Engaging Supporters

Our aim

To offer visitors a more involving and enjoyable experience, encourage them not only to join but to join in, and to build wide public support for our charitable aims

How we've acted

1. Surf's up

   In the West Country, our surfing coordinator - a former British surfing champion - has started to build strong relationships with the surfing community who are as passionate as we are about protecting the pristine environment of the coast.

   Hear more from our surfing coordinator

2. More than run of the mill

   We've brought Winchester City Mill back to life with involvement from the local community. The mill now makes wholemeal flour using the power of water, and children and adults are encouraged to find out about the process with a hands-on approach to learning. In total, 85 new posts were created at properties last year to increase engagement with visitors.

   Find out how Winchester City Mill was brought to life

3. Reaching out

   On Heritage Open Day in September 2007, 200 pay-for-entry Trust properties opened their doors with free entry and a host of activities for all ages to give newcomers a taste of what we can offer them. We believe shared experiences help build strong communities, rooted in local places.

4. Welcoming

   Last year over half a million people joined us and 86% of members renewed their subscriptions. We have 52,000 active volunteers, joining in with everything from building stone walls to helping visitors at our properties. Our equality and diversity programmes help to provide access for all.

5. Fine Farm Produce Awards

   Now in their second year, the Trust's Fine Farm Produce Awards are raising the profile of inspired examples of farm enterprise - from Llanrhidian's salt-marsh lamb to Cotehele's apple juice - and introducing to the public an amazing range of food products from traditional breeds of cattle, sheep and pigs. And we are an active partner in the 2008 Year of Food and Farming.

   Find out about the 2007 Fine Farm Produce Award winners

6. Exposed

   Our Exposed! photographic exhibition on climate change, sponsored by Magnum, won the prestigious ICVA Clarion Award, previously won by Al Gore's film An Inconvenient Truth. This collection of stunning images, inspired by ideas for greener living, was launched with a high-level public debate at the Royal Geographical Society before touring the country

7. Prince's Trust partnership

   The Big Lottery Fund has funded Getting into the Past - New Futures for Young People, an exciting collaboration between the National Trust and The Prince's Trust. The scheme helps disadvantaged young people progress into education, training or employment. This year's programme engaged with 150 young people, 65% of whom we hope will move into the longer programme

8. Our natural world

   Our Hidden Nature campaign welcomed adults and children to a hands-on programme of wildlife action, observation and learning at our properties and in their homes. Activity planners and Hidden Nature passports were published online and in national newspapers, and properties have been running a wide range of workshops and events to attract young wildlife explorers

Improving Conservation

Our aim

To increase investment in conservation, and to set and deliver ever-improving conservation and environmental standards

How we've acted

1. Watch us at work

   Vital work in 2007 included the completion of a multi-million pound renovation at Cragside (Northumberland), urgent structural repairs to the fabric of Corfe Castle (Dorset) and the painstaking restoration and conservation of the woodwork, tiles, glass and mirrors of The Crown Liquor Saloon (Belfast). Locked gates used to seal off houses and gardens during restoration work, but our Conservation in Action programme invites visitors at some sites to watch work in progress and even take part in it.

2. Energy Busters

   The Energy Busters programme at the Brancaster Millennium Activity Centre has taught hundreds of Norfolk schoolchildren how to cut their own schools' energy use, in some cases by a third. We are developing similar schemes in other regions.

   Find out more about Energy Busters (link to Brancaster Millenium Activity Centre case study)

3. Farming for the future

   Our team of farm advisers helps farming families to find ways to increase the value of their produce through direct marketing and local food campaigns, as well as by diversifying income through green tourism. They help farmers to exchange experiences and ideas, and open up new routes for farmers to reach local communities.

   Find out about life as a farm advisor in Northern Ireland

4. Green gardening

   Trust gardens are also responding to the challenge of climate change. Nymans Garden (West Sussex) composts all its green waste, runs its vehicles on biofuels, and recharges its equipment using solar power. Mottistone Manor Garden on the Isle of Wight and Felbrigg Hall (Norfolk) are trialling plants which will be more adaptable to warmer and dryer conditions.

5. Acquisitions and chattels

   We made a number of major acquisitions in 2007/08, including the purchase of Godolphin House and Garden in Cornwall, Sawrey House Hotel next to Beatrix Potter's Hill Top farm in Cumbria, and negotiations to secure some of the extraordinary chattels at Nostell Priory in West Yorkshire. We also completed the restoration of the Pope's Cabinet at Stourhead (Wiltshire).

   Important chattels which came to the Trust included the Borden collection of works by Thomas Bewick, the late Peter Barkworth's collection of paintings and watercolours, and at Lyme Park (Cheshire) a unique group of 18th-century clocks. Visitors can see conservation work being carried out on all the newly acquired contents of Agatha Christies's home at Greenway (Devon).

6. Green spaces

   We protect places where people can reconnect with nature. They may be in urban centres, like Morden Hall Park in London, where we are planning a major regeneration scheme. Or on the edge of cities, like Belfast's Black Mountain, where we added 192 hectares (474 acres) to our estate in 2007, for public benefit.

