Giving Tuesday: How is National Lottery money boosting charitable giving?

Giving Tuesday: How is National Lottery money boosting charitable giving?

Adult and child at a museum
Our evaluation has revealed that UK heritage will be more resilient and less reliant on public funding
A new report reveals how HLF grants boosted fundraising skills across UK heritage organisations

Today is #GivingTuesday. Now in its seventh year, it’s a day when people across the world are encouraged to pause their Christmas shopping and take a moment to think about charitable giving. We therefore thought it an apt moment to publish our most recent evaluation on how National Lottery money is helping to increase private giving for UK heritage.

In 2012, we launched Catalyst: capacity building programmes. Set against a challenging financial landscape, the programmes aimed to make heritage organisations more financially resilient by helping to build skills to attract private money.

It’s good news. Our evaluation has revealed that UK heritage will be more resilient and less reliant on public funding after almost 20,000 people across 4,100 organisations received specialist fundraising training, mentoring, and business support though Catalyst.  

Report findings

  • HLF invested £4.88million in total
  • 19,314 people were trained across 4,100 UK heritage organisations
  • For every £ invested by HLF, on average £3.82 has been raised by beneficiaries –an additional £9m of private money
  • Organisations report increased confidence in approaching funders and securing deals
  • 98% of participants reported successful diversification of income

Catalyst: Umbrella offered grants of between £100,000 and £500,000 for ‘umbrella’ heritage bodies to work with other organisations to increase fundraising capacity and diversify income. Catalyst: Small grants were developed to support heritage organisations, particularly those less well equipped to carry out private fundraising, to increase their capacity and resources, test new ideas, and ultimately increase their financial sustainability.

Success stories

A £750,000 Catalyst: Umbrella grant enabled the Heritage Alliance, in partnership with the Institute of Fundraising, to deliver ‘Giving to Heritage’. A fundraising training programme, it helped more than 1,700 staff, volunteers, committee members and trustees of more than 800 heritage organisations and groups access fundraising training and capacity building opportunities.  This included workshops, executive coaching, one-to-one support and webinars. As a result, £3.15m has been raised.

The grant streams were part of a wider Catalyst programme, launched in 2012 by HLF, Arts Council England and Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), which focussed on endowment fundraising.

Our new Strategic Funding Framework launches early in the New Year. It will outline the organisation’s funding priorities for the next five years and capacity building and financial resilience is expected to be a strong theme.

DC Research Ltd carried out the evaluation of the HLF Catalyst: capacity building programmes. Full report can be found on HLF’s website 

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