2011 Annual Report

Connecting People, Places and Stories was the theme of our Conference in 2011 and serves as a good description of our wider work programme that goes much deeper than the heritage conservation National Trusts are (rightly) famous for, underlining the public benefit that INTO
brings.

The 14th International Conference of National Trusts (ICNT) in Victoria, Canada, strengthened ties between the National Trusts of the world and enabled us to share experiences in increasing engagement and dealing with change – economic, political, social and technical, as well as
environmental.

Concerns about sustainability and the effects of climate change on the world’s cultures were integrated into the ‘Victoria Declaration on Climate Change’, which we then advocated at the UN talks in Durban, known as COP 17.

Currently comprising more than sixty member organisations from over fifty nations, the global voice of INTO represents over six million individual members and supporters, and an extended constituency of many tens of millions more people who demonstrate their support through visitation, expenditure, philanthropy and participation.

Highlights for this year included the Central European Project which, funded by INTO Amicus member Rodney Davidson AO OBE, brought heritage practitioners from the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia to the UK to experience different approaches to heritage management, in particular community engagement.

In June, in the presence of HRH The Prince of Wales, a wonderful reception was held at Clarence House to celebrate INTO reaching 50 member organisations. A workshop, instigated by HRH, then took place immediately
following the reception, to which HRH contributed, involving 24 of our INTO people reporting on their worldwide work and outlining future proposals.

Capacity building and external advocacy have therefore taken centre stage in 2011 but we have also been reviewing our own structure and strategy. We have undertaken a mid-term review of Strategy 2.0 INTO The Future, which will see us focussing on five key areas next year, namely good governance, membership services, programmes and projects, financial sustainability and advocacy.