Understand the Social Impact of a Small Heritage Organisation's Events

The challenge

Anywhere Heritage Trust is a small community heritage organisation which looks after a volunteer-run museum in a historic building. They want more local people to be aware of and take pride in their local heritage, and they also want to engage young people. They decided to run a Heritage Open Day and worked with a local youth group to find out what young people think about their local heritage.

The process

Identify social impact areas

The trust wanted to understand:

• Who came to the Heritage Open Day
• Whether the Heritage Open Day contributed to a sense of pride in local heritage and encouraged people to build community connections
• How young people felt about their local area, and whether the project had an impact on them, and if it did, to what extent and how

Select relevant indicators

They looked at the indicators in the 6 areas of social impact for heritage and decided to focus on:

• For the Heritage Open Day:
  • Participation
  • Pride
  • Community identity

• For the youth project:
  • Attachment
  • Personal Development

Choose data collection methods

They selected 3 methods from the data collection methods toolkit:

• A visitor survey to find out about the people who had visited during the open day, including demographic questions such as age
• A wall of words for encouraging visitors to reflect on their experiences during the day
• Photo stories for the youth project, as a more engaging way of exploring impact

Each method was tailored to the target audience and context.

Plan data collection

For the visitor survey, they:

• Downloaded the survey question bank and chose the questions that were most relevant
• Designed a short survey. As this was to be completed at the event they kept it to 5 closed questions, one open-ended question and the demographic information
• Briefed their volunteers so they were able to explain to participants why the Anywhere Heritage Trust needed to ask these questions
• Created a space for visitors to complete the survey with relative privacy and provided a locked survey box where respondents put completed surveys, protecting their anonymity 

For the wall of words, they:

• Set up at the entrance hall with colourful pens and sticky notes
• Provided visitor assistants to guide participants in responding to prompts
• Made sure that the activity was as inclusive as possible (following the guidance in the toolkit)

For the photo stories, they:

• Facilitated 3 sessions with a local youth group, 1 to prepare, 1 at the event and 1 follow-up session
• Provided the young people with relatively low-cost digital cameras to document places and experiences at the event which were meaningful to them
• Follow-up included reflective captions and group discussion

Gather responses

• For the visitor survey, data collection was completed at the event. Visitors who agreed to the survey were assured it was anonymous and data was stored in compliance with the GDPR.
• Assistants at the wall of words encouraged participants to reflect and contribute in their own time and style
• Wall of words and photo stories methods were inclusive, and encouraged creativity
• Facilitators secured consent for image use for the youth project and stored all data in compliance with the GDPR

Review and analyse

Findings from the survey

• The event was well attended by people who live locally
• The audience did not fully represent the demographic make-up of the local community. Disabled people were notably under-represented.

Findings from the wall of words

• Recurring words: pride, resilience, heritage, belonging
• Recurring themes included nostalgia and community spirit
• Several noted appreciation for intergenerational stories and shared memories

Findings from photo stories

• Themes of overlooked spaces, personal discovery, and a desire to reclaim urban or neglected areas
• Young participants expressed creative pride and a sense of ownership over their work
• Young people expressed increased confidence through their engagement with the project
• Some stories revealed unexpected emotional connections to public and green spaces

Share learnings

• They compiled an internal report, detailing the insights for action planning (such as making the event fully accessible for disabled people and the need to work with disabled people to do this)
• Infographics and visual boards used to engage funders and stakeholders
• Results helped secure new funding for a youth-led local heritage trail project

Reflect and build

Reflections included:

• The need to address the lack of participation by disabled people. The need to improve accessibility, including in data collection methods
• Wall of words was low-cost, high-impact, and easily replicable
• Photo stories helped unlock authentic feedback from young participants, which informed future plans and led to the involvement of young people in the co-design of future work
• Future data collection needed to include more digital tools and working with participants over a longer term

Conclusion

This case study shows how Anywhere Heritage Trust used simple but powerful methods to measure the real-world social impact of their Heritage Open Day events. With minimal resources and a thoughtful approach, they amplified voices, revealed stories, and built stronger community connections, laying the groundwork for sustainable, evidence-based heritage work.