World Heritage UK (WHUK) has been fortunate to receive support from the Social Enterprise Academy (SEA) and the National Lottery Heritage Fund (NLHF), to develop an income generation idea.
SEA and NLHF’s programme Steps to Sustainability has been established to help UK heritage organisations develop projects that will steer them towards greater financial sustainability.
WHUK’s business idea focuses on Audience & Membership Development, which has already been identified in our Business Plan (2020 – 2023) as a strategic objective for the charity.
There are only 33 WHSs in the UK so our scope to grow our membership from this small pool is limited. We believe that there are businesses and organisations that operate on the periphery of heritage, that would benefit from closer association with World Heritage and WHUK. Our 2019 “Review of the State of UK World Heritage Sites” highlighted in particular the need and opportunity of closer working with Destination Marketing Organisations (i.e. tourism boards), Local Enterprise Partnerships, and academic institutions.
This ambition does represent a challenge with our current resources and knowledge. We therefore need external expertise. WHUK will work with audience development and business development consultants during 2022, to learn more about these new audiences and how we can adapt or create membership benefits that will make membership of WHUK an attractive proposition, both for our existing members and for potential members.
WHUK thanks SEA and NLHF for this opportunity. Watch this space for news on how this project is progressing.
