Eyes on the prize

Sourcing the funding to get your project up and running requires a little inside knowledge. Liz and Mike Behnke outline the funding opportunities available to independent schools to help develop their sports facilities

What funding is available to independent schools? The immediate answer is not always straightforward as major sources of funding appear to be harder to get and the various pots seem to be shrinking. There are, however, still many sources of funding and to be successful in accessing some of that money you have to be focused on your project.

Key starting points are:
Governing bodies of sport
Football Foundation
The Lottery: Sport England
Rugby Football Foundation
Health authorities
Coalfield Regeneration Trusts
Sportsmatch
Awards for All
Landfill tax
Trusts and charities
Sponsorship TV fundraisers eg Sport Relief
National Sports Foundation
Foundation for Sport and the Arts

At a local level, there are many more sources, but these can be very specific, so you will need to use the Directory of Grant Making Trusts or Funderfinder to track them down.

Strategic need
Plan your project carefully and consider where it will fit into the big picture. Funding bodies will expect you to have consulted a range of organisations such as:
• your sport’s governing body;
• your local county sports partnership;
• your local authority; and
• your community sports network.

Sports development
Sports development covers a range of issues and is often ignored by people when planning a new facility. It is critical to identify any potential new customers. Most funding bodies will want to see an increase in participation as a result of their investment and a benefit to the local community. Funders want some payback for their investment.

It’s no use seeking to improve your existing facilities if they will only benefit a small group of people. County sports partnerships, local authorities and Sport England, to name a few, want to see an increase in participation and will only support projects that can demonstrate that.

Two new tools can help you make the case: Active People and Market Segmentation. The Active People survey was the largest survey of sport and active recreation taken in England. It creates a baseline against which active participation can be measured anywhere in the country. It’s a valuable tool for anyone planning a new facility to use in identifying their local participation rates.

Market Segmentation helps to understand what motivates people to play or not play sport. It’s based around 19 common groups of people that can be explored at differing geographic levels. It is possible to find out what people’s sporting habits are in a particular street, community, local authority or region. Full details of Active People and Market Segmentation can be found on the Sport England website (www.sportengland.org).

Beat your limitations
Is there a factor limiting your development, such as poor changing facilities, bad drainage, lack of floodlit facilities, lack of indoor space or just the location, which means you can’t expand and therefore need to find another site? This thinking will demonstrate to a potential funder that you are planning ahead and considering how your school fits into the local scene and how, by developing new facilities, it will grow and benefit the local community.

Sports development planning is about having a clear vision for the future and it can be summarised in six key words:
• aims: what are you hoping to achieve?
• how: are you going to do this?
• who: is going to do the work?
• when: what are the timescales involved?
• what: is the project? and
• review: how will you know what has been achieved?
You need to review progress throughout the project.

Your project
In addition to all of the above, there are a host of other things you will need to consider about your project. These include:
• marketing the facility/project;
• access issues;
• charging policies;
• management of the facility;
• operational issues;
• programming; and
• income and expenditure plans.

All of these make up your project and if they can be presented in a clear and logical way, then your chance of securing funding increases.

The funders
Any organisation prepared to fund projects will have its own agenda, whether that is increasing participation or a specific interest in your sport. Get to know your funders – be clear about what their criteria are: are they seeking some sort of payback? Are they focusing on any specific target groups eg young people, people with a disability etc?
Many funders are happy to offer advice and would prefer applicants to assess whether their project is eligible before the application is made.

There are three tips that summarise the process:
• know your project;
• know your funder; and
• keep it simple!

Liz and Mike Behnke are partners in Syzygy Leisure, an independent sports consultancy.They can be contacted on 01604 670222 or syzygy@syzygyleisure.co.uk

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