Always on
This project successfully funded on 2nd January 2026, you can still support them with a donation.
Buying Evesham Rowing & Racquets Club
Evesham, Worcestershire, United Kingdom
Aim
We want to take advantage of a once-in-a-lifetime chance to buy our club to secure its future.
Project Update 1 December 2025:
With thanks to incredible support from our club members past and present over the past several months, we’re thrilled to share we have received a number of offline donations and pledges which has helped us raise £84,000 offline towards our total.
With the wonderful £2,000 raised so far on our CrowdFunder, During December we’re pulling together pushing hard to smash our target and raise the final £4,000 needed to take us across the line. Please do continue to donate!
Who are we?
Evesham Rowing and Racquets Club is an asset to the community of Evesham. It is a not-for-profit volunteer-run organisation, which not only provides rowing, tennis and squash to promote health and fitness, but which is also a bustling centre of community activity. People of all ages come through our doors to take part in sporting and group activities. And let's not forget the popular riverside cafe, famed for its five-star breakfasts.
We now have the chance to buy our club, including the boathouse, the tennis and squash courts and the site they sit in, which is a key part of Evesham's town centre riverside. The boathouse dates back more than 160 years and makes the rowing club one of the oldest in the country.
The club has a thriving membership with ages ranging from pre-school to people in their 80s - proving it's never too late, or early, to get involved. We keep our membership prices as low as possible and our inclusion policy means all are welcome. Our facilities are unique in Evesham (tennis) and the Wychavon area (squash and rowing). The rowing section in particular has set some world-class competitors on their sporting journey including Olympic gold medalists Alex Gregory and Zac Purchase and paralympian Kingsley Ijomah.
Why are we crowdfunding?
For all of its history the club house has been owned by the same founding family, who have leased it back to the club for a peppercorn rent. They are now offering to sell the site and the building to the club and we need to raise £90,000 to be able to buy the freehold. This makes it our moment to step in and secure the future of the facility. If we don't meet our purchase price then the club will face an uncertain future and the sporting activities may stop.
Having the security of ownership will not only enable us to maintain the activities which contribute to the health and wellbeing of so many, but it will also enable us to improve our facilities and expand what we do. Future plans for the building include urgent repairs to make it watertight and flood resistant and renovating the balcony to provide outdoor cafe space to take advantage of the riverside location.
How we’ll spend the money raised
The money will be used to help fund the purchase price and legal fees.
Community impact
You may well know our club already as a member, or as a relative. But equally important to us are the cafe customers and the many people who walk past each day. We firmly believe that the club has a role to play in Evesham's community and you might be someone we have supported via our collaboration with Evesham's Morris or Fishing Festivals or via our community-facing Dragon Boat Races. Are you a member of the regular dance classes, mother and baby groups, University of the Third Age, Probus or other clubs that are hosted by us on a weekly basis? Perhaps you held your wedding reception in the Boathouse function room. You may well have enjoyed the spectacle of our annual May Regatta. But did you realise that all of this happens courtesy of the volunteers and members who run the club, with the help of a dedicated team of five part-time employees. Any money made by the cafe is ploughed straight back into the club which means we rely on the support of our members and the community to keep going.
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