Help Gateshead and Whickham swim club to THRIVE

By Gateshead & Whickham Amateur Swimming (GAW) Club in Gateshead, England, UK

Who are we?

Our swimming club has enjoyed over 100 years history in the region, which we are extremely proud of.   Over this time, we’ve added real value to the lives of our swimmers as well a sense of community to everyone involved. 

The club currently has 130 active swimmers, whose ages range from 8 to 76 in six groups. We provide structured, coached training sessions to the groups which include those just starting swimming training, several competition groups and a masters group.  

Our swimmers mostly come from the Gateshead borough, which includes several areas of social and economic deprivation. We currently have more female swimmers than male swimmers, and our squads include many individuals from minority ethnic groups and also some with disabilities. 

Our members include approximately 300 parents of junior swimmers and learners, many of whom support the club at galas and with fundraising. Our committee includes representatives for each swimming group, as well as a chairperson, vice chair, secretary, treasurer, operations manager and child welfare officer.

The GAW Learn to Swim (LTS) scheme

In May 2021 we also launched our own LTS scheme on Sunday afternoons at Elswick pool. The Gateshead Council pools did not restart swimming lessons until October 2021, so our swim school enabled young children from Gateshead to begin their swimming journey and learn a valuable life skill.  We currently teach over 60 children to swim across the six different Swim England levels.  

Once children have completed their swimming lessons, we can offer a pathway into competitive swimming for those who have demonstrated an aptitude and interest in continuing their swimming journey. 22 children have subsequently moved up from our LTS scheme to our swimming squads.

Summary of our GAW Crowdfunding campaign

We want to raise £15k from this Crowdfunding campaign:

• £10k will replace grant income previously obtained from the now discontinued Gateshead Thrive fund 
• £5k will offset the rise in pool hire costs due to the increase in energy prices
• These funds are essential to cover our operating costs for the 22/23 financial year (FY). 

Our target is £15k, and  Sport England will contribute 50% to this target, as long as we achieve the rest ourselves.  We have a stretch target of £18k.

To mitigate the need to run a crowdfunding campaign year on year, we have significantly invested resource and generated a growth plan for the club which should help us to achieve a sustainable financial position for the FY 23/24 onwards. 

Please help us to reach our target, either by making a donation or buying one of the great rewards we have on offer, many of which are at discounted prices.

Our successful Crowdfunding campaign in 2021

The club ran its first Crowdfunding campaign in spring 2021 and we reached our target of £16,000 after 51 days.  We were raising funds to replace the income that we normally make from hosting our own swimming galas, which we were unable to do in 2021 due to COVID.   Sport England contributed £4,800 (30%) to the target and our supporters contributed the remaining £11,200.

The benefits of swimming are significant 

We enable all swimmers to develop their confidence, independence and self-discipline as well as their swimming skills and a love for the sport.  Our masters section enables adult swimmers who don’t compete to improve their fitness and well-being.  Individuals who develop these attributes through swimming will often retain these throughout their lives.

Our swimmer achievements in 2022

The majority of our junior swimmers and some of our masters swimmers compete regularly in local, regional and national galas.  

• Five junior swimmers won 2 gold, 4 silver and 4 bronze medals  at the 2022 Northumberland and Durham county championships.  
• One junior swimmer also won 1 silver and 3 bronzes at the North East regional championships in 2022 and another won bronze in the open water swimming.  
• Two GAW swimmers competed in the national championships in July 2022.   
• Our masters swimmers won 9 gold medals at their long and short course national championships in 2022, in addition to many silver and bronze medal
• The GAW ladies masters team broke British and European records when they won the 4 by 200m freestyle relay for their age group in the long course nationals.

The financial impact of COVID 19 and the energy crisis on our club

We had 183 active swimmers in our junior and masters squads in February 2020. By May 2021, after two COVID lockdowns, our swimmer numbers had reduced by 39% to just 112.  This had a detrimental impact on our income, which was only partly offset by the income from LTS, resulting in a 30% reduction of our monthly swimmer income in the 21/22 year compared to pre COVID levels.  

We are no longer able to obtain funding from the Community Foundation Thrive fund, which has been discontinued post COVID.  Prior to COVID, we regularly received £10,000 from this fund, including both 2017 and 2019, which helped offset our operating costs.

