There are grants available in all different forms, from equipment to scholarships, so it is worth checking out what you are eligible for. This sum of money is given to cover part of the costs involved in the sports project and in the majority of cases doesn't have to be paid back providing all the conditions are adhered to.
Grants Available & Where To Find Them
There are a variety of grants available from a range of sources, such as the government, the European Union, local authorities and agencies and even charitable organisations. The Community Investment Fund is the National Lottery funding available from the nine regions of Sport England (formerly Sports Council for England).
Sport England funds projects that help people get involved in sport and physical activity. The money received can be put towards refurbishment costs, the building of new facilities, or used to develop activities that improve help and education within local communities.
There is, however, a very complex application process for this form of funding, and the final decision is made by the Sport England Board. This is mainly because of the large amount of money being given, the minimum grant being £10,000.
Sports England is also committed to developing sports nationwide, and as a result of this, there is a national investment grant available to those who are eligible. The national investment is designed to inject funding into sports that are governed nationally, subject to a business plan, and have other investment partners.
Tell us what you need funding for and we will match you with the types of UK grant most likely to accept your application.
Try our Grant Eligibility Finder free, here on this site →Stages of Application
If you are thinking of applying for one of the grants from Sport England, then you should be prepared for a process that is broken down into two stages. The firstly stage is known as the Enquiry Stage, which looks into how the project conforms with Sport England's main goals.
At this stage you will be required to provide information about your project so that it can be compared to the criteria and objectives. Your project can be rejected at this stage if it does not meet these criteria. However, if it is accepted, then it will go on to stage two - the Full Application.
At this stage you will have a personal adviser that is there to help you through the process. They are also there to help with establishing key relationships with other bodies within the local area, such as the Community Sports Network.
Your situation may be slightly different. ask a question below ↓ and our editorial team will reply with our advice.
SportsAid
SportsAid has a key role in the development of sports in the UK. As a registered charity for sports people, their aim is to help young athletes to succeed in their chosen sport on a professional basis. They are the first charity to offer this form of service to Britain's young sports people and, in particular, offer a helping hand to those families that find it financially difficult to support their child's sporting talent.
The main difference SportsAid has over scholarship schemes and national training schemes is that it doesn't go talent spotting. Instead, a persons mentor, coach or peers can nominate them for the award.
So, lets get down to business. Whilst SportsAid do offer some financial help, they don't have enough funds to allow the athletes to go full-time in there chosen sport. What they offer is a way to ease the financial pressure parents or legal guardians are facing when they have to provide their youngster with equipment or entry to various competitions.
I am secretary of a bowls cub in South bristol we want to improve our club by providing somewhere for our supporters to sit under cover from the sun and rain but as our funds go to keeping club running money is tight we have only just taken over the club and have no experience of applying for a grant if you can it would be greatly appreciated hope to hear from you many thanks Malcolm
We having a thriving membership of around 100 people with an age spread of 14 - 93 but we are lacking the opportunity to offer flying in gliders to disabled or more infirm people.
We wondered if there are any suggestions how we could gain grant money to purchase a new sailplane with disabled controls to enable our club to offer this to a wider range of people. We are a community amateur sports club (CASC) but lack the expertise to gain grants for this sort of thing. Any advice welcome.
Thank you
To get back to netball meeting the covid 19 new rules and restrictions, we are looking for a fund of £350 to purchase additional equipment such as bibs, and balls as we are not allowed to share. Our club has suddenly had a massive influx of new people who are so enthusiastic to play, many for the first time since school, we don't want to discourage them. We are currently covering the costs of all the additional hand sanitiser, wipes and other paraphernalia etc that is needed to run the club.
Do you know of how we can apply for any small grants to help towards these additional costs?
Many thanks.
The down side to this was most of my work is schools work. So I found myself with no income and with nowhere to live I was registered as homeless for a while and eventually found somewhere small to stay. My mental health was already suffering before and I had To get support. So the lockdown was very tough to be isolated and left me very vulnerable.
The juniors I was coaching previously also had no provision For sport for 6 months as they were in lock down and not socialising.
Around 60% have come to the club in the last 4 weeks which has made a big difference all round.
After being in contact with the schools we gave agreed that the only provision the children can receive extra curricular at school would be via a link to the tennis club. This impacts 5 local schools. And around 100 children.
The issue we have is we have no flood lights and with the dark drawing in the whole club program. Their provision for physical health will be greatly diminished.
The back part is also the situation of the well-being of myself and returning to a position I was previously in of being low income and potentially homeless again.
Because of the situation, the entire junior section have missed out on matches and their development. We have costed our portable floodlights as a way to keep the club going and the juniors and seniors going and open tennis during the next 6 months and beyond with a health and well-being session on pen to the wider community.
We are looking to obtain a grant to of upto £10,000 to allow the club to purchase the portable floodlights.
I know in the situation that I have described their are many different criteria and I have documentation to support said situations should a grant require it.
I've been in muaythai for 30 years and have fought at a high level winning British titles and a few others
I started my own camp in a community centre to engaged the community and give what i had growning up.
They ain't nothing for kids in the area so it means they hang around the streets and cause alot of bother then get into other things like knife guns and drug crime which unfortunately is happening alot.
I've done this all my life and I belive it can put people on the right path and give people "somthing to do"
It is perfect for socialising and keeping your mentality good and start making you feel good after exercise
I wish to have some help on opening our own facility so I can grow and help bring families in to open it more like a actual gym instead of muaythai club for socialising and to get kids of the streets
Thanks
PMA
I am the chairman of an adult Football Club that concentrates in keeping lads in football once they have left the under 18s and focuses on keeping them in the game by introducing them to full Amateur saturday league football. We have a new 2nd team and were looking for funding to help with those costs of a new 2nd team and we also have a project in mind to buy our own land and develop a local run sports club and join up with our local towns ladies team.
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