StreetGames FUNDRAISING for doorstep sport a series of case studies
The staff member began her role by attending the StreetGames Fundraising Workshop, where she learnt about additional funding streams, and how to write funding applications. She now not only leads the delivery of the Doorstep Sport Programme, but also spends half a day per week working on funding bids that will enable 2nd Chance to sustain their Doorstep Sports Activity when the current funding stream comes to an end. Introduction Fundraising is fundamental to the long term success of doorstep sport. StreetGames is encouraging all of our projects to do more fundraising. There are so many ways to fundraise and so much money out there. Of course it is competitive, but doorstep sport is very appealing to funders and donators. The dedicated fundraiser will concentrate on small funding bids over the next 12 months including Sportivate, Sport England small grants and two local funding streams. Towards the end of the year they will start to look into larger bids, timing the applications with the end of the funded period of their DSC, to allow seamless transition. Having a dedicated fundraiser within 2nd Chance has also enabled them to put together a sponsorship package aimed at community partners and a headline programme sponsor. 2nd Chance also plan to raise funds the old fashioned way by utilising their bank of volunteers to raise funding for them through fun runs and bag packing at the local supermarket. With the support of their DSA, 2nd Chance s long term fundraising plan is also being written alongside this work. StreetGames publications will help you with your fundraising. They are all available to download for free on our website: Sources of Grants for Doorstep Sport (updated summer 2015) A guide to good fundraising for Doorstep Sport (updated summer 2015) A Fundraising Plan for Doorstep Sport a template to guide you This factsheet offers some practical examples of successful fundraising to fund new doorstep sport provision. 2nd Chance Cornwall Medium Size Third Sector Organisation 2nd Chance Cornwall were really keen to focus on fundraising, to ensure sustainability of the organisation, in particular their Doorstep Sports Clubs post 2016. The biggest issue they faced was staff capacity within the organisation to focus on fundraising activity. Therefore 2nd Chance decided to allocate a small proportion of their Doorstep Sport Club funding to be used to pay a part time member of staff additional hours to work on the development and implementation of a fundraising plan. 3 Villages Cornwall Small Third Sector Organisation 3 Villages are a small church based charity, and have a good record of bringing in funding in the past, but now with just the one staff member, there are capacity issues when it comes to fundraising. PAGE 2
This staff member was relatively inexperienced when it came to fundraising, so began by attending the StreetGames 3 hour Fundraising Workshop, as well as a 1 day local course to gain some skills and knowledge within the area of fundraising. From here, she decided to target appropriate funding streams, looking at small grants locally and Sportivate as a starting point, and will also be applying for Sport England small grants in the near future. 3 Villages will also be writing to local businesses to offer them the opportunity to be a community partner through a small donation to the Organisation, and are looking at the feasibility of approaching a large local employer to be a main sponsor of the charity through a much larger donation. 3 Villages keep their costs low, through keeping the majority of delivery in house, and negotiating discounted hall hire at the church where they run their Doorstep Sports Club. This enables them to concentrate their time on manageable small grants to sustain their activity past the end of the funded Doorstep Sports Club. Furthermore, 3 Villages are beginning to understand the significance of fundraising through mass participation events. The project manager fundraised for the project by running the London Marathon, gaining sponsorship and having her t-shirt sponsored by a local business. This sort of activity is manageable for the project, raising over 3000 for 3 Villages at the same time. Positive Futures Lincolnshire part of Lincolnshire County Council Positive Futures Lincolnshire was originally funded by Safer Communities of Lincolnshire County Council. They focus on school exclusions, anti-social behaviour, alcohol abuse, and NEETS. The project was successful and exceeded its targets over three years, seeing a reduction in Youth related Anti-Social Behaviour in some areas by up to 65%, as well as a reduction in alcohol related admissions of young people in hospitals where the projects were being delivered. A number of project outputs were also exceeded in terms of the numbers of different young people engaged, accredited courses and qualifications achieved, workshops delivered and numbers of referred young people engaged. Throughout this time period, the Positive Futures team developed a huge evidence base of monitoring and evaluation data such as case studies, young people's evaluation and feedback, a stakeholder survey and a young peoples impact survey. An external evaluation was also conducted by University students as part of their degree course. This enabled them to demonstrate the impact and prove the value of the programme. Following the end of the original three years the Children's Services Directorate at Lincolnshire County Council maintained the core funding, which has enabled the delivery of the programme to continue. Since then, Positive Futures have worked hard to develop partnerships with organisations such as StreetGames, aiming to diversify their funding streams to enable the programme to develop and grow, so that they could demonstrate an increased return on investment to Lincolnshire County Council and ensure future success and security of the Programme. PAGE 3
Football Club Community Trust/ Foundation Programmes Many Football Trust/Foundation Community Sports Programmes work from a similar model of being selfsustaining registered charities that works in partnership with their professional Football Club. The aim is to use the medium of football and the kudos of the Football Club to make a difference in the local community. To complement the core offer, Positive Futures now run six Doorstep Sports Clubs, a StreetGames Young Volunteer programme, two Let s Get Fizzical (health) programmes, have run Neighbourhood Festivals, and visited the Commonwealth Games and Camp Glasgow with a group of young people in July 2014. To enhance the training opportunities for volunteers within the StreetGames Volunteer programme, Positive Futures have developed partnerships with other organisations such as The Princess Trust to enable young volunteers to apply for small pots of funding to be used for skill development and training. They are currently working towards gaining European Union funding to develop this further. Furthermore, Positive Futures allow their staff the flexibility and freedom to source funding to develop and grow their own programmes. Staff are encouraged to bring in funding which will enable them to expand their programmes