In response to these major financial setbacks, during the 21/22 year we:

• rationalised our pool time by 25%, 
• introduced some new sources of income
• ran the Crowdfunding campaign in April 2021which raised £16000

Despite these efforts, the club made a significant operating loss in the 21/22 year.

In the 22/23 financial year we have also experienced a £5k increase in our pool hire costs due to the energy price rise.

How are we improving the club's financial position?

We have been working hard to improve the club’s financial position during 22/23:

• We appointed Ross Bradley as our head coach in early 2022 and funded his senior coach qualification
• We recruited Ken Nesworthy as director of swimming in October to help us grow the club and mentor the other coaches.  Swimmer numbers have increased from 112 to 130 and we are targeting more growth in 2023
• We hosted two galas in July and September 22 which made £11k profit
• We will host a third gala in March 2023, which we hope will make a further £6K
• We are raising funds from this Crowdfunding Campaign

Achieving our Crowdfunding target of £15k by the end of our campaign should enable us to fully cover our operating costs and break even in the 22/23 year.

Crowdfunding targets

Our target is to raise £15,000 and Sport England will contribute 50% to this target, as long as we raise the rest (£7,500) ourselves

We also have a stretch target of £18,000.   If we exceed our target of £15,000, we will donate 25% of the over achievement to a local charity and use the remaining over achievement to reduce the club’s debt.

What will these funds be used for?

We will use the funds we raise from our Crowdfunding project to offset the discontinued grant income and help us pay for the increased costs of our pool hire, enabling the club to break even in the 22/23 year.

The “GAW 3000 miles” challenge

During our Crowdfunding campaign, which will take place during the six weeks from January 27th to March 9th, the club will run a physical challenge for our swimmers to help us reach our Crowdfunding target. The challenge is for them to collectively swim 3000 miles during our Crowdfunding campaign. This is the total distance that GAW junior and masters swimmers will travel to galas during the 22/23 season, and equates to 192,000 lengths. 

Many of these participants will set up their own personal Crowdfunding pages, which will link to this main Crowdfunding page, so funds raised through each individual's page all count towards our total.  They will each have a personal swim miles target on their individual pages, against which they can provide progress updates during the challenge.  The club treasurer will help participants set up their own pages, once we have launched our main Crowdfunding page.

How you can help us reach our target

Please help us to reach our target by:

• making a donation to our main Crowdfunding page
• buying one of the great rewards on our main page.  
• make a donation to an individual swimmer's own Crowdfunding page 
• buy a reward from an individual swimmer's page

Making a donation

You can make a donation to the fund at the top of the page by selecting the amount you want to donate and clicking on the donate button. 

Buying a reward

You can also purchase one or more of the rewards that are shown on the right-hand side of the page. 

• Some supporters have offered up their time for free to provide rewards
• Some have donated items that others may wish to buy at a discounted price.  
• The remaining rewards have been donated by local businesses.

Many of the rewards will be of particular interest to swimmers, but we have also included a lot of rewards which will be of more general interest to parents, family and friends.  

If you would like to buy a reward, please click on the relevant “select reward” button. We will arrange collection evenings for the rewards at Dunston pool or deliver to you if the item will post (e.g. voucher). 

Donating to or buying a reward from an individual swimmer’s Crowdfunding page 

Many of our swimmers will be creating their own personal Crowdfunding pages which link to our main Crowdfunding page.  

You can make a donation to an individual swimmer, or buy a reward, through their individual Crowdfunding page, which will both count towards our overall Crowdfunding total. The swimmer or their parent will send you a link to their personal crowdfunding page once our campaign has started. 

Spreading the word

To help us reach our target of £15,000, please share our page with your family and friends via your social media apps and encourage them to support us.  

Collecting your rewards once purchased

During the challenge we will organise and communicate specific dates and times when the purchased reward items will be available for collection at the pool.

“Pass the cap” video featuring our junior swimmers

Many of our junior swimmers are featured in a second video, passing a GAW cap to each other and giving their personal messages about the Crowdfunding campaign.  These include why the club is raising funds, why they love swimming with the club and why swimming is important to them.