Our Organisation:
Garboldisham Cricket Club is a long-established club in Norfolk; cricket has been played at our current ground since 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 9s upwards to Under 17s. Many of the Club’s current players 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 league team, a Sunday / midweek friendly team and an over 40s team, as well as the various youth teams noted above. We aspire to restart our women's cricket and have full accessibility for players of differing abilities.
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.
Why are we crowdfunding?
We pride ourselves on being financially self-sufficient and generate our income from sponsorship, match fees, membership, bar takings and social fund-raising events, such as our 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 there are occasional significant capital investments that require a different approach.
Over the course of the summer it became apparent that the Club’s nets, which are now 14 years old, have deteriorated to the point where we could no longer just patch them up and need to replace them wholesale. Replacing the surface ends of the nets will cost £17,616. To help us reach this target, we have sought and gained a matching grant of £7,500 from Sport England. To unlock that very generous grant we must raise £7,500 ourselves and have 75 unique donors, so we need everyone at the Club to play their part by donating and getting others to also. Our aim is to raise at least £10,000, so we don’t need to use our reserves to fund the project.
Impact
The nets are an essential facility to maintain playing standards and develop our youngsters. Without repair the existing nets the bounce will become increasingly variable reducing the value of playing in them. Getting new nets will aid both batsmen and bowlers by creating conditions where balls bounce and respond to bowler's actions in a consistent and expected manner, allowing the players to practice and hone their techniques. That consistency is particularly important for our junior and inexperienced Club members.
Where the batsmen stand in the middle net; soon to be a hole
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 increased capital expenditure. We are looking for contributions from life members, playing members, social members, friends of the Club and the wider community. You can obviously donate whatever you choose and all donations big and small are gratefully received. We would also welcome support from any families or businesses in the community who value what we do.
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 27 January to 20 April. Ideally, we would like your donations and contributions to be paid in during this period.
Please note that any funds raised via this Crowdfunding initiative can only be used for the specified project.
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. Please include the gift aid option as that will add an extra 25% to your donation.
Rewards
Boxes down the right hand side of the page
Match Lunch - £50 (includes social membership)
Get in early for these limited opportunity Rewards:
- 1x Jimmy's Farm Polar Bear Experience (for 2) - £250
- 1x Round of Golf for 4 at Stowmarket GC - £250 (Must be used before 1 April)
- 1x Round of Golf for 4 at Diss GC - £140 (Must be used before 1 April)
- 1x Round of Golf for 3 at Thetford GC - £90
- 2x Luxury Garboldisham Hampers - £125
- 1x Bulk Firewood - £100
- 2x Jimmy's Farm Cases of Beer - £20
- 1x Wine Society Bottle of Crusted Port - £15
Sponsorship:
- Gold Package: 1 year - £250; 2 years- £375
- Silver Package - £100
- Bronze Package - £50
- Match Ball - £25 per game
- Junior Match Ball - £15 per game
Membership donations – consider donating the cost of you membership
- Social Membership - £10
- Junior Membership (1 child) - £30 (there are no match fees for junior games)
- Junior Membership (2 children) - £50 (no match fees for junior games)
- Junior Membership (3 children) - £70 (no match fees for junior games)
- Adult Membership (Bronze) - £90
- Adult Membership (Bronze - student/unemployed) - £45
- Adult Membership (Gold) - £240 Membership plus 18 games pre-paid (3 free)
Finally
We hope you will appreciate the need for us to replace the nets and will help us raise the funds required to achieve that aim.
We thank you in advance for your support. If successful, it will really help improve our facilities so everyone, old and young, can gain the benefit and continue to have a great time playing and supporting cricket up at the Club.