The Catalyst Cymru: Resilient Heritage project provide in-depth support for heritage organisations in Wales.

Following on from the success of the Catalyst Cymru - Heritage
Fundraising project (2014-2018), WCVA are pleased to be continuing
our work with the heritage sector through the new Catalyst Cymru:
Resilient Heritage project.
Thanks to National Lottery players and the National Lottery
Heritage Fund, Catalyst Cymru: Resilient Heritage will provide
heritage organisations from across Wales with in-depth support to
further develop their organisation.
Resilience in voluntary sector organisations goes beyond income
generation.
As well as continuing to offer support with fundraising, this new
Catalyst Cymru project will also support organisations to further
develop areas such as governance, marketing and social media,
project management, business planning and impact measurement.
We will provide this support through three main activities
between July 2019 and June 2021:
- We will be providing six days of in-depth executive
coaching in order to build knowledge and confidence
in the areas mentioned above. There are 29 places available to
heritage organisations.
- WCVA will be running a programme of training courses
and webinars targeted at heritage organisations.
- During the second year, we will be working with heritage
organisations who have received support through both Catalyst Cymru
projects to provide peer-to-peer mentoring
to even more heritage organisations.
Who is Catalyst Cymru: Resilient Heritage
for?
Catalyst Cymru: Resilient Heritage is made up of three
activities.
Our executive coaching is open to heritage organisations, the
training programme is open to all staff, volunteers and
trustees within the heritage sector in Wales, and the peer
mentoring will be available to Chief Executives/Senior
Management/Trustees working or volunteering for heritage
organisations in 2020.
In line with the National Lottery Heritage Fund, our definition
of 'heritage' includes:
- Historic buildings and monuments
- Nature and landscapes (historic gardens, wildlife,
woodland)
- Industrial, maritime and transport
- Museums, libraries, archives and collections
- Intangible heritage (such as the preservation of memories,
or oral history projects)
- Community heritage
How to get involved
For an application pack and form for the Executive Coaching,
please contact Alison Pritchard, Catalyst Project Manager at apritchard@wcva.cymru or on
02920 435 763.
To see information about the training programme, please visit
WCVA's training and events pages
and look out for the Catalyst Cymru logo.
Catalyst Cymru - Heritage Fundraising
Our Catalyst Cymru-Heritage Fundraising project ran from
2014-2018 and specifically looked at helping heritage organisations
to develop their fundraising capacity and become more
sustainable.
Learning from this project has helped inform our new project -
Catalyst Cymru: Resilient Heritage.
The independent evaluation of Catalyst Cymru - Heritage
Fundraising, conducted by Wavehill, found that the project has been
extremely successful.
Key findings from the evaluation showed:
- 44% of organisations noted immediate sustained or increased
income as a result of Catalyst training.
- 85% expected sustained or increased income from private sources
in the next 12 months
As a result of Catalyst training…
- 74-90% of respondents reported greater knowledge
- 68-83% reported increased awareness
- 65-81% reported increased confidence
- 70-79% reported improved skills around fundraising from private
sources
- 82% expect to further implement learning from training in
future
- 83% will pass on what they've learnt
- 79-83% think the learning will further impact upon their
everyday work
About the funders
MALD, part of Welsh Government, have part-funded the executive
coaching for Catalyst Cymru: Resilient Heritage.
MALD helps promote and protect the culture and heritage of
Wales by providing advice and support to local museums, archives
and libraries in Wales on professional standards, expertise and
skills, operating grant and develops research and baseline
information across the sector.
It also manages the policy and operational work relating to the
sponsorship of the two national institutions - the
National Library of Wales and Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum
Wales.
National Lottery Heritage Fund
The National Lottery Heritage Fund is the largest dedicated
funder of heritage in the UK. They believe that understanding,
valuing and sharing our heritage brings people together, inspires
pride in communities and boosts investment in local economies.
- They distribute National Lottery grants from £3,000 to £5
million and over, funding projects that sustain and transform the
UK's heritage
- They provide leadership and support across the heritage sector,
and advocate for the value of heritage
Get in touch:
If you're a heritage organisation with any development needs,
have an idea you want to run past us or if you want to find out how
you Catalyst Cymru can help you, then please get in touch. We'd
love to hear from you!
Or if you want to keep in touch with the latest project
developments, follow us on our twitter account @CatalystCymru.
Online funding searches
The
Heritage Alliance Funding Directory
The Directory is a free, easy to use guide to potential sources
of support, financial and otherwise, for anyone seeking to
undertake projects related to the heritage of the United Kingdom.
It is managed by the Heritage Alliance and the Architectural
Heritage Fund.
Lottery Good
Causes - Fund Funding for your Project
Here you can search for the right National Lottery funding
programme for your project or activity.
Funding Wales
Funding Wales is the funding search tool created by Third Sector
Support Wales. It's a free basic online funding search that can
help identify suitable funding opportunities, from small grants to
large capital projects and loan finance opportunities.
Other resources
AIM - Association of
Independent Museums
AIM is a thriving membership network for independent museums,
galleries and heritage organisations across the UK.
Architectural Heritage
Fund
The Architectural Heritage Fund (AHF) is a registered charity,
working since 1976 to promote the conservation and sustainable
re-use of historic buildings for the benefit of communities across
the UK. AHF do this by providing advice, information and financial
assistance in the form of early project grants and loans for
projects undertaken by charities and not-for-profit private
organisations.
Art Fund
The Art Fund is the national fundraising charity for art. The
fund helps museums and galleries buy works of art and helps the
public make the most of the UK's fascinating collections. The
website hosts Art
Happens, one of the best known crowdfunding arts and heritage
crowdfunding platforms.
