Aviva Employee Giving has provided £2,360 of match funding
‘Cricket saves the planet’ - Valley End CC
Woking, Surrey, United Kingdom
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Aim: Our cricket ground is a lovely environment. We want to share this to build environmental awareness and to benefit the environment.
Who are we?
We are a community cricket club who play in the Surrey Championship where 600 members from ages 5 to 78 enjoy the game. They are men, women, boys and girls, playing high standard cricket, social cricket, and also disability and walking cricket. Although funded by membership and matchday income, we have created beautiful grounds in a natural setting. We are trying to further develop our site to benefit the environment and to engage members and visitors in this.
Why are we crowdfunding?
We have created beautiful grounds in a natural setting. We are trying to further develop our site to benefit the environment and to engage members and visitors in this. We also want to use more and more sustainable methods in managing our grounds, and to reduce our carbon footprint. But although we are a well-run and successful club, funded principally by subscriptions and match-day revenue, we do not have the funds to invest in doing this as quickly as we think is necessary. So we are crowdfunding.
How we’ll spend the money raised
We have already made progress, leaving our ground to go wild where we can, planting trees and wild flowers, with an outdoor classroom, installing solar panels and buying electric ground-keeping equipment - all as illustrated in our video.
New funds will allow us to:
- plant more trees and wild flowers,
- further develop the walkway around the site that we are creating, drawing visitors into our natural environment, and to add seats, stairs and ramps,
- create a ‘woodland walk’ in an adjoining oak wood, with a teepee, log seats, environmental signage and a fitness trail,
- create a ‘learning garden’ in collaboration with local schools which would produce fresh salad etc for cricket teas,
- construct a net screen to protect animals grazing in an adjoining field,
- extend our composting so that we can reduce use of synthetic fertilisers,
- buy more electric ground-keeping equipment, to be powered by our solar electricity
- and to communicate and educate
Community impact
Combining our outdoor classroom, learning garden and woodland walk
Aviva Community Fund has provided £1,095 of match funding
Funding method
Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made by 22nd July 2025 at 11:21am