Cause4 launches a new programme of business support for heritage organisations in England

Social enterprise and B-Corporation Cause4, has been awarded funding by the National Lottery Heritage Fund to develop and deliver a Business Support Programme for 150 small or medium sized heritage organisations across England, in partnership with the AMA and Creative United.

Thanks to National Lottery players, this Business Support Programme will support the heritage sector to develop essential skills in business planning, audience and stakeholder development, leadership and change management with the aim of creating a better connected, informed and resilient heritage landscape across England.

The Programme comes in response to the National Lottery Heritage Fund’s desire to support partnerships to deliver bespoke programmes of capacity building support across the core building blocks of organizational leadership and management.

Through a range of training, mentoring and peer learning, each participating heritage organisation will develop a clear business plan, a developed income strategy and the tools and knowledge to sufficiently respond to their specific needs and challenges.

The consortium will launch the Programme during a period of significant change for the sector; with well documented financial challenges in the context of Covid-19. To help assess and understand the challenges and to build resilience business models, the Business Support Programme will commission the development of a heritage dashboard - a tool enabling the sector to compare and contrast their business models with those organisations of a similar scale and make-up.

Ensuring that the Programme is available to those who can benefit the most, the two-year project will be free to take part in, and a third of participating organisations will receive access grants to support their ability to engage.

Michelle Wright, CEO and Founder of Cause4 said

“Cause4 develops and designs national Programmes that can help to drive change. This Business Support programme comes at a moment of global upheaval as we look to rebuild post Covid-19. Supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, we look forward to working with a wide range of heritage organsiations and our partners AMA and Creative United to create a flexible programme of support that will embed long-term resilience and learning across the heritage sector for years to come.”

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

“The coronavirus pandemic has brought with it unprecedented uncertainty and challenges, but we are committed to helping the heritage community weather the impact and recover in the future. With our investment in the Business Support Programme and in Cause4’s England-wide initiative, we aim to ensure that the heritage sector is robust and resilient, and will be well equipped in the face of future challenges.” 2 The project will start in 2020 and will be completed in 2022. Sign up to the project’s mailing list here to be kept up to date."

The project will start in 2020 and will be completed in 2022.

Sign up to the project's mailing list here to be kept up to date.