Sportsmatch is funded by Sport England to support the
development of grassroots sport in England. Awards are made to
organisations running projects aimed at increasing participation in sports at
community level which is done by matching eligible funding invested in
community sport.
Since the organisations founding in 1992 they have awarded
over £46 million and funded 5,784 projects across the country, with their
matching awards bringing in over £56 million for these projects from the
commercial sector.
The process is application led and competitive with
eligible applications being considered for awards by an independent Panel.
What theyDON'Tfund:
There are a number of things which will not qualify for
funding:
They don't fund
individuals;
awards are only made to organisations
They won't fund
programmes aimed at elite or international level or events taking place
overseas.
They won't fund large
capital projects inclusive of building construction, or the expansion or improvement of
facilities. The Panel have a discretion to award funding for smaller capital
projects (up to £10,000), but these decisions are taken on a case by case basis
and are directed more towards fixed sporting equipment (e.g. artificial
wickets, basketball nets, bowling machines, sight screens, boats). All capital
projects must be focused on growing and sustaining participation.
They won't fund a
project which has already begun for the funding cannot be applied retrospectively to
events which have already happened. You must therefore make sure that if you
have a specific start date for a project, your application for funding is
submitted to the Awards Panel before that date.
They won't fund a
club's normal running costs. For example if you receive £1,000 from a local business which you
wanted to put towards the Club's administration costs, or purchasing or
upgrading existing equipment, they would not match it. This is because the
sponsorship money will not be put towards a specific project which is aimed at
increasing or inviting new participation.
They won't match a
donation from more than three patrons (see Rules) or fundraising.
Please Note:
As Sportsmatch is an exchequer funded programme, all
funding awarded needs to be spent and the Sportsmatch element of the project
delivered in its entirety in the same funding year. Therefore, for this
financial year, all projects need to have claimed any grant awarded and
delivered the Sportsmatch element of their project by the 31st March 2009.
To download the Rules and both Stage 1 and Stage 2 of the
Application please visit the website by clicking on the SportsMatch logo above.
