Heritage organisations can thrive in the digital era, using tech to attract the visitors and support they need.

“Technology can help organisations punch above their weight, providing low cost ways to connect to communities and bring heritage to more people.”

We want to help them succeed, which is why we have developed our Digital Skills for Heritage initiative.

What we’ll be doing

Digital Skills for Heritage is an advocacy initiative driving up digital capabilities across the heritage sector.

It will:

• promote digital skills and leadership

• directly support digital skills development

Additionally, we will be carrying out a benchmarking exercise across the sector to measure how digitally confident it is. Taking place in the first half of 2020, this will also help us identify and celebrate the great work happening already.

Our response to a diverse sector

Heritage organisations are diverse, with widely varying needs, locations, sizes and levels of digital maturity, so our activities need to be diverse too.

Digital Skills for Heritage is therefore made up of several strands.

Training and support for heritage organisations

After an open and competitive process we have awarded two grants totalling nearly £500,000 to:

• The Digital Heritage Lab, led by Arts Marketing Association

• Heritage Digital, led by Heritage Alliance

Their aim is to greatly increase the amount of free advice and support available to heritage organisations that already use digital.

Keep up-to-date with this by joining our newsletter and following us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.

Leading the Sector

We want to ensure that decision makers across the sector are confident about using digital to deliver on their organisational missions.

Our new ‘Leading the Sector’ courses will sponsor up to 30 executives, working within medium and large heritage organisations across the UK, to become digital leaders.

Up to two cohorts will take part in an innovative, structured learning programme delivered by Culture24. Find out more and apply today.

The Digital Confidence Fund

Technology can help organisations punch above their weight, providing low cost ways to connect to communities and bring heritage to more people.

We know, however, that many organisations are only just beginning to get to grips with how technology can help them.

For our Digital Confidence Fund, we’ve made £250,000 investment and one-to-one mentoring available to 20 such organisations. These must be active in one of our 13 Areas of Focus set out in our Strategic Funding Framework to be eligible.

Applications are open from today until 6 April 2020.

Advocacy for digital within heritage

Throughout this initiative and beyond, we will be champions for driving up digital capability within heritage.

We’ll be sharing knowledge, best practice, tips, tools and other resources on our website, newsletters and social media.

Our open programmes

Our open programmes continue to welcome project proposals which:

• make creative, impactful use of digital

• support digital skill development

• help organisations become digitally mature

Funding from £3,000 up to millions of pounds is available.

The year ahead

In my new role of Head of Digital at The National Lottery Heritage Fund, I am excited about driving Digital Skills for Heritage forward.

We are looking forward to a great year of working with individuals and organisations across the UK on their digital journeys.