Transforming Amber: building a resilient future – Project evaluation brief  

Deadline for proposals: noon Monday 19 August 2024  

1. The background  

 
For over 45 years, Amber Film & Photography CIC (Amber) and Side Gallery have been a dedicated home to documentary film and photography. Our mission is to be a powerful agent for change through the commission, exhibition, and preservation of world-class photography and documentary film that highlight social concerns and celebrate diverse lives and landscapes across the North East and beyond. 

Amber lost its Arts Council England NPO funding in 2023 and Side Gallery and Cinema are temporarily closed. In 2023 we received Transition funding from the Arts Council and raised more than £60k from a public appeal. We also secured a substantial grant from the Archives Revealed programme (Pilgrim Trust, Wolfson Foundation and the National Archives) to complete the cataloguing of the AmberSide Collection. Our learning programme continues at full strength, piloting our new Primary Source, with funding from Paul Hamlyn Foundation, the Shears Foundation and Hadrian Trust.  

In May 2024 we made a successful application to the National Lottery Heritage Fund for £236k for the organisational development project called Transforming Amber: building a resilient future. This project is the focus of this brief.  

Over the next 12 months, we will be reviewing and renewing our structure and systems, piloting new programmes and introducing new roles. Our ambition is that the project will stabilise and renew Amber as a heritage-focussed organisation. There will be a review of our legal structure (we are likely to become a CIO), our business planning and fundraising processes. There will be a new staff structure and investment in the skills of staff and volunteers, enabling us to deliver an activity plan that will underpin Amber’s future development, growth and sustainability.  

The project has six strands:  

• Staff development, wellbeing and recruitment  

• Organisational restructure 

• Heritage preservation (focused on the archive) 

• Business development and income generation 

• The research and development phase of our mobile Heritage Production Lab 
• More and Better: Primary Source (part of our learning programme. The learning outcomes of Primary Source are being evaluated separately. It is part of this brief because of its role in Amber’s organisational development.) 

2. The evaluation brief  
 
We are looking for an experienced and creative project evaluator to work alongside the staff and non-executive directors of the CIC and the trustees of AmberSide Trust. (The Trust owns the AmberSide Collection of photography and film on which the CIC draws for its exhibition and learning programmes. The CIC houses and manages the Collection on the Trust’s behalf.)  

The project evaluation process will enable the Project Board (representing the CIC and the Trust) and the staff team to track the extent to which we are achieving our outcomes, and to make adjustments as the project proceeds.  

Specifically, the evaluator will:  

• Design and deliver a 12-month evaluation plan and methodology. This will include indicators for each of the outcomes and a selection of data collection methods to choose.  

• Collect and collate qualitative evaluation data in line with the agreed plan and methodology 

• Guide and support staff and volunteers in the collection of quantitative and qualitative data (we use Impact & Insights and Audience Finder) 

• Meet with the Project Board on a quarterly basis to share progress 

• Produce an interim, draft and final reports 

• Meet with the non-executive directors of the CIC and Trustees of AmberSide Trust at the interim and draft report stages to share findings and reflections 

• The final report will describe what the project comprised, the extent to which the intended outcomes were achieved and how (success factors). It will also report any unexpected outcomes and the lessons learned in the process.  

The final evaluation report will be shared with staff and volunteers, our partners and funders as appropriate. We may also consider disseminating some of the findings externally, contributing to the knowledge base of the cultural sector.  

Key dates 

Appointment and inception meeting August 2024 

Evaluation methodology and outline plan agreed mid September  

Progress meetings in early November, mid January, early April  

Interim report 1 February 2025 

Draft report May 2025 

Final report July 2025 

Fee  

£8k including all expenses  

3. Responding to the brief 

The deadline is noon on Monday 19 August 2024 
Email Laura Laffler, Director of Amber Film & Photography CIC, laura.laffler@amber-online.com  

The subject heading of your email should be: “Tender for Evaluation of Transforming Amber”.  

Shortlisted candidates will be invited to an online interview on a date to be agreed.  

We are interested to see what prospective evaluators propose, but please take into account the latest NLHF guidance on evaluation https://www.heritagefund.org.uk/funding/good-practice-guidance/evaluation 

The project will be busy and wide ranging and 12 months will pass quickly. The evaluator will need to be highly organised, flexible and responsive and ready to make the very best use of the time available. The work will take place on site and remotely. We are committed to the rigorous, independent evaluation of this programme. We are also mindful that our work at Amber and the participants we support should be creative, inspiring, and exciting. Priority will be given to bidders who can effectively combine the qualities of rigour and creativity in how this project is delivered and the outputs produced. 

Your response (no more than six sides of A4, excluding cvs) should outline:  

• Why you are interested in working with Amber on this project.  

• You suggested methodology and outputs, with a suggested timeline. (This will, of course, be subject to discussion with us, but we would like to see your initial thoughts.) 

• What you require of us to help to ensure a successful evaluation process.   

• A summary of the relevant experience of the individual or individuals who would be working on this project and a cv for each person. Please include our experience of evaluating organisational development projects in the cultural or voluntary sector; experience of evaluating NLHF-funded projects of any kind; knowledge of the heritage sector in the North East.  

• An estimate of the number of days required and a day rate for each of those days.  

• Confirmation of your availability to start work as soon as possible.   

• The names and contact details of referees for two previous pieces of relevant work.  

Selection criteria