The Culture Recovery Fund for Heritage, which is funded by Government and administered at arm’s length by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, is part of the Government’s £1.57 billion Culture Recovery Fund and is designed to secure the future of Britain’s museums, galleries, theatres, independent cinemas, heritage sites and music venues with emergency grants and loans.
We were delighted with our grant award because this has been a tough year for many charities and Icon has not been immune. This support from the Government will ensure that we are able to continue delivering our charitable objects and our strategic priorities while doing our best to support the conservation profession respond to the ongoing challenges of the Coronavirus pandemic.
The larger part of our grant of £99,400 will be used to commission a new membership database and website portal but we have also allocated funding to two consultancty projects:
- A business development project to consider how we maximise the potential of our current income generating activities and to explore new markets and new opportunities.
- A membership marketing project to enhance and expand our membership marketing activities. This will include analysing our present membership data and reviewing the potential market as well as generating new ideas.
We are now seeking talented and energetic consultants to deliver these two projects. Details and the Invitations to Tender are available on our website and the deadline for both submission is early January 2021.
A key outcome of the package of work that we will undertake with the grant will be improving our membership marketnig activities and identifying new sources of income so that we can ensure that our organisation remains stable and financially resilient for many years to come. Boosting our fundraising capacity and increasing our entrepreneurial skills will mean that we have a firm foundation to allow us to expand our activities and to continue advocating the value of conservation to stakeholders and the public.
Securing this timely and much needed financial support is hugely encouraging, and demonstrates that Icon is recognised as a vital organisation within the cultural heritage ecosystem. The work that we do to support the conservation profession has been acknowledged by funders and by policy-makers; their investment in our future is a testament to the importance of the role that we play in supporting the wider cultural heritage sector.
