Energise the future of Sidcup Sports Club

Aim

Securing the financial and environmental sustainability of Sidcup Sports Club by investing in sustainable energy sources.

Who are we?

Sidcup Sports Club consists of Sidcup Rugby Football Club, Sidcup Cricket Club and Crescent Lawn Tennis Club.

Together we provide community sport for 350 adults and 650 juniors across the three clubs.

Community impact

The three clubs provide opportunity for over 1000 people from age 2 upwards to engage in grassroots sporting activity, building friendships and a love of healthy, active participation in sport.

In addition, Sidcup Sports Club offers a large hall space perfect for all types of functions, being available for hire by both members and the general public, a gym on site and a bar open to both members and guests to further grow the community spirit.

Why are we crowdfunding?

As a community amateur sports club, we rely on our membership fees to support our existence.  Our utility bills account for approximately a quarter of our outgoings, but these are tripling due to the recent energy crisis.

This is a critical time for the sports club.  Unaddressed, this issue has the potential to push membership fees sky high, significantly reduce the quality of the coaching, grounds and facilities that we can provide to our members, or in the worst case cripple one or more of the clubs, which would be a massive blow to sport in the area.

As well as the financial pressures, we are also very aware that we are the custodians of a large amount of green land in an otherwise urban area, and that we have a duty to protect the environment for the future of the young people who are also the future of our clubs.

The three constituent clubs (Rugby, Cricket, Tennis) want to turn this potential threat into an opportunity by coming together to fund raise for a range of energy efficiency measures, delivering long term changes that increase the financial and environmental sustainability of the sports club, ensuring we are able to provide sport for the community long into the future.

How we’ll spend the money raised

We have undertaken an energy audit of the club and set out a plan for addressing our energy consumption and ensuring the long-term financial and environmental sustainability of the club.  

Phase 1 of the plan is about demand reduction - making significant reductions in our energy use with a mix of technological and behavioural changes: 

• Installation of LED lighting and movement sensors throughout the club; 
• Improving insulation in the bar cellar, one of the largest areas of electricity consumption;
• Replacing end-of-life boilers with modern, more efficient models;
• Reduction in usage through behaviour changes.

This crowdfunder will support Phase 2 of the plan: Making our remaining energy use more sustainable.

One of the primary, but not only, routes for doing this is the installation of solar panels on the South side of the roof.  If done in full, this has the potential to provide 42% of our current electricity need (though obviously as we reduce our demand through the Phase 1 activities, this percentage could become significantly higher).

Every £400 raised through this campaign gives us the potential to add a solar panel to the roof, which is capable of taking up to 180 panels.  We have other funding sources lined up to supply the batteries required to support the solar panels, but this crowdfunding campaign will be a crucial part of making this project happen.

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. If you want to run your own fundraiser to support us, 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!

This project successfully funded on 31st October 2023