Thornbury Town FC Covid Recovery Fundraiser

Aim

Our community club hope to raise £10,000 to cover the shortfall in our income caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and help fund the new season.

Who are we?

Thornbury Town Football Club is an FA Charter Standard club offering and providing football to Thornbury and South Gloucestershire.  

We have three adult teams, including our successful First Team who play in Division One West of the Hellenic League, and a comprehensive junior section covering Under 6s to Under 18s, including 2 girls teams. In total, we run 18 different teams.

It is our intention to make Thornbury a hub for girls’ football in the area, and we are looking forward to launching our dedicated girls football programme for ages 5-13 as part of the FA's Wildcats initiative.

Our Club is open to all and run entirely by enthusiastic volunteers who have the drive and ambition to move the Club forward both on and off the field.  Our aim is to encourage greater participation in football - both playing and socially – for all members  of our local community.   

Impact of Covid-19 – The Club stands to lose significant income

Thornbury Town FC has always been financially self-sufficient, but the ongoing Covid situation has had a hugely negative impact on our income.  

Since March, we have lost all of our matchday revenue, gate money and bar takings. We had to cancel lucrative fundraising events including the Junior section summer tournament, our popular race nights and successful quiz nights.

This all followed a spell of bad weather which had meant many home games were cancelled – in fact, the first team had only played two home games since November.

This lost income would have helped cover the whole club's running costs for the season, and also help to improve and upgrade facilities at the Mundy and Poulterbrook Fields. With none of these activities happening, our income levels have been virtually zero.

The impact of the Pandemic on local businesses that have generously supported us in the past means that we expect sponsorship income for the coming season will be significantly reduced.

We are estimating a shortfall of at least £10,000 and we face the prospect of struggling to cover our running costs, let alone provide the funding for the new stand that is required for us to gain promotion to the next level. The stand and other ground improvements that we have planned will ensure a much improved matchday experience for all players and spectators whether young or old.

The Club has permission for the installation of a new stand and the relocation of the existing stand to the far side of the pitch, giving a much better view of the game for spectators. More importantly they will offer spectators much more protection from the prevailing winds and rain than the existing stand does, tucked away as it is in the corner of the ground!

We also have permission for an extension to our clubhouse, improving the matchday experience for our supporters and all visitors to our games. It will also provide the opportunity for use by various groups from the local community on non-match days.

Unfortunately because of the loss of income we have suffered during the year we are not in a position to move ahead with these projects.

Money raised through this crowdfunding page will mean that we’re able to restart and provide what we do best - regular organised football for the whole community. We’ll be able to continue with our programme of Club and ground improvements too, ensuring a bright future for the Club, it’s players and supporters.

Community Outreach

Over the course of the new season we will be supporting Bristol SANDS (the Stillbirth and Neonatal death charity). Our Reserve team shirts has the SANDS logo printed on the front and we will be holding a number of fundraising events during the season to help support the amazing work they do every day. 

We will also be reaching out into the local community by providing 5 free match day tickets for every home fixture to residents at the Sheiling School and The Hatch Community and their attendant carers. 

As well as providing coaching for our own junior teams, we have provided coaching sessions for local junior schools. We are looking to restart these when it is possible to do so.

How can you help us?

As a volunteer-run Club, at this time, we need to rely on donations from our members, supporters, families, friends and the wider community. These donations will help to cover this shortfall and ensure we can continue to provide football at the highest possible level for all of our community.

Please donate whatever you can and feel comfortable with. We know many of you will have been hit hard financially by the impact of Covid-19.

We welcome all support, whether it be large or small, and there are a number of ways in which you can donate:-   

• Straight donations -  just use the box on the top right of the donation page to give whatever you can.

We are also providing various "rewards" that your donation can buy, some of which are listed below:-

• Bar vouchers - buy a bar voucher for £5 or £10.
• Sponsor a seat for a season – For £25, sponsor a seat in our stand for the coming season.  
• “Early-Bird” season ticket - £45 will buy you a season ticket for 2020-21 season.
• Mascot for the Day - £50 will enable your child to be First Team mascot for the day.
• First Team Matchday Sponsor - £75 will give you and a guest free entry to a 1st team home game with refreshments.
• Pitchside Advertising - £200 for a large pitchside banner at the Mundy’s.

GREAT NEWS! - Sport England will match whatever you give!

In addition to what you give, we've just been approved for a Sport England fund-match, so they will effectively double whatever we raise up to a maximum of £10k,  so for example if you were to donate £50, the club would receive £100!

However, if we fail to reach our target contribution of £5,000, they won't give us anything at all, so it's an all or nothing offer!

IMPORTANT! 

We thank you in advance for your support - it will really help us to put stability back into the Club finances so that we can continue the great progress we've been making over recent seasons, both on and off the field.  

Finally, a practical point ....

If you do donate in one of the above ways, please let us know what “reward” your donation is for by putting a note in the comments box to clarify what/who your donation covers. Alternatively e-mail Malcolm Carr on [email protected].

Everyone connected with Thornbury Town Football Club thanks you in advance for your support and feel sure that our Club and our community will pull together and help us reach our target.

This project successfully funded on 13th October 2020