A survey of Scottish heritage organisations has highlighted strong demand for training and skills development within the sector with more than 85% of respondents saying their organisation has failed to fully reach its fundraising targets over the past year. Only 14% of organisations that responded had fully met their fundraising targets in the last year, with 64% reporting they had only been partially met.
Carried out by independent Scottish charity Arts & Business Scotland, the survey also asked respondents whether additional training on how to fundraise effectively from various revenue streams would help. 93% – more than nine in ten – responded that such training would be beneficial to their organisation.
The results were released to coincide with the launch of Arts & Business Scotland’s Resourcing Scotland’s Heritage autumn training programme, which aims to equip heritage organisations with the skills and information required to increase fundraising, particularly from private sources.
Representatives of more than 40 Scottish heritage organisations located throughout Scotland responded to the survey, ranging from small community trusts to large museums and visitor attractions. Publication of the latest survey results follow another recent major survey of Scottish cultural organisations conducted by Arts & Business Scotland which found that those operating in the heritage sector find securing sponsorship and funding from the business community comparatively more difficult than their counterparts in the arts sector.
Commenting on the survey results, Arts & Business Scotland Chief Executive David Watt said:
“Supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund with Archaeology Scotland, Built Environment Forum Scotland, greenspace scotland and Museums Galleries Scotland, Arts & Business Scotland has been running the Resourcing Scotland’s Heritage programme since 2014. Over that time, we’ve successfully trained 664 individuals from 437 organisations across Scotland’s heritage sector. These survey results show how important heritage organisations think it is to build their fundraising capacity through access to affordable training. They also demonstrate how much further scope there is for heritage organisations to improve their fundraising capacity by making more use of programmes such as Resourcing Scotland’s Heritage. I would encourage any heritage organisation which has yet to engage with the RSH programme to take a closer look at how it could help them to achieve their fundraising goals in the future.
