Eligibility Criteria

Through working in partnership with Crowdfunder UK, Sport NI wants to invest in new, additional and exciting projects. We are keen to hear from any of the eligible organisations (stated below) with a great idea that will make a difference within their community; that promotes sporting activity with a desire to connect communities, enabling more people to take part in sport and physical activity throughout Northern Ireland. Applications should be designed to deliver participation ‘Level The Playing Field’ projects to support increased sporting activity and membership as an outcome and must be targeting at least one of Sport NI’s target groups:-

- Women & girls;
- People with disabilities;
- Children & young people– especially those aged between 11-18 years
- Older people aged over 65;
- Ethnically diverse communities;
- LGBTQ+ community
- People living in areas of greatest need (based on NISRA NI Multiple Deprivation Measures – according to club/organisation postcode);
- People living in rural areas (based on NISRA NI Multiple Deprivation Measures - according to club/organisation postcode);

To be eligible to apply you must be one of the following organisations:

- A constituted sports club which is affiliated to a governing body of sport which is recognised by Sport NI OR Sport Ireland. 

- You can find the most recent list of recognised SNI governing bodies at:
http://www.sportni.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Recognition-NGBs-Master-List-January-2024.pdf
- You can search the most recent list of recognised Sport Ireland governing bodies at: https://www.sportireland.ie/national-governing-bodies/ngb-contact-finder

- A community/voluntary sector organisation that delivers or enables sport and/or physical activity as your primary activity. Sports and activities must be recognised by Sport NI.

- A charitable trust that delivers or enables sport and/or physical activity as your primary activity. Sports and activities must be recognised by Sport NI.

- A constituted Parent Teacher Association (PTA) that delivers or enables new/additional extracurricular sport and/or physical activity including outdoor activity residentials. Sports and activities must be recognised by Sport NI

Who we can't support

This fund is designed to help grassroots sport and physical recreation providers which means we are not able to help the following organisations through this fund: 

- Local authorities.
- Schools (excluding PTA’s), colleges and universities.
- Commercial sport and physical recreation providers, e.g. private gyms.
- Leisure operators.
- Individuals who are either employed or self-employed within the sport and physical recreation sector.

What we will not fund

As Creating Opportunities is all about being innovative and creative in how you deliver your sport or diversify your offer as a club or organisation, we are not being overly prescriptive in what we will fund, but projects must be new and/or an additional activity to address the challenges and ‘level the playing field’.

We are allowing clubs and organisations the opportunity to be as creative as you can and we will consider supporting almost anything (within reason) if it delivers the outcomes of the programme.

There are however a few things that we cannot invest in:

- Projects not related to ‘Levelling the Playing Field’.
- Capital elements not related to your participation project
- Capital elements that cost more than £10K (Projects requesting a Capital element of £10k MUST have no additional delivery costs. I.E. applicants can deliver their participation project in-house and funding would be split with the maximum £5,000 funding coming from Sport NI and £5,000 coming from the Crowd).
- Capital elements that require statutory approvals (such as planning permission).
- Capital elements that require the appointment of design teams.
- Capital elements that fail to level the playing field.
- Activities that replace a statutory function e.g. curriculum time sport delivery (after-school is eligible).
- Existing activities already in place e.g. current training sessions, etc.
- Retrospective costs.
- General organisation running costs, office equipment, furniture, maintenance.
- Salary costs, loan repayments and endowments.
- Entertainment costs, food and beverages.
- Secondary, further or higher education e.g. A Levels, Degrees, etc.
- VAT that can be recovered from HM Revenue and Customs.
- Activities promoting religious or political beliefs.
- Donations/fundraising events or activities.
- Costs incurred before successful Letter of Offer issued.
- Insurance, affiliation, entry fees or membership fees.
- Accommodation/hotels and travel outside NI
- Strategic planning/development e.g. consultancy fees.
- Access NI registration fees.
- Livestock. 
- Closed or Always-On campaigns on Crowdfunder.
- Campaigns only offering Rewards in the form of membership fees or subscriptions and campaigns offering prize draws as Rewards.
- Campaigns not offering a minimum of 2 Community-Based Rewards.
- Campaigns that require changes but are already ‘Live’ and have received funding from the crowd.

Pledge Criteria

Match-funding from Sport NI will not exceed the maximum of £5,000.

The pledge will be made onto your project, once you have met the ‘fund conditions’:

1. Raise at least 25% of your initial target,
2. Raise this from a minimum of 25 unique supporters.

If either of these fund conditions are not met, the pledge will be withheld until both have been met.

If these two fund conditions are met, Sport NI will pledge up to 50% of your target up to a maximum of £5,000.

To secure the Sport NI match funding, you must raise at least 100% of your project target before your project closes.

- An applicant will be provided with an offer which will be valid for 2 weeks after the date of notification. If the applicant does not launch a crowdfunding campaign within 2 weeks of notification, the offer will be rescinded.

- If an applicant does not achieve the funding target within the 6-week time period (4 weeks if applying in January), Sport NI reserves the right to withdraw its support. If an applicant is within 10% of their target- Sport NI may increase the time period.

- If the project fails to reach 100% of the target, the Sport NI funding pledge will be cancelled. The project owner will be encouraged to review what went wrong and, if appropriate, to attempt to crowdfund again.

Funded projects will be required to agree to the Creating Opportunities: Conditions of Grant.

A full copy of the programme guidance note can be found at http://www.sportni.net/funding/creating-opportunities/