Garboldisham Cricket COVID Fundraising

Aim

We are trying to raise £20000 to cover the shortfall in income caused by COVID to allow us to invest in our facilities and youth development

Our Organisation:

Garboldisham Cricket Club is a long-established club in Norfolk; cricket has been played at our current ground since the 1845.  The Club is open to all and is run by volunteers.

We run a youth section for girls and boys aged from 5 to 18 years, with the children playing in age group leagues from Under 9 upwards to Under 17.  Many of the Club’s current 1st team have come up through our youth development system and a number of our boys, girls, men and ladies have represented Norfolk at junior and adult levels.

We have a wide catchment area for a rural village and the club fields four Saturday league teams, a Sunday friendly team and an over 40s team, as well as the various youth teams.  We aspire to restart our women's cricket and have full accessibility for players of differing abilities.

Various Norfolk Cricket age group matches are also played at our ground.

As part of our commitment, we try and minimise the financial barriers to participation so we can attract people from a broad spectrum of society, particularly younger players starting out on their cricketing journey.  We are also proud to say that thanks to the excellent support from a large number of people the club was able to run nets and some matches last summer, helping the mental well-being of lots of players during this particularly difficult period.  We want to be able to do the same and more next season.

Impact of COVID-19 - Financial Shortfall

We pride ourselves on being financially self-sufficient, but the ongoing COVID-19 situation is having a big impact on our income.  We generate most of our income from match fees, membership, bar takings and social fund-raising events, such as the Sportsmen’s Dinner, end of season function, race night, quiz nights, regular BBQs and a six-a-side fun day.  This income usually enables us to cover our costs for the year but for the 2020 season our income levels were significantly reduced and our net income from fundraising and the bar was down by almost £12,000 - this despite a big effort by our volunteer committee to reduce costs and apply for grants.

Additionally, it cost us £1,000 to make the ground COVID safe in 2020, and this year it will cost us at least that figure, especially as we hope to play more games.

To give you an idea — it costs a £1000 just to fund a season’s worth of cricket balls.

What We Need

We urgently need to raise £20,000 in order to make up for two seasons' disruption so we can carry out important and essential maintenance around the club: to prepare our pitches, to repair and improve our training facilities to a better standard, and to train our boys and girls each week, as well as playing 120 games for all ages. We want to be able to continue to move the club forward!

In terms of significant expenditure items, the following are at the top of our list:

• New sight screens are desperately needed for the second pitch: these would cost approximately £2,500 (one pair) / £5,000 (two pairs)
• Refurbishment to the nets is also required at a cost of £3,000

• A score box for the main pitch is essential now, costing £4,000
• Refurbishment of the driveway is desperately needed, exact cost TBC but it will be several thousand pounds

In addition to the large ticket items above, we are looking to purchase a roll out batting net, plus need to spend money refurbishing various aspects of the clubhouse, replacing ‘tired’ appliances, making repairs to the building, replacing the second pitch score box and general club management.

How can you help?

As a volunteer run club, we need to generate donations from wherever possible to cover the income shortfall arising as a result of the pandemic. We are looking for contributions from life members, playing members, social members, friends of the Club or the wider community.  You can obviously donate whatever you choose and we would also welcome support from any families or businesses in the community who value what we do.  A plaque will be put in club house listing the names of all donors.

As well as financial support, donations such as raffle or auction prizes, or a service that could be added as a reward would also be gratefully received.

The crowdfunding initiative will run from 1 April to late May.  Ideally, we would like your donations and contributions to be paid in during this period.

Ways of helping the club with crowdfunding

Donations

All donations, however large of small, are welcome. Those wishing to make a donation should use the box on the top right of the donation page. Anyone thinking of donating over £50, might wish to consider the Match Lunch reward.

Rewards

Boxes down the right hand side of the page

Match Lunch - £50  

Bar token donations - £20

Auction - Details to follow.  Promoted via The Fox, Village Shop and our friends in the village to maximise attendance (and contributions!) - additional prize donations welcomed

• Gray Nicolls cricket bat signed by England batsman Jonny Bairstow 
• Framed England cricket shirt, signed by the Sky Sports commentary team at the Ruth Strauss Foundation Day at Lords in the 2019 Ashes series 
• Framed Garboldisham Cricket Club Logo, signed by the Sky Sports and Test Match Special commentary teams during the same game. 
• Simulated game shooting at Quidenham Estate
• One to one shooting lesson with Philip Thorrold (former world champion) 
• 2 annual passes to Jimmy’s Farm & Wildlife Park
• 1 x Adult and 1 x Child admission to Banham Zoo

Get in early for these limited opportunity Rewards:

• 1x Round of Golf for 3 at Thetford GC - £60
• 2x Selections of 6 Chutneys & Preserves - £15
• 1x Watercolour of Garboldisham CC Emblem - £35
• 2x Child's Pony-riding Experiences - £40
• 5x Horse Manure and/or Garden Mulch - £10
• 20x Car Washing - £15
• 1x Clarke’s of Walsham 10% Discount - £50
• 1x Bulk Firewood - £70 
• 1x Delicious Chicken Pie - £15
• 1x Fabulous Cake - £10
• 1x Magnum of Chateau Moulin de Mallet 2015 Bordeaux - £35
• 1x Adnams Southwold Reserve Ruby Port - £20
• 1x Graham’s Crusted Port, Bottled 2013 - £20
• 2x “The Free Range Cook” Cookery Book by Annabel Langbein - £15
• 1x week’s holiday in a cabin at Alderwood Lodges - £400
• 2x Garboldisham Hampers - £125

Sponsorship:

• Gold Package: 1 year - £250; 2 years- £375
• Silver Package - £100
• Bronze Package -  £50
• Match Ball - £25 per game

Membership donations – consider donating the cost of you membership 

• Social Membership - £10 
• Junior Membership - £10 (£7.50 for second and subsequent child)
• Adult Membership (Basic) - £50
• Adult Membership (Bronze) - £100 Basic plus 5 games pre-paid
• Adult Membership (Silver) - £130 Basic plus 9 games pre-paid (1 free)
• Adult Membership (Gold) - £200 Basic plus 18 games pre-paid (3 free)

Opportunity - Sport England Support

If we can raise £12,000 Sports England have pledged £8,000 (40% of our target) to help us reach £20,000. There are two important stipulations: (1) This is an all or nothing offer: we must raise the full £12,000 to qualify for the donation.  (2) We must have at least 100 different pledges / donors on the crowdfunding page, so we need each and every club member to get out there attracting support from family, friends, work colleagues and our contacts in the local community.

Finally

We are lucky as there is a great spirit around Garboldisham CC and we are sure that you will see that this is one of those moments when we really need to pull together.

We thank you in advance for your support.  If successful, it will really help put some stability back into the Club’s finances so that we can continue the great work that we have been doing.

This project successfully funded on 27th May 2021