Version dated 25.05.2023
Introduction
This investment aims to help community sport and physical activity groups crowdfunding for capital (building or refurbishment) works that will enhance places and spaces within their local area, to unite communities as part of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games.
Our match investment, of up to £10,000, is to help create or improve community sport facilities that will help to bring communities together and celebrate the Commonwealth Games.
Projects should be driven by the community, for the community, to improve what is available and to deliver an excellent sport or physical activity experience.
This match investment of National Lottery money is designed to help you to deliver a successful rewards-based crowdfunding campaign, which we know has far wider reaching benefits than just the financial fundraise.
We want to support as many organisations to run a successful, rewards-based community crowdfund as we can and have a broad range of supporting materials available for you (see our guide here). Ideally before you apply to us, your campaign page should be as complete as possible but not yet launched; whilst we can consider an application on a campaign that is already actively running, helping you to make it as successful and suggesting improvements can then be a little harder to do, so please do try and apply before you launch your campaign page.
Eligibility Criteria
To be eligible to apply, organisations must be:
• Local sports clubs
• Charities, community, voluntary and social enterprise sector organisations that deliver sport and/or physical activity in their community, including organisations that are not solely or primarily sports organisations
• Town or parish councils delivering activity within their community
• Education establishments that provide access for their whole community
• Able to complete their project by 31st December 2023
The following are not eligible for funding:
• Individuals or sole traders
• For profit businesses or partnerships
• Local authorities, excluding town and parish councils
• Commercial sport and physical activity providers, e.g. private gyms
• Leisure operators operating more than one site
Please note that this fund closes for new applications at midnight on Friday 25th August 2023. Information on our 'Active Together' fund (which will remain open) can be found here.
Priorities
Priority will be given to projects that are in the most deprived communities to ensure that our match investment reaches those most in need. This will be organisations that do one or both of the following:
• Deliver activity in areas experiencing social and economic deprivation, including rural communities
• Work with one or more of the following groups as a main focus:
- Disabled people
- Lower socio-economic groups
- Culturally diverse communities
- Young people aged 16-24
- Older people aged 70+
We will support projects which do not meet these priorities, however we may reduce the level of match funding offered. Match funding will usually be in the range of 30-50% of the project target.
Exclusions
There are some things that we’re not able to match invest against, these primarily being:
• Projects which do not benefit people living in England
• Projects which have been funded directly by Sport England, for the same expenditure
• Organisations without a trustee board/management committee (with 3 people minimum)
• Applications from individuals, or which are for the benefit of one individual
• Applications from private, profit making businesses
• Projects promoting religion
• Education establishments seeking to solely improve provision for students
• Playground equipment or projects without clear sport outcomes
• Organisations seeking to distribute grants on our behalf
• Vehicles, including minibuses
• Projects intended for private gain
• Campaigns that focus only on existing members and/or supporters, including campaigns offering prize draws as Rewards
• Campaigns only offering Rewards in the form of membership fees or subscriptions.
• Closed or Always On campaigns on Crowdfunder
• Projects already supported by Sport England under Active Together
Pledge Criteria
If your application is approved, you’ll get a match funding offer of up to 50% towards your initial crowdfunding target, up to a maximum of £10,000. This offer will be valid for 4 weeks after the date of notification, if you do not launch your crowdfunding campaign within 4 weeks of notification the offer will be rescinded.
Following approval for funding, if you wish to make any changes to your campaign target or any significant changes to your rewards or other page content, you must notify us.
To receive a pledge, you will need to do two things (the ‘pledge conditions’):
1. raise at least 25% of your initial target,
2. raise this from a minimum number of supporters. To verify whether Supporters are unique, we will take account of information including, but not limited to: name, address, email address and payment card used.
The minimum number of unique Supporters required is:
• 25 supporters if your target is up to £5,000
• 50 supporters if your target is between £5,001 and £10,000
• 75 supporters if your target is between £10,001 and £15,000
• 100 supporters if your target is£15,001+
If either of these conditions are not met, the pledge will be withheld until both have been met.
If these two conditions are met, Sport England will pledge 50% of your target (unless your target is over £20,000), which means your campaign will then be at 75%. You must then raise the remaining 25% from your crowd, to achieve 100% of your funding target and receive the Sport England funds.
If the project fails to reach 100% of the target the Sport England pledge will be cancelled. The Project owner will be encouraged to review what went wrong and, if appropriate, to attempt to crowdfund again.
Sport England reserve the right to vary these pledge criteria; projects will be notified if their pledge criteria will vary from the stated terms above.
Additional Requirements
Project Owners or the campaigning organisation pledging to their own campaign is allowed, however this should not be a significant amount unless discussed with Sport England before the pledge is added. Small offline donations that have been collected may also be added, however you may be required to evidence the origin of these pledges (receipts, letters of support, copies of cheques or bank statements etc.). All funds should be raised during your campaign duration for the purposes of your campaign and project; retrospective funds raised prior to your campaign as well as ordinary income will not be considered eligible.
You will be ineligible for funding from Sport England if, at Sport England’s sole discretion, it is not satisfied that all the Supporter pledges on your project are genuine pledges.
Where projects or pledges are identified as fraudulent, potentially fraudulent or demonstrative of manipulating the pledging on a project in order to obtain match funding, this is taken very seriously. Where appropriate, the police or other relevant authorities will be informed. In addition:
• Your application for funding will be refused and any existing commitment for funding will be withdrawn
• Your Crowdfunding project pay be cancelled and your will be ineligible for future applications or projects.
• Action will be taken to recover funding which has been paid out.
All funded projects are required to agree to the Places and Spaces Grant Conditions.