A brand new grant from Museum Development South West has given museum staff and volunteers an opportunity for skills, knowledge and team development which is often hard to prioritise when money is tight.
Round one of the Capacity Builder grant has awarded 10 grants to museums across the South West to help develop the skills and experiences of their staff and volunteers up until 27 September 2024. These museums are:
- Portland Museum, Dorset
- Gilbert White’s House and Gardens, Hampshire
- The Royal Logistic Corps Museum, Winchester
- Glenside Hospital Museum, Bristol
- Glastonbury Abbey, Somerset
- John Moore Museum, Gloucestershire
- Weston Museum, North Somerset
The second round of Capacity Builder grants will open on Monday 2 September for activities up to 28 February 2025. If you’re thinking of applying, here’s how some of the successful applicants from round one will be using their grants.
The Royal Logistic Corps Museum and other military museums in Hampshire have come together to secure group training by a specialist consultant on museum shop display and management. The participating museums will be learning about the customer experience which will raise staff competency and confidence, leading to increased revenue generation.
The Herschel Museum of Astronomy has just opened a consultation exhibition to seek input from the general public about its future. The goal of this consultation is to prepare for future capital development. This funding will enable the museum’s core team to visit similar museums in London, learning about best practice examples, which will feed into the capital development plans.
With grant funding becoming increasingly competitive, Gilbert White’s House and Gardens recognised a need to diversify income streams. The Capacity Builder grant will fund their attendance the Chartered Institute of Fundraising’s ‘Growing Income from Mid Value Donors’ course in July 2024. The training will also benefit their recently launched Membership and Legacy schemes, other ways in which they are becoming a resilient organisation.
How would your museum use a Capacity Builder grant? On our website, we have a range of informative documents to help with your grant application and a recording of our recent information webinar. Applications for round two of the Capacity Builder grant close on Monday 30 September.