As we reach the end of one season and start planning for the next, now is a great time to start thinking about your future aspirations and applying for funding.
What opportunities can you see when you look ahead to the coming year? Do you have projects in mind to upgrade your equipment or facilities? Could you boost participation at your club or centre or make your activities more inclusive?
Sport Wales has grants from £300 to £50,000 available through its Be Active Wales Fund for non-for-profit sports clubs and organisations – it’s a no brainer to take a look and apply!
Funded by the National Lottery, these grants aim to promote equality, sustainability and innovation in sport to improve access to physical activity, including:
- equipment that allows more people to participate in sport
- upskilling volunteers in areas where your club lacks expertise or experience
- developing projects that promote physical activity in new or different ways
- using technology to engage more people
- outreach to engage people under-represented in sport and physical activity.
Now that activity is easing off at our clubs and centres as we head towards the clocks changing and the shorter days of winter, it is an ideal opportunity to evaluate your year along with your goals and whether you might be eligible for a grant.
Conversation
You might want to develop your activities, staff or volunteers, for example, or take stock to ensure your equipment and facilities are functional and meet your needs.
If you come to us to discuss your ideas we can provide some input for your expression of interest, including looking at any training pre-requisites to build into your grant application, and expertise on capital expenditure, such as ensuring whatever boats you’d like to buy are the best fit for your aims.
Looking at it in conversation with us in the first instance is key and after that it’s a really simple process. Please don’t worry that it might be too onerous or time consuming, it’s easy to fill out the forms and we can provide support to help your application to be successful.
Now is a perfect time to submit an application to get all the nuts and bolts in place before the start of the next season – we’ve had great success and benefitted from hundreds of thousands of pounds in grants for our sport in Wales over the years, so let’s ensure this continues!
And finally, do also keep a lookout for the smaller grant awarding bodies, which provide wonderful opportunities for individuals and clubs, and be sure to link into your local Sport Partnership.
The Cardiff Met Sport Capital Grant Scheme, for example, offers funding for sports clubs and organisations in the city looking to upgrade or renovate their facilities. Be quick if this is of interest, as applications close 31st October 2023.
For under-25s meanwhile, the RYA Foundation Youth Fund was launched recently to support young people to achieve their potential in sailing.
If you have any questions or an idea for a grant application, please feel free to get in touch with me, we’d love to hear from you and we’re always happy to help!
Hester.