7. Shrinking our footprint

   We've introduced a tough new environmental audit process at all our properties. Across the Trust, low-energy lighting is replacing incandescent bulbs - at a substantial annual saving to the Trust. A team of hands-on Environmental Practices Advisers helps us to reduce our use of carbon, water and waste at our properties.

   Photo-voltaic panels nestle in the battlements of Dunster Castle in Somerset, showing that even a Grade 1 listed building can help to tackle climate change. Meanwhile our central office, Heelis, won its 15th national award as an exemplary green development.

8. Coping with the unexpected

   The Engineering Historic Futures project is providing us with technical solutions to help historic properties recover from flooding and protect them from future damage. A century's experience of dealing with such crises helped property staff to put right much of 2007's flood damage as speedily as possible.

Investing in Our People

Our aim

To help staff and volunteers to grow and share their skills and expertise, and to simplify our systems to encourage local initiative and creativity

How we've acted

1. With a little help...

   We are proud to have 52,000 volunteers helping us across the full diversity of our work. This year, our volunteers contributed a total of 3,093,771 hours, equating to a notional value of £22.3 million.

   Find out what it's like to be a National Trust volunteer

2. Empowering properties

   Through our new Step Change Project, we want to create more space and opportunity for Property Managers and their teams to manage their own affairs. We are simplifying our management and decision-making systems and making sure we provide the right framework to support local initiative and experimentation.

3. Green Leap Day

   TOn 29 February 2008 we held our Great Green Leap Day, in which National Trust staff had the opportunity to take time off and undertake an amazing range of green activities outside work.

4. Megabash

   We celebrated 40 years of working holidays with a hugely successful 'megabash' to clear bracken, scrub and rhododendron in the Surrey Hills.

5. Fix the Fells

   Volunteers for the Fix the Fells partnership are helping to reverse the damage from decades of footpath erosion which scarred the Lake District.

6. Listening to our volunteers

   We've undertaken a major survey of our volunteers, and we are organising a series of volunteer conferences, creating new recruitment material and a lively online network for volunteers. We are also expanding Active volunteering magazine and improving training and development for our volunteer managers.

7. Developing our staff

   We're taking steps to address our main staff concerns around pay, bureaucracy and speed of decision-making. We aim to make the most of the potential of the creative individuals who make up our teams and to engage staff more deeply in the issues we face.

8. E-training

   A pioneering 'e-induction' package uses a wide range of video and interactive techniques to help new staff members get to grips with the complex demands of our 'for ever, for everyone' mission.

Financing Our Future

Our aim

To generate at least a 20% net gain to invest in our future, and use a triple bottom line (conservation/environment + people + finance) to ensure every pound is well spent and delivers our aims

How we've acted

1. Meeting financial targets

   The Trust's target to guarantee a sustainable future is a net gain of at least 20%. This means we must earn £1 for every 80 pence spent on routine expenses. Without it we cannot meet the enormous conservation obligations associated with our properties, implement our strategy and strengthen our reserves. This year we have exceeded our target, with a net gain of £55m, or 23.2%.

   Find out how we're saving money and increasing revenue at Upton House

2. Triple bottom line

   Our new triple bottom line accounting system across all our work measures social and conservation/environmental performance alongside the traditional 'bottom-line' measure of financial success. Investment decisions will now be based on a balanced judgement of the conservation gain to the places we care for, and the social benefit to the communities we exist to serve, as well as good value for money.

3. Attracting visitors

   At the end of 2007/08 visitor numbers at our pay-for-entry properties saw an increase of 7.5% to reach 15 million visits to our houses and gardens. Paying visitor numbers were up 4.9% on the previous year. Many millions of visits were also made to our coast and countryside properties where access is free to all.

4. Commercial activities

   Our commercial activities from our subsidiary, The National Trust (Enterprises) Ltd and those undertaken by the Trust itself, had a record year with profits of £21.3m, £2.1m better than the previous year and £0.6m better than budget. Our catering and filming performances were particularly strong.

5. Inspiring generosity

   Generous legacies and donations have always been a bedrock on which the Trust's finances are built. This year's legacy income was an astonishing £57.5m, 45% ahead of target. A number of individual legacies have been exceptional. The planned Snowdonia Activity Centre is only possible because of the generosity and vision of a donor who wishes to remain anonymous.

6. Competing for grants

   A Big Lottery grant is funding a cycle link between Cambridge, Wicken Fen and Anglesey Abbey. Heritage Lottery funding has made many innovative projects possible, including London Voices, Whose Story? and the renovation of Sudbury's Museum of Childhood in Derbyshire.

7. Corporate partnerships

   We agreed a green energy partnership with npower to reduce our own energy bills and give supporters the choice of opting for electricity from renewable energy supplies. Other generous support for specific projects came from, among others, Yorkshire Bank, Sky, RIAS insurance advisory service, and the Wolfson Foundation.

8. Appealing for new funds

   We ran a number of property appeals, including a Centenary Appeal at Hidcote Manor Garden in Gloucestershire, and fundraising for Tyntesfield, Godolphin and Greenway. The Snowdonia Appeal raised over £250,000 in its first month, to support vital conservation projects throughout our properties in Snowdonia.