How we will be helping the heritage community during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic

Article written by

Eilish McGuinness, The National Lottery Heritage Fund, Executive Director, Business Delivery

01/04/2020

Eilish McGuinness on how The National Lottery Heritage Fund will be helping the heritage community weather the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic – and recover in the future.

We are all, in every aspect of our lives, living in an unprecedented time of uncertainty and challenge as we face the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and its short and long-term impacts.

I know that this is very strongly felt within the heritage community. Just weeks ago, we were looking forward to continuing to fund, support, and celebrate the achievements of thousands of projects in every community across the UK.

Now, every place, every person and every project we work with is facing a very different and uncertain future.

Our treasured heritage

The vital social distancing measures that have been put in place across the UK have seen beloved heritage sites close, volunteering and projects halted and access to our natural world greatly restricted.

However, we have also seen some really creative responses starting to emerge through digital channels as heritage organisations explore how they can share their heritage online and give people access in a different way.

Another positive we can take from this is the resulting outpouring of emotions as people suddenly become distant from their heritage. People are sharing their love for their favourite sites, their favourite wildlife, their favourite groups and much more. It has shown just how treasured our heritage is and just how important it is to our wellbeing and our communities.

"It has shown just how treasured our heritage is and just how important it is to our wellbeing and our communities."

These shared responses are a clear demonstration of the passion and dedication of everyone involved in the sector. And this commitment is going to be vital as we all face the difficult decisions and hard work of navigating this crisis. We are proud to work with you all.

Responding to your concerns

Last week, we received over 1,250 responses to our survey asking for your views and concerns on the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis. Thank you, this has really helped inform how we can help.

And, in working through our response, we are working side by side with the UK and devolved governments, other funders and heritage organisations so that the help and support we offer provides the best possible outcome for heritage. We want heritage organisations to access the most appropriate emergency help and avoid duplicating any support.

Here is what we are going to do

First and foremost, we will continue to support the thousands of projects (over 2,500) we already have in delivery and development across the UK. As a result of the coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis we will help those projects review and understand their needs, discuss changes of scope or cost and, wherever possible, be flexible on payments, grant conditions and reporting requirements.

Heritage Emergency Fund

In addition, to help respond to the immediate crisis and the impact of temporary closures of many heritage sites and loss of revenue, we are launching a £50million Heritage Emergency Fund. This emergency short-term funding will help address pressures over the next three-six months for those most in need.

"This emergency short-term funding will help address pressures over the next three-six months for those most in need."

And, responding to direct feedback from the sector, we will be accelerating our provision of digital expertise and support for heritage, increasing our investment to provide technical knowhow in areas such as online fund-raising, use of social media, technical infrastructure and use of devices. We are committed to supporting heritage organisations develop new digital and technical skills that will help navigate through this difficult period.

We believe however, that we must prioritise our emergency funding towards our existing grantees, safeguarding the investments we have already made in heritage. We must help where there is limited or no access to other sources of support; where heritage is most at risk; and where an organisation is at risk of failure due to the crisis. When we emerge from this crisis we want our precious heritage to once again be accessible to all communities, across the UK.

For the next few months therefore, all our support at The National Lottery Heritage Fund is going to be focused on supporting heritage organisations through this crisis. As part of this approach and to create the Heritage Emergency Fund, we have taken the decision to pause awarding any new grants through our open programmes for the next six months. We are also delaying our Heritage Horizon Awards until 2021/22.

We will be publishing further details about the Heritage Emergency Fund criteria over the next few days – please keep an eye on our website for news.

Working together

We are also working with heritage partners throughout the UK, joining forces so that we can support you in the best way possible. We will keep sharing any further details and changes with you.

"Across all our local teams, we want to work with you to ensure that we return our heritage back to our communities in the best state possible for us all to enjoy once this crisis is over."

Across all our local teams, we want to work with you to ensure that we return our heritage back to our communities in the best state possible for us all to enjoy once this crisis is over.

This will be a tough journey. We recognise that we are not going to be able to help everybody in every way, but we are working as hard as we can to help as much as we possibly can. Please keep talking with us – we are all listening.

Stay safe.

Eilish

Heritage Emergency Fund launches to help sector (updated)

01/04/2020

The National Lottery Heritage Fund has put together a £50million fund to support the heritage sector as an immediate response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.

