Six years, six campaigns: how Guiseley Cricket Club raised over £100,000 on Crowdfunder

Some fundraisers are one-off appeals. Sean Yeates and Guiseley Cricket Club had a different idea: treat Crowdfunder as part of the club’s yearly toolkit, not a last resort.

Since 2021, Sean has launched six campaigns for the West Yorkshire club, ten miles north of Leeds. Between crowd pledges and match funding from Sport England, they have brought in more than £109,000. Along the way, the club has grown from 250 members to 400, with playing numbers across junior, ladies and men’s sections nearly doubling.

Here is how it happened, one campaign at a time.

2021: Practice Nets Appeal — £38,730 raised

The first campaign tackled the club’s biggest problem: nets that were twenty years old, torn, and prone to flooding. The target was £30,000. Guiseley raised £38,730 from 148 supporters, hitting 129% of target, and Sport England’s Active Together fund added £9,000 in match funding on top. The money paid for a new three-lane artificial practice facility and secure fencing to stop the vandalism that had been plaguing the ground.

2022: Funding Appeal 2022 — £10,290 raised

Material costs had risen since the original nets budget, leaving the club roughly £10,000 short and with a construction site of leftover spoil to clear. This campaign, backed by 61 supporters, covered the landscaping, a new welcome entrance, and equipment for the junior section. Sport England matched a further £3,000.

2023: Scorebox Appeal — £12,300 raised

Next on the list: an ageing electronic scoreboard that had become unreliable, plus new ground-maintenance kit. Seventy-nine supporters helped raise £12,300, funding a digital scoring system that links to Play-Cricket, along with a brush cassette and growth mats to keep the wicket in shape. A mid-campaign emergency, the club’s twenty-year-old heavy roller breaking down, became the stretch goal.

2024: 2024 Guiseley Cricket Club Fundraising — £10,352 raised

Rather than fund a single project, this campaign asked supporters to help cover the club’s running costs directly. Against a £4,000 target, 79 supporters gave £10,352, reaching 258% of goal, keeping subs affordable while membership kept growing.

2025: 2025 Guiseley Cricket Club Fundraising — £11,300 raised

The same model, repeated: a £6,000 target for annual running costs, met and passed by 105 supporters giving £11,300 (188% of target). By this point the club fielded three senior men’s teams, three ladies’ teams, nine junior sections and a girls’ under-13 side.

2026: 3rd Practice Lane — £14,135 raised

The latest campaign is aiming higher again: a third lane on the practice facility, so up to thirty players can train safely at once instead of the current twenty. Against a £10,000 target, 118 supporters have already pledged £14,135, 141% of goal, with a few days still to go as of August 3 2026.

The bigger picture

Add it up and Guiseley Cricket Club has brought in £97,107 directly through Crowdfunder pledges across six campaigns, plus £12,000 in Sport England match funding, for a combined total north of £109,000. That is new nets, a digital scoreboard, ground equipment, a heavy roller, annual running costs covered twice over, and now a third practice lane on the way.

What stands out isn’t any single campaign, it’s the pattern: a club that came back year after year, always with a clear, specific ask, and a community that kept saying yes.

Got a project like this?