Finding funding for sports facilities
When you are looking to invest in a 3G sports pitch or refurbish your existing artificial sport pitch, there are numerous schemes available to help you raise the necessary funding.
Applying for funding is often a time-consuming process, so it’s worth investing some time into researching sources fully before making the decision to apply. Here are some ways you can raise money to fund sports facilities.
Major sporting funds
We often recommend that our clients approach some of the large nationwide sports organisations, such as Sport England and the National Lottery, who offer funding programmes that support major sporting events, as well as smaller-scale organisations. Sports Match is a branch of Sport England, and offers small sports grants to community clubs that benefit certain priority groups, including women, ethnic minority groups, and those with disabilities.
Specific sports
Some organisations offer funding with the goal of increasing participating members, and improving the standards of a specific sport, such as the Football Foundation, which is the country’s largest sports charity, providing everything from kit and goalposts to brand new sports pitches or upgrading existing facilities.
If you require a 3G football pitch for your community, the Football Foundation’s Premier League and FA Facilities fund is ideal, as it provides substantial funding to build artificial playing surfaces. The Rugby Football Union’s Rugby 365 programme is also crucial in providing funding for 3G pitches, as in 2015 it pledged to invest £50 million over a four-year period to build 100 artificial grass pitches to benefit the sport.
Smaller funding sources
As well as the main sources of funding for sports in the UK, there are other organisations offering smaller sources of finance, such as:
- Cash4Clubs
- Comic relief
- Bag 4 sport
- UK sports funding
These are more likely to be appropriate for small community clubs who require modest grants in order for facilities to be upgraded or installed.
Local and regional councils
Local and regional councils have a budget available to dispense to clubs and organisations that are benefiting the local community.
Although budgets differ depending on where you are, they are worth researching as some councils offering free advice services to help you put together a funding bid.
The application process
Each funding source will have different criteria that needs to be met, with most applications requiring your organisation to be not-for-profit, as well as a full project plan for what is needed and what the benefits will be. Certain supporting documents are also often required, such as bank statements. The majority of funding organisations have their own advice documents to help you plan your application and have the highest chance of success.
Private investors, fundraising events and crowd funding
For more expensive projects, as well as applying to the major sporting governing bodies in the UK, funding can also come from private investors, fund raising events, and crowd funding campaigns.
Please find below website links to some funding options which may be suitable:
To find out more about how our previous clients have funded their 3G pitches, head to our case studies page. Or, to find out how much a 3G pitch costs click here.