and develop their roles further. These funding sources have included Sportivate funding and Councillor Initiatives, and can range from 200 to 2000. Furthermore, each worker is expected to use their contacts and relationships within the community to source in kind funding contributions for their programmes such as subsidised facility within Local Leisure and Community Centres. Lincolnshire Positive Futures have also where suitable made a nominal charge for some provision. They have found that this adds value to the sessions, as well as adding to the pot of money that is used for rewards and incentives for the participants to encourage retention. Going forward Positive Futures are continually looking at opportunities to generate additional income to sustain their Doorstep Sports Clubs in the future. The Trust will be successful by working in a commercial way, capitalising on the Football Club Brand to drive income generation. The Trust will often generate income through selling their sports coaching services out to local organisations such as schools, delivering curriculum, lunch time and after school sports provision to a high standard. Community Sports Trusts will often also provide holiday provision in the form of sports coaching camps which young people will pay to attend. This model can be replicated or adapted to within many sports organisations as a way to raise the profile of the organisation and work in a commercial way to generate income to sustain and grow community activity. StreetGames currently works in partnership with the following Football Club Community Programmes: Bournemouth AFC, Burton Albion FC, Exeter City FC, Hartlepool United FC, Mansfield Town FC, Rochdale AFC, Rotherham AFC, Rotherham United FC, Sheffield Wednesday FC, Milton Keynes Dons FC, Barnsley FC, Accrington Stanley FC, Tranmere Rovers FC, Fleetwood Town FC, Morecambe FC, York City FC, Scunthorpe United FC, Luton Town FC, Shrewsbury Town FC. E.quality FC Doorstep Sports Club - Chapter 1 The Limes, Manchester E.Quality FC Doorstep Sports Club is led by Chapter 1 The Limes, and provides free sport to young people and adults from deprived backgrounds across Manchester, specialising in the homeless sector. The DSC runs weekly sports sessions for their service users. The Club is unique in that it also runs a monthly football league for its service users from a Network of Manchester s homeless charitable organisations. Personal development is at the heart of E.Quality FC DSC, which utilises StreetGames training academy vouchers to offer a range of courses alongside the league to help build individual s skills, confidence and employment prospects. Fundraising and financial sustainability are high on the agenda for the project manager, who works tirelessly to secure various amounts of funding to ensure sustainability of the Programme. The Project manager has created many fundraising days to aid sustainability of the Doorstep Sport Club. This includes PAGE 4
the organisation of a 10K sponsored run in the local park. This developed through a partnership with the Job Centre. Runners were targeted to raise 100 each to do the run, which raised 900 for Equality FC Chapter 1 have also started charging partner agencies 50 to enter a team into the monthly football league. Chapter 1 supports their partner agencies to fundraise for this. Successful fundraising initiatives have included bag packing at the local supermarket, and car washes in the community. Funds raised over the 50 entry fee will be used towards kit, rewards and incentives for the players. The league is now attracting around 30 teams each month, thus raising a significant amount of money to aid the legacy of the Doorstep Sport Club in the future. bringing in a variety of different funding streams to enable them to deliver a varied and vibrant offer of activity across Wigan and Leigh. Some examples are described below: The Sport Development Team employ a team of high quality sports coaches. They sell their coaching services out to local schools to run PE lessons, as well as lunch and after school clubs. The youth service will also buy the coaches in to deliver sports within some of their targeted programmes and events. The profit from the coaching service is re-invested back into the Trust to aid sustainability of Sport Development Programmes. WLCT also work closely with their local Housing Associations, who offer small grants of up to 3,000 to organisations to deliver activity to their residents. The application process involves a simple two page bid, along with a presentation to the local residents group to detail the delivery plans. The funding received by the Housing Associations enable WLCT to run additional UsGirls dance sessions within Housing Association areas, to complement the existing Doorstep Sport Club offer. Social Housing accounts for over 30% of Borough s Housing Stock and is located within the most deprived communities in the Borough linking with the ethos for StreetGames. WLCT also support constituted Housing Association Residents Groups, to write and submit small grants bids for additional activity (that will be delivered by WLCT) on their behalf. WLCT has recently set up a Dance Development Group to plan additional activity for the residents going forward. Once this group is constituted, it will qualify to apply for additional revenue streams, which will enable sustainability and growth of the UsGirls dance programme in the future. Wigan Leisure Culture Trust (WLCT) Wigan Leisure Culture Trust (WLCT) runs five Doorstep Sport Clubs within areas of deprivation across Wigan and Leigh. The Sport Development Team work hard to ensure the sustainability of the Doorstep Sport Clubs, as well as other Sport Development programmes. Through partnership working, the Sport Development Team identify funding and joint working opportunities, WLCT have also developed a relationship with Communities United, who received funding of 70 000 from Wigan Council to enhance the volunteer offer for 16-24 year olds across Wigan and Leigh. The programme will offer training, employability and enterprise skills to young volunteers (of which many will be recruited from within the Doorstep Sport Clubs). A Youth Action Group will be put into place for each of the Boroughs five Doorstep Sports Clubs, run by volunteers from the Communities United Project. With support of Sport Development staff, the Youth Action Group will have ownership of the Doorstep Sport Club. They will be tasked with developing enterprise schemes to fundraise PAGE 5
for the DSC, be in charge of budget, spend and delivery of the DSC. Volunteers will be put onto level 2 coaching courses, and return their volunteer hours will be spent delivering sports sessions for free within their Doorstep Sport Club. Greater Manchester Police and Crime Commissioner s Arris Fund supports work with vulnerable children and young people at risk of offending or risky behaviour. WLCT have recently been successful in a bid to the Fund, and will receive up to 2,000 to run a safe summer project, running targeting outdoor education, kayaking and water safety sessions. This will complement the existing offer of activity for young people aged 14-25 living in areas of deprivation across Wigan and Leigh.