Impact and Evaluation Strategy
AHF Impact Report
Our Impact Report analyses the data we gather from grant and loan recipients to understand the difference AHF funding and support makes in the development of their projects, and the difference their projects make within their communities. We use this analysis to refine and strengthen our activities to ensure we are having the greatest positive impact on the heritage-regeneration sector. Where broader lessons may be helpful to other funders and sector partners in designing their own programmes, we have picked these out in our report.
Click here to download our 2021-22 Impact Report.
Click here to download our 2020-21 Impact Report.
Programme Reports
Heritage Transformed in Wales and Northern Ireland, 2020-23
April 2020 saw the launch of the Architectural Heritage Fund's Heritage Transformed in Wales and Northern Ireland programme, made possible thanks to the generous support of our funding partners, The Pilgrim Trust, Garfield Weston Foundation, Cadw and the Department for Communities. The programme was designed to offer advice, guidance and grants to communities throughout Wales and Northern Ireland to save and find sustainable uses for historic buildings they love.
In the three years since the programme launched, we have made 124 grant offers to 94 heritage building projects totalling over £1.7m. Despite the significant impact of COVID during the three years, our End of Programme Report: 2020-23 shows the importance of historic buildings in addressing the needs of communities across Wales and Northern Ireland.
Click here to download our Heritage Transformed in Wales and Northern Ireland End of Programme Report: 2020-23.
Transforming Places Through Heritage Impact Report
2019 saw the launch of the Architectural Heritage Fund’s Transforming Places Through Heritage, a new grants programme funded by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, with the aim of supporting charities and social enterprises to save and find new uses for historic buildings located on high streets and in town centres. We are delighted to share this report, documenting the achievements and lessons learned from the programme’s second twelve months.
This report covers the period to 30th September 2021, during which a total of 224 grant offers were made, amounting to over £9 million, benefiting 167 charities and social enterprises and 184 different building projects in towns and cities in every region of England.
Click here to download our TPTH Impact Report Year 2
Click here to download our TPTH Impact Report Year 1
Evaluation Strategy
Since 1976 the Architectural Heritage Fund has worked with hundreds of projects to regenerate communities across the UK through the adaptation and reuse of historic buildings. Our Evaluation Strategy came into effect from 1st April 2020 and sets out our approach to monitoring and evaluation, and how we intend to measure the impact of projects we invest in for communities across the country.
Our new Evaluation Strategy details a number of new measurements, both qualitative and quantitative, that will provide clearer and more accessible data. This data will help inform the development of our internal processes, provide reporting to funders and partners and be accessible to organisations across the sector. In summary, the Strategy sets out an approach that encompasses:
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A logic model of Key Performance Indicators;
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Our approach to evaluating our different programmes, including grant and loan schemes, running across the UK; and
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The use of case studies to dive deeper into the difference that individual projects are making within their communities, impacts that can difficult to aggregate across the breadth of the projects we fund (which range from historic pools to housing uses to young peoples’ projects)
To see a copy of our Evaluation Strategy click here
Evaluation Methodology
Our Evaluation Strategy sets out how we will measure the delivery of our aims and mission, as set out in our Strategy 2020-23. Our overarching Evaluation Strategy shows our approach to:
- Embedding monitoring of impact at organisational and programme level ;
- Longitudinal evaluation to understand our impact on the lifecycle of projects we fund; and
- Internal evaluation to scrutinise and improve AHF support processes.
Our Evaluation Strategy aims to develop our understanding where we have a focus and impact as an organisation, to try to make data collection as clear and straight forward for the projects that we fund, to meet the needs of external funders who fund us.
Click here to download our Evaluation Methodology for 2020-23.
