Outcomes for heritage projects
Page last updated: 27 January 2022
Outcomes are changes, impacts or benefits that happen as a direct result of your project.
Up to the end of financial year 2022–2023, we’re prioritising heritage projects that will meet six of our outcomes as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic. They are:
- A wider range of people will be involved in heritage (This is a mandatory outcome. Every project we fund must achieve our mandatory outcome as a minimum.)
- the funded organisation will be more resilient
- people will have greater wellbeing
- people will have developed skills
- the local area will be a better place to live, work or visit
- the local economy will be boosted
We also expect all projects to demonstrate that they are building long-term environmental sustainability and inclusion into their plans. Remember, we will only fund projects that are clearly focused on heritage – this can be national, regional or local heritage of the UK.
Our other three outcomes are:
- heritage will be in better condition
- heritage will be identified and better explained
- people will have learnt about heritage, leading to change in ideas and actions
We encourage you to focus on achieving one or more of our priority outcomes at this time. For example, if a project only delivered on the 'better condition’ outcome and the mandatory outcome – it would be much less likely to be supported than a project that met the mandatory outcome, plus another priority outcome.
The number of outcomes you plan to achieve will depend on what you want to deliver and should be proportionate to the size of grant you are requesting or the specific focus of your project. There is no obligation to name more than the mandatory outcome, particularly for a smaller project, and we strongly encourage you not to claim more outcomes than you really think your project can deliver. We recognise that many of the outcomes are interrelated and we would advise you to focus on the key needs of your project and outline these under the outcomes that best capture this.
More information on achieving outcomes
What is a project outcome
An outcome is a result of what your project does. It’s a change that happens, rather than an activity or service you provide (which are outputs).
The easiest way of describing an outcome is to explain how it is different from an output.
- The output of cooking dinner is a plate of food. The outcome is a full and satisfied person.
- The output of a teacher is a certain number of lessons delivered in a year. The outcome is happier, wiser students who are more able to succeed.
When you are designing your project, it is very important that you separate the output (for example, 'building an events space'), from the outcome (for example, 'ensuring that twice as many people from the local community engage with their own stories').
Why do you have to clearly set out your project outcomes?
We need to understand the difference your project will make. We can’t support projects that don’t connect people and communities to heritage in the UK and don’t clearly explain how their outcomes achieve this.
More specifically, in 2022–2023 we’ve decided to exclusively support heritage projects that lead to one of six priority outcomes, which are especially important during the current pandemic.
If you aren’t clear about the outcomes your project is likely to create, we won’t be able to support your work. And if you are clear about your outcomes, but they don’t line up with one of the priority outcomes, we also won't be able to help you.
We expect projects to achieve some outcomes more strongly than others. Please focus on the outcomes that are strongest for your project, as we will monitor your progress against these and you will use them to evaluate the change your project has made.
Priority Outcomes
Our sustainability requirement
Our other outcomes
Changes to this guidance
We will regularly review this guidance and respond to user feedback. We reserve the right to make changes as required. We will communicate any changes as quickly as possible via this webpage.