Our new report uncovers impact of COVID-19 crisis on heritage - National Heritage Lottery Fund
The report provides valuable insight into how heritage was affected by the coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis over the past year and the challenges the sector still faces.
We commissioned Renaisi to find out how heritage organisations across the UK used our emergency funding, which was delivered at speed from April last year.
The report reveals the positive impact the Heritage Emergency Fund had on the sector, as we distributed £49,829,600 to 961 heritage organisations to help them to survive, recover, innovate and reopen.
What we learned
Our own rapid response survey found that 98% of heritage organisations were impacted within the first three weeks of the pandemic. We developed the Heritage Emergency Fund to help the sector adapt to those unexpected pressures.
This latest report shows that the biggest impact of our grants was economic, with most using at least some of their emergency funding for staff costs and overheads such as building maintenance and utility bills.
As a result of the pandemic, landscape and nature sites experienced high visitor numbers and needed more staff to maintain them. Mourne Heritage Trust in County Down was struggling when visitor numbers skyrocketed, leading to problems such as littering, wildfires and footpath damage. Their Heritage Emergency Fund grant supported staff costs and the purchase of materials, tools and equipment to safely bring back volunteers.
Over two-thirds of respondents said they spent at least some of their grant on social distancing measures. This helped many heritage organisations to safely reopen, and volunteers to return to their roles.
As the year progressed and successive lockdowns were introduced, more organisations worked with us to use their grant to innovate their business model, primarily by increasing their digital capability.
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Posted On: 27/05/2021