Last summer, Crich Tramway Village was fortunate to be successful with its bid to The National Lottery Heritage Fund for £83,000. This funding, which is made possible by National Lottery players, will specifically help us gather key evidence, plan how we can expand business opportunities and make our staff and volunteer base more resilient.
‘Foundations First’ is all about getting the museum to a point where it’s more sustainable as a business and charity, and helping us to understand what our visitors, and even more importantly, potential visitors, would like to see us doing. We have now begun work, using external advisors as well as tapping our own skills and knowledge, with three key areas of activity.
Firstly, we will focus on gathering more insightful audience data, building on the knowledge we have from our current visitors (511 filled out feedback forms in the 2024 season). We have hired audience specialists ‘A Different View’ to engage especially with current non audiences or lapsed audiences, gathering and analysing all this data, and putting a series of potential site developments ‘propositions’, working with the outline ideas generated by our own Development Committee.
The second strand of work is being carried out by Preston based consultancy ‘Osprey’, who will help the TMS Board and staff create a new Business Plan for the museum. This will involve specialist advice on how our customers interact with us to buy tickets online. It will also look at how we can improve further our retail and on-line shop offer, and our staff succession planning in areas where we need particularly vital skills.
Finally, ‘Foundations First’ gives a powerful boost to the museum’s volunteer operation, with the Heritage Fund and UKSPF (‘Levelling up’) support for our recently recruited part time Volunteer Co-ordinator and Mentor, Victoria Dickerson. This workstream covers how we recruit, recognise and reward, and retain our volunteers in all areas.
