Leadership Capacity Fund

The Leadership Capacity Fund has been created in recognition of the fact that many museums are struggling for capacity to do the strategic thinking and development work required to move their organisation into a stronger position. We are aware that in many cases, senior leaders’ time is being consumed in operational tasks due to insufficient staffing. This fund is intended to free up leadership capacity to address specific strategic ambitions.

• Additional hours for leaders who work part time.
• Backfilling for leaders so that they can hand on operational elements of their roles to others for a period of time.
• Secondments into temporary strategic posts (it must be clear that current roles will be backfilled during the secondment).
• Nominal travel and equipment costs to facilitate the strategic planning work to be undertaken. More substantial delivery budgets are likely to be more appropriately funded through other funding streams to be announced soon.
• New temporary staff to undertake specific pieces of strategic development work. (Please note that creating capacity for existing staff will be the priority for this fund and bringing in new staff is more likely to be appropriate for further funding opportunities through the Museum Futures Programme that will be announced soon. However, there may be some exceptional cases where it is appropriate for this fund.)

The additional capacity can be supported for up to 12 months. It will need to be clear what strategic goals you plan to progress during this time.

MGS will work with successful applicants to identify whether there is additional support that we can offer during the funded period which may include mentoring, training and bringing the successful applicants together as a cohort to share experience.

The Museum Futures programme is piloting different ways of supporting the sector to address the present challenges. We anticipate awarding 8-10 grants under this Leadership Capacity stream and will monitor the effectiveness of this approach.

• Organisations that run Accredited museums in Scotland.
• Organisations that run non-Accredited museums in Scotland – please note the criteria for non-Accredited museums listed below.
• Formally constituted groups of museums (eg. geographical forums).
• In line with Scottish Government requirements, to access MGS funding, organisations should be able to demonstrate compliance with the Scottish Government’s Fair Work First policy. This requires workers to receive payment of the real Living Wage and to have access to appropriate channels for effective voice. Further information can be found in Fair Work First – Guidance for funding applicants. For Museum Futures funding, MGS may be able to consider exceptions for organisations who are working towards, but not yet able to pay the real Living Wage. Exceptions may be offered where it is clear the funding requested will accelerate their move towards being able to do so. All other requirements should be met.
• Due to time constraints, applicants do not have to have completed the Organisational Health Checker in advance of applying for this particular stream of funding. However, doing so is likely to strengthen your case for funding. Those who have not managed to do so will be asked to complete it during the application assessment period or post award.

Eligibility for non-Accredited museums 

To be eligible for funding your organisation must meet the following criteria:

• Have a formally adopted constitution which states what the purpose and core activities of your organisation is.
  Meet the 2022 ICOM definition of a museum:

“A museum is a not-for-profit, permanent institution in the service of society that researches, collects, conserves, interprets and exhibits tangible and intangible heritage. Open to the public, accessible and inclusive, museums foster diversity and sustainability. They operate and communicate ethically, professionally and with the participation of communities, offering varied experiences for education, enjoyment, reflection and knowledge sharing.”

This means that we cannot accept applications from museums whose collections are entirely in private ownership.

• Your museum must be a physical site that is open to the public at least 20 days a year. Your organisation must engage the public with your collection.
• Operating a museum in line with the above definition should be one of your organisation’s main purposes, or the main function of a dedicated department.
• Benefit deriving from the grant must demonstrably be primarily for your museum function.

To assess whether your museum meets this definition we will ask you questions about:

• The size of your collection and the types of objects you care for. Some collections are not considered museum collections, for example the live collections of zoos and gardens; collections of archives; and digital collections.
• Who owns your collection. We ask about collection ownership to understand your role and responsibility in looking after your collection. You do not need to own your collection to apply, but we may require further details about your organisation’s agreement with the collection owner. We are unable to fund museums whose collections are entirely privately owned.
• If and how you add to your collection. Museum collections must not be ‘closed’ collections. You must be able to continue to add to your collection and develop it.
• Your organisation’s purpose and museum activity. This will include questions about your venue, when it is open, and how you engage the public with your collection.

When assessing your application, we will consider and rate the strength of the case you have made with regard to the criteria below.

Because this is a new approach to funding for MGS, all applicants will be required to submit an expression of interest prior to applying. This will enable us to help identify whether your idea is a good fit for this fund and if so, to help you shape your proposal to make the funding work most effectively for you and to make your application as strong as possible against these criteria. See details about submitting an EOI below in the section ‘How to apply’.

The fund criteria against which we will assess your application are as follows:

The potential strategic impact of your proposal

We need to understand what strategic goals you will be focusing on with your additional capacity. Though we appreciate that some of the work will be exploratory, and specific outputs cannot be guaranteed, we aim to support organisations that have already identified ideas or areas of work which they are well positioned to make progress on during the funded period. We will prioritise applications where the strategic goals identified are most likely to strengthen the organisation’s financial resilience. Applications should set out what steps have already been taken, what the next steps are that you will progress with the additional capacity, what you hope to have achieved by the end of the period.

The need for additional capacity to progress your strategic ambitions 

We need to understand the current pressures on your workforce and why you do not currently have capacity to progress your strategic ambitions. Please outline the size and roles of your current workforce and changes to the capacity of that workforce over the last 5 years. If you are seeking funding to free up time of existing members of staff to carry out strategic work, tell us about their current responsibilities and how these limit their ability to carry out strategic work.

Clarity that the funding will create additional capacity for your organisation

We need to see clearly that the funding will create additional capacity for your organisation. We are unable to simply fund one of your existing posts for a period of time in order to ease pressure on your core funding. For example, if you are seeking funding to free up your director’s time for a period and your director already works full time, you will need to explain how their current responsibilities will be covered. This should include how you will backfill for their current activity and responsibilities so that we can be confident that their time has been freed up to focus on strategic work.

Your need for financial support 

Consideration will be given to whether your organisation is more able to support the activity from your own reserves than other applicants that are applying, or whether you have more funding avenues open to you than other applicants. We will prioritise those organisations most in need of the opportunity to progress strategic goals in order to build their financial resilience.

Evaluation 

The Leadership Capacity Fund in a new approach for MGS, and it is important that we are able to record and understand the impact of this fund on organisations. Tell us how you will track and evaluate the impact of the additional capacity on your organisation and its strategic development.

• This funding is focused specifically on increasing capacity, so the funding is primarily for additional staff time. This fund is unable to support substantial activity delivery costs, other grant streams that we will announce shortly may be able to help with those kind of costs.

• You can apply for grants between £5,000 and £60,000.
• You can apply for 100% of costs but we welcome financial contributions from the applicant organisation or other sources wherever possible as this enables us to support more museums with our limited funds.
• The funding can be used to increase capacity over a 12 month period. Time for recruitment for backfilling can be additional to this, but we expect this to begin as soon as possible after award.

Anyone considering an application to the fund is required to submit an expression of interest (EOI) first. We will not be able to accept applications from organisations that have not submitted an EOI. You can download an EOI form at the bottom of this page.

EOI’s should be sent to the Museum Futures programme delivery team at museumfutures@museumsgalleriesscotland.org.uk no later than 13 August. Once we have received your form, a member of the team will get in touch with you to discuss your proposal and advise on whether you should proceed to an application. We are not be able to respond to EOI’s submitted after the EOI deadline and we cannot accept applications from organisations who have not had approval from us to proceed with a full application.

All applicants must have submitted a Fair Work First Employer Declaration by the application deadline if they have not already submitted one in this financial year.

Application forms will be available from late July. All applications must be submitted online via our application portal MGS Online.