight. Every applicant needs a track record of excellent work, and ACE assesses the last three years, so very new organisations may find Project Grants a better fit.
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By a panel of three ACE staff against four criteria: previous work and development, proposed work and contribution, governance and management, and financial viability. Excellence is a threshold for everyone. ACE then builds a balanced portfolio across places, artforms and organisation types.
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Yes. ACE allows generative AI but you remain responsible for accuracy and content. ACE does not use AI to assess applications or make funding decisions.
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ACE expects to announce decisions in July 2027. Every applicant will receive their scores and comments.
Official Arts Council England resources
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