Last updated: 23 June 2020  

The UK-wide fund - money raised from The National Lottery - will address immediate pressures over the next few months for those organisations most in need. It is now open for applications until 31 July.

We will continue to support more than 2,500 projects that we have already committed to - an investment of more than £1billion.

“We know that circumstances are incredibly challenging for our heritage community right now and we want to do everything we can to support them."
Eilish McGuinness, The National Lottery Heritage Fund Executive Director, Business Delivery

Eilish McGuinness, The National Lottery Heritage Fund Executive Director, Business Delivery, said: “We know that circumstances are incredibly challenging for our heritage community right now and we want to do everything we can to support them. We hope this new fund will be a lifeline and a beacon of hope for organisations affected.

“Heritage has an essential role to play in making communities better places to live, creating economic prosperity and supporting personal wellbeing. All of these are going to be vitally important as we emerge from this current crisis.”

Heritage Minister Nigel Huddleston said: “It is important that we do all we can to ensure our nation’s remarkable heritage landscapes, buildings and monuments - and the hardworking organisations that protect them - are supported at this difficult time.

“Heritage plays an important role in our communities by supporting jobs and economic growth as well as helping us to understand our shared past. This new £50 million package from the National Lottery Heritage Fund will help to protect our most at risk heritage throughout this unprecedented period.”

Heritage Emergency Fund

The £50m fund is available for grants of between £3,000 and £50,000.

It is available to organisations across the full breadth of heritage, including historic sites, industrial and maritime heritage, museums, libraries and archives, parks and gardens, landscapes and nature.

Organisations which have received funding in the past or are either a current grantee, or still under contract following a previous grant, can apply.

Priority will be given where:

there is limited or no access to other sources of support
where heritage is most at risk
where an organisation is at risk of severe financial crisis due to coronavirus (COVID-19)

Guidance:

Our guidance sets out the criteria for applying for the Heritage Emergency Fund.

Applicants must be: 

a not-for-profit organisation, and
a current or previous recipient of a grant directly from us, and
an owner, manager or representative of heritage, or be able to show you have delivered participatory heritage activity

Before applying, please take time to read the guidance and think about what support you need to get your organisation through the next few months. Applications will be accepted until 31 July 2020.

Application process:

Applying for a Heritage Emergency Fund grant is different from the usual way of applying for a grant.

The application form must be completed in one go, as it cannot be saved. It is important that you prepare your application material before you start.

Before you apply:

Find your previous grant reference number.
Locate your organisation’s current financial information.
Read the Heritage Emergency Fund guidance.
Prepare your answers to the application questions.
Prepare any supporting documents.
Complete and submit the application form.

After you apply:

We will email you to let you know that your application has been submitted.
As part of this email, we will send you instructions on how to upload your supporting documents.
Submit any supporting documents by replying to the email. We recommend you do this as soon as you receive instructions, to help us process your application.
We will check your application details are correct.
We will consider your application and give you a decision within two to four weeks.

A raft of extra support

We know that the majority of heritage organisations are facing temporary closure, severe impact on their revenue and staff shortages. Many face threats to their long-term futures. A small percentage fear they will not be able to last into the summer.

This is why we are taking a short, medium and long-term approach to our support for your immediate challenges and longer-term resilience and recovery.

As well as the Heritage Emergency Fund, we will also support the sector in the following ways:

Accelerating the provision of our £1.2m Digital Skills for Heritage initiative to help the sector through the crisis and beyond.
By continuing to support the 2,500 projects we have already committed to funding.
By being as flexible as possible for our existing grantees.
By providing bespoke advice and support.
A £2m commitment to our network of ROSS consultants in the new financial year. We will direct that support to organisations in need. In doing so we are also helping several hundred freelancers and self-employed people.
Working closely with the Government, other funders and heritage organisations to bring together support for the sector.
In the longer term, we have invested £4m in two enterprise development programmes across the UK for heritage leaders, and business support programmes in all four countries. More information on this soon.

Pausing new grants

In order to address the crisis, we have taken the decision to halt all new grant applications with immediate effect.

The Heritage Emergency Fund consists of money diverted from new grants.

Heritage Horizon Awards

Decisions on funding for the Heritage Horizon Awards have been deferred from March 2020 into the 2021-2022 financial year.

We will not be opening a further round of funding for Heritage Horizon Awards.

