These are challenging times for fundraising, as many public and private sources of funding are cutting back. Last year, we responded to the difficulties some of our projects face by reducing the amount of partnership funding you need to raise (from 10% to 5% for grants under £1million, and 25% to 10% for larger grants). We will keep these levels until at least 2013.
For the longer term, however, many organisations with responsibilities for heritage need to find new ways of becoming financially sustainable. We believe Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) grantees are well placed to make this transition, but will need help in attracting new donors and supporters.
Every project has a number of fundraising possibilities: the ones you follow up will depend on the nature of your project, the opportunities you can offer to potential supporters, and even your geographical location. We hope you’ll find useful ideas in this issue of Heritage focus as you set off on the fundraising trail.