Let’s Get Them Playing!

Aim

Our new home for Tankerton FC needs to raise funds to complete the project and have pitches ready for the 2026/27 season.

     Who are we?

Established in 1996, Tankerton FC is an inclusive, community minded club.

The club has pan-disability sections for adults and young people, offers girls and boys junior and youth football, fields a men’s team and offers women’s recreational football. The club is also a well-established charity and a two-star England accredited club with the ambition of becoming a three-star accredited club within the next few years. Tankerton were also one of the first clubs in the country to implement a Youth Council, which gives a voice and a platform for young players to help shape their club.

Why are we crowdfunding?

After years of hard-work, Tankerton FC was on the brink of realising its long-term aim which would have seen the club, with over 250 local children, finally have a permanent facility to call home. Now that is all in jeopardy. The club have worked tirelessly to bring this project to life, over a 12-year period which has seen hard-fought battles with local stakeholders, set-backs with planning and ecology, counsel from legal experts, and engagement with various funding bodies. Now, the club face their latest challenge after a major international supplier had to pull their support, as they fell into administration, leaving the £1.5 million pound project hanging in the balance, and many girls and boys very upset.

The supplier was set to deliver the access road and car parks to the new facility and were doing so as a community based pro-bono gesture. The estimated commercial value of the work would have amounted to in excess of £250,000, now leaving the club with a big hurdle to overcome and a need to secure new support for this part of the project. It also puts the whole £1.5 million project at risk and means the club will have no home of their own and continue to have the headache and cost of finding other facilities for local children and young people to play football. Some £1Million of public money has already been put into the development of some of the best grass playing pitches in the county, if not the South East, and they are sitting there in superb condition but unusable, with no permanent access.

Additionally, the club has established a 2.5-acre nature reserve within the grounds, helped by a SEN school and the local community. The reserve itself is also currently suffering due to accessibility issues that were due to be resolved by the delivery of the access road on to the main site.

How we’ll spend the money raised

All monies raised on this appeal will go towards helping  the club fund the access both vehicular and pedestrian on to the new site.

How you can play your part

There are four simple ways to help us reach our target, and make this project a reality.

1. Make a pledge. Don’t delay if you’re going to support us because momentum is key to our success!

2. Spread the word. Share our project on your social media pages and tell the world to get behind us! The more people we reach, the more support we will get.

3. Offer rewards. Get involved if you are a local business by donating things we can offer to our supporters. We will give you a shout out!

4. Fundraise for us. If you want to run your own fundraiser – maybe a sponsored activity or similar – use the 'contact project' button at the top of our page to let us know. Setting up your own page only takes a few minutes and you won’t need any bank details. Just a fun idea!

Funding method

Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made by 31st July 2026 at 3:19pm