Our response

Our response was based on consultation across the sector, including more than 1,250 respondents to our survey. We found:

82% of respondents reported a high or moderate risk to their organisation’s long-term viability
46% of organisations can survive for no more than six months
75% respondents wanted greater flexibility for existing projects/grants
53% asked for emergency funding

Thank you to everyone who responded to our survey and to all those who have been in touch. We will continue to listen to you, and keep you up to date with developments.

How the coronavirus (COVID-19) is affecting the heritage sector

31/03/2020

Tom Walters, The National Lottery Heritage Fund Head of Research, Data & Insight

Our Head of Research, Data & Insight on the surveys that helped us guide our response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.

The coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis has already had a seismic impact on all elements of our lives.

First of all on the people whose health – and that of their families, friends and colleagues – has been affected. And to anyone who has felt anxiety or fear or general discomfort at our worlds closing in due to the government’s advice to stay at home.

"How can we survive this crisis, and indeed possibly thrive in the future?"

The secondary impact is on our sector, as part of the wider economy – in short, how can we survive this crisis, and ensure that our heritage assets and organisations are able to thrive in the future?

Tomorrow (Wednesday 1 April) we will be releasing the details of our Heritage Emergency Fund. It was the result of swift work behind the scenes – and two surveys which have helped us find out more about how applicants, grantees and people across the sector are feeling.

I’d like to say a huge thank you to everyone who responded to the surveys and took time to tell us about the impact on your organisation. We received an overwhelming response and your feedback has played a really important role in the design of the Heritage Emergency Fund.

Our survey of heritage organisations

We began to gather anecdotal evidence of the impact on some of the organisations we support as the initial social distancing measures were announced. But it quickly became clear we needed to hear from more of our friends and colleagues in the sector. One of our first reactions to the crisis was therefore to initiate research with grantees and heritage organisations to really understand the impact the virus and the associated measures were having.

The survey opened on Friday 20 March and closed at 5pm on Friday 27 March. On 24 March, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced compulsory ‘stay at home’ measures for the UK's population.

We sent the survey to 1,424 grantees who had received a grant of over £250,000 within the last 10 years. We also published the link on our website and shared it on social media.

We received 1,253 replies, of which 479 returned from the email. The replies came from across the UK, cross sector and size of organisation.

The research took place during a period of rapid change and we received responses throughout the week that it was live. That means that the restrictions in place and support available may have varied for different respondents. This is something to bear in mind as you read the findings, but we believe the responses still provide invaluable insight.

The key findings:

The impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is UK-wide. We saw that 98% of heritage organisations were impacted within the first three weeks and the remaining 2% expected some impact in the future. There were no significant differences across the country, nor across the sector.

The financial impact is likely to be high:

91% of respondents said they’ve had to cancel events
69% are being affected by loss of revenue
82% of organisations reported high or moderate risk to their long-term viability. That figure rises to 90% of charity, third sector or private organisations.

The impact on organisations in our sector was also clear from the survey responses:

71% expected they would have to close to the public
55% are being affected by lack of available volunteers
49% are being affected by staff absence
49% are seeing reduced visitor numbers

The next half year will be crucial to the survival of many of our heritage organisations. If the current situation continues, 37% of organisations who responded told us they can survive for no more than six months, with 11% expecting to keep going for no more than two months.

"Around a third of charity/third-sector organisations and around a third of community and voluntary groups said they could not exist beyond July."

Around a third of charity/third-sector organisations and around a third of community and voluntary groups said they could not exist beyond July.

What should we be doing?

Many of our respondents weren’t sure if they were eligible to apply for wider government support, which reflects the fact that many policies are only in their early stages of delivery, or indeed were being announced during the period the survey was live.

The majority of respondents wanted greater flexibility for existing projects/grants, 58% wanted replacement funding due to loss of revenue, while 52% wanted emergency funding.

This feedback has been crucial in recent days as the Heritage Fund took decisions about how best to respond.

Survey of wildlife and countryside bodies

We also commissioned a parallel survey via Wildlife and Countryside Links, which ran from 20–24 March, so the results relate to the period before the compulsory ‘stay home’ announcement by the Prime Minister. The survey was sent to their 100+ members across the UK and 60 responses came back.

The effect of the crisis was the same as in our first survey – with 98% of organisations affected, and 2% expecting an impact.

Again, the financial and organisational impact is expected to be sharp:

61% are being affected by loss of revenue
56% are being affected by staff absence
58% are being affected by lack of available volunteers

Our next steps

We have used these responses to help us direct our next steps, which we will publish tomorrow. Our expert staff are working together – virtually – to help the sector as much as we can, as we’re sure yours are too. Please don’t hesitate to get in touch with any concerns.