Association of
Cultural Enterprises
The Association for Cultural Enterprises promotes commercial
best practice in the UK's cultural and heritage sector by providing
training and networking opportunities and facilitating the sharing
of information and experience between its members.
The British Association of
Friends of Museums
The British Association of Friends of Museums, BAFM, is here to
help, encourage, inform and advise friends, supporters and
volunteers of museums, galleries, and other cultural organisations
in all sections of our UK heritage.
BAFM supports local Friends' groups, keeps them informed about
items of benefit, and provides a network to help share problems and
solutions.
Charity Commission
The Charity Commission is the independent regulator for
charitable activity: enabling charities to maximise their impact;
ensuring compliance with legal obligations; encouraging innovation
and effectiveness; championing the public interest in charity to
promote the public's trust and confidence.
Community
Knowledge Hub
The Community Knowledge Hub is for Libraries and brings expert
guidance and resources together with an interactive community of
organisations and local authorities involved with community
managed and supported libraries. Can give advice on co-production
and asset transfers. A service provided by Locality.
Third Sector Support
Wales (County Voluntary
Councils)
Third Sector Support Wales (TSSW) is a network of support
organisations for the third sector in Wales. Our shared goal is to
enable the third sector and volunteers across Wales to contribute
fully to individual and community well-being, now and for the
future.
TSSW comprises of all 19 county voluntary councils and WCVA.
Your local county voluntary council provides advice and information
on fundraising and other fundraising sources, as well as assisting
you with matters such as your governance.
AMA
AMA helps people working in arts and cultural organisations
reach more audiences with training, events and resources.
MALD (Museum and Libraries Division)
MALD is the division of the Welsh Assembly Government that
advises and supports museums, libraries and archives in Wales. MALD
is a partner in Catalyst Cymru: Resilient Heritage They provide
several grants and training for Welsh Museums, libraries and
archives.
Directory of Social
Change
DSC is an independent organisation providing training courses,
publications, online funding databases, research and conferences to
the voluntary sector. They also run a bookshop and host lots of
free resources on their website, including top tips and
best-practice articles.
Cynnal
Cymru
Cynnal Cymru's overall focus is on developing and promoting a
sustainable, resource-efficient and low-carbon society through
engagement with enterprises, the third sector and communities. They
connect local and national organisations together from across Wales
to help each other develop more sustainable services and
operations. Cynnal Cymru provide high quality services to
organisations to make them more Sustainable - these come under Cynnal Connect
and Cynnal
Consult.
Welsh Museums
Federation
The Federation of Museums & Art Galleries of Wales is the
strategic body for museum and art gallery professionals in
Wales.
The Federation's three key messages are:
- Museums empower people through learning, participation and
inspiration
- Museums and their collections strengthen community
identity
- Museums make a significant economic contribution through
tourism and regeneration
Fundraising Regulator
The Fundraising Regulator is an independent, non-statutory body
that regulates fundraising across the charitable sector in England,
Wales and Northern Ireland. They stand up for best practice in
fundraising, in order to protect donors and support the vital work
of fundraisers. They work in partnership with other regulators and
the representative bodies in the charitable and fundraising sectors
to build public confidence and ensure consistent fundraising
standards across the UK. The Regulator holds The Codes of
Fundraising Practice and administers the
Fundraising Preference Service.
The National Lottery
Heritage Fund
Formerly known as the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), the National
Lottery Heritage Fund is the largest dedicated funder of heritage
in the UK.
They believe that understanding, valuing and sharing our
heritage brings people together, inspires pride in communities and
boosts investment in local economies.
- NLHF distributes National Lottery grants from £3,000 to
£5million and over, funding projects that sustain and transform the
UK's heritage
- NLHF provides leadership and support across the heritage
sector, and advocate for the value of heritage to modern life. From
museums, parks and historic places to archaeology, natural
environment and cultural traditions, NLHF invests in every part of
our heritage.
The National Lottery Heritage Fund are the main funder of the
Catalyst Cymru: Resilient Heritage project.
The
Institute of Fundraising
The Institute of Fundraising is the national professional
membership body for UK fundraising and provides guidance, training
and qualifications on a range of fundraising methods. IoF Cymru run training,
networking events and conferences specifically for fundraisers and
charities in Wales.
Locality
Locality helps people to set up locally owned and led
organisations. They support community organisations to be strong
and successful, to meet local needs and to give people a purpose,
good places to live and good health. They have a membership
network, provide resources and specialist advice and support and
campaign to create a better operating environment for community
organisations.
Museums
Association
The museums association is an independent membership
organisation for everyone working in museums, galleries and
heritage.
Small Charities
Coalition
The Small Charities Coalition supports small charities to access
the skills, tools and information they need to get going and do
what they do best.
SOFII
A 'showcase of fundraising innovation and inspiration', SOFII is
a website full of fundraising resources, case studies and tools to
help you with your own fundraising.
United Kingdom Association
of Building Preservation Trusts (UKABPT)
Promotes and supports the rescue and sustainable use of historic
buildings.
UK Fundraising
A rich array of useful fundraising information, news and
resources.
Wales
Council for Voluntary Action (WCVA)
WCVA's purpose is to enable voluntary organisations in Wales to
make a bigger difference together. WCVA is the national membership
body for voluntary organisations in Wales.
Wales Environment
Link
Wales Environment Link (WEL) is a network of environmental,
countryside and heritage non-governmental organisations with an
all-Wales remit.
Volunteering
Wales
Volunteering Wales is an online portal that supports volunteer
recruitment and placement.