"The threat is not just to our sector, but to the wonderful heritage we look after for the next generation."

The crisis is showing that while the heritage sector is tenacious and run by passionate, capable people – it is also part of a delicate ecosystem. The research showed that both small and large organisations face a significant challenge ahead

The threat is not just to our sector, but to the wonderful heritage we look after for the next generation.

We have therefore used the research findings to tailor our emergency funding to the organisations that are at greatest risk.

We will now also be analysing the detailed survey findings with government departments and our partners in the sector to assess the options for a wider joint response. Finally, the survey also showed us that we need to help ensure that heritage organisations are able to make full use of the significant Treasury and HMRC initiatives already announced.

Thank you again if you took the time to respond to our call for evidence.

A sign of hope

A sign of hope is that heritage organisations and their staff, volunteers and fans are sharing collections and ideas online from their homes. While with one rationed walk a day, parks and our outside world have never been so beloved.

Perhaps after the lockdown is over, we will have a chance to celebrate and cherish all that we have missed these past months.

Economic insight into the impact of COVID-19

31/03/2020

This briefing summarises The National Lottery Heritage Fund’s evidence of the economic impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) on heritage UK wide.

Since 1994, The National Lottery has raised more than £40billion for good causes in the areas of heritage, arts, sport, and community. In practice this means The National Lottery Heritage Fund is the largest dedicated grant funder of the UK’s heritage. Since 1994, £8bn has funded more than 44,000 projects across the UK. We support the full breadth of heritage, from historic sites and areas, industrial and maritime, museums, libraries and archives and parks and gardens, landscapes and nature.

Heritage-based tourism is worth £20.2bn to the UK economy per annum. Overseas visitors to UK cultural, historic and natural heritage attractions spend more than double per visit (an average of £560) compared with their domestic overnight counterparts (an average of £210 per trip) (our research, 2016).

On 20 March we emailed a short questionnaire to understand the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on the organisations we support who have received a grant of £250,000 or more in the last 10 years. This survey was also issued externally to the sector through our communication activity. The survey closed on 27 March and we received 1,253 responses.

We also commissioned a parallel survey via Wildlife and Countryside Link and their sister LINKS across the UK. The survey was sent to their 100+ members and generated 60 responses.

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Economic Impact of Coronovirus March 2020	304.21 KB

eNGO Coronavirus Impact Survey Report

31/03/2020

Between 20 and 24 March 2020, Wildlife and Countryside Link (Link) worked with, NI Environment Link, Scot Link and Wales Environment Link and our members to conduct a UK-wide survey of the impact of the coronavirus on the environment sector.

The aim of the survey was to help DEFRA, the statutory agencies, devolved administrations, and grant funders, like the National Lottery Heritage Fund, to assess the effect that the coronavirus is currently having, and is expected to have, on the funding and operations of environment organisations across the UK. We also gathered input from the environment sector on the support and funding that would be most valuable from Defra and grant providers at this critical time.

Key findings

Our finding are clear. The outbreak poses a threat to:

frontline functions: conservation, access and animal welfare;
scientific and policy work; and
the short-term and long-term viability of a significant proportion of the environment sector.

Several of the organisations surveyed said they were already at a particularly vulnerable time financially before the coronavirus pandemic, due to extra costs from dealing with recent storm and flooding crises. Many organisations with visitor attraction sites are highly reliant on the income they generate, and they see their reserves being quickly consumed with no revenue coming in from these venues.

In the short-term, significant redundancies may need to be made, unless adequate support is provided quickly. There is a high level of concern among environmental and conservation charities about whether and how the government-funded 80% staff furlough scheme, and other support offered to businesses, will apply to charities.
There is a clear need for emergency and replacement funding, and flexibility on grant deadlines and targets, from environmental.

Heritage Emergency Fund launches to help sector (updated)

01/04/2020

The National Lottery Heritage Fund has put together a £50million fund to support the heritage sector as an immediate response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.

Last updated: 23 June 2020  

We will continue to support more than 2,500 projects that we have already committed to - an investment of more than £1billion.

“We know that circumstances are incredibly challenging for our heritage community right now and we want to do everything we can to support them."
Eilish McGuinness, The National Lottery Heritage Fund Executive Director, Business Delivery