Sport England - Small Grants Programme

Background

Sport England is committed to the creation of a world-leading community sport system. This means focusing investment on organisations and projects that will grow and sustain participation in grassroots sport to create opportunities for people to excel at their chosen sport.

Objectives of Fund

The funding aims to support local community sport projects that seek to encourage people, particularly those who are inactive or less active, in England, regardless of age, background or level of ability, to get involved in sport and physical activity.

Sports and communities are being encouraged by the funder to protect and adapt the environments in which sport and physical activity takes place and work together towards the country’s collective net zero ambitions.

The funding is for projects that focus on supporting inactive and less active people to become more active, while reducing their impact on the environment - projects that can deliver both environmental and physical activity benefits for their community.

Ideas should address any of three key environmental areas for the Sport England sector, which have been designed with and for local communities. They should particularly benefit those experiencing greater disadvantage and all projects must have a 'line of sight' to physical activity, supporting inactive and less active audiences to be active while also addressing environmental sustainability.

The three areas are:

• Reducing energy use - actions and measures supporting local efforts towards net zero.
• Encouraging responsible travel could include encouraging people to walk or cycle where possible and providing safe cycle/scooter/buggy storage options; promoting accessible and safe public transport routes and lift sharing; and using local community assets to minimise travel.
• Reducing waste and improving resources - measures and actions that seek to reduce and eliminate waste.

Value Notes

Grants of between £300 and £15,000 are available.

Multiple applications can be submitted, but organisations can only have awards of up to £15,000 in any 12-month period.

Who Can Apply

Applications are accepted from:

• Community amateur sports clubs (as registered with HMRC).
• Unregistered voluntary and community organisations with a not-for-profit constitution.
• Registered charities.
• Not-for-profit companies (limited by guarantee without share capital or charitable incorporated organisation).
• Community interest companies (CICs) or other social enterprises.
• Community benefit societies.
• Schools using their facilities for wider community benefit.
• Local authority bodies (including town, parish and community councils).

Applicants do not have to be a sports organisation to apply as Sport England is more interested in the applicants' knowledge of and track record in the community that will benefit from the project.

In order to be eligible for funding over £10,000, applicants must meet Tier One of the Code for Sports Governance. Organisations applying for projects involving sports that Sport England deems higher risk will be required to have appropriate affiliation to the national governing body.

There is particular interest in projects working with people located in areas of high deprivation, specifically people living in areas defined by Indices of Multiple Deprivation 1-3. Applicants will need to explain how they tackle inequalities.

Location

England

Restrictions

The following are not eligible for funding:

• Projects that do not meet the programme’s current aims of tackling inequalities and bringing the community together.
• General running costs or existing costs of an organisation (eg, utility bills, staffing etc).
• Existing activity – although additional costs associated with the expansion of that activity may be funded.
• Construction/refurbishment projects where building regulations approval, planning permission, or landlord consent are needed and have not yet been obtained.
• Replacement of equipment.
• Projects incurring costs prior to the date of an award letter.
• Costs associated in submitting the application, eg, paying someone else to write the application.
• Projects not ready to begin within six weeks (unless one can explain why a longer period of time is needed).
• Projects requiring Sport England funding for longer than 12 months.
• Costs benefitting an individual (eg, membership fees)
• Costs benefitting participants under five years of age (unless part of a family orientated project involving adults).
• Costs that are not a direct responsibility of the applicant to cover (for example, costs associated with a facility not owned/leased by the applicant).
• VAT that are recoverable by the applicant.
• Activity where there is a statutory responsibility, such as curriculum time delivery.
• Activity where participants live outside England.
• Projects delivering a high-risk sport where coaches or the applicant organisation is not affiliated to the relevant national governing body.
• Football-only/football dominant projects (such projects should consider The Football Foundation).

Eligible Expenditure

The aim of the fund is to bring communities together and provide sport and physical activities for people who may be less physically active.

Types of costs which can be covered include:

• Coaching – providing opportunities for those less likely to be active, offering them an activity they want to participate in.
• Volunteer training – develop an organisation’s volunteer base through offering training to both new and existing volunteers.
• Service alterations – providing new ways of delivering existing activity to attract new participants/members, for example offering outreach or web-based classes or targeting new audiences through connecting with other providers in the locality.
• Additional equipment – to enable expansion of activity or safer delivery of activity, for example a defibrillator and associated costs (such as training for its use) as part of a wider project to deliver sport and physical activity.
• Minor facility alterations – examples include adapting a community space to make it more accessible for those with mobility impairments, refurbishing a space to enable sport and physical activity to be offered or improving a space to make it more energy efficient.

How To Apply

As of January 2024, the deadline for applications of 31 March 2024 that had been introduced in 2023 has been removed and applications are accepted on a rolling basis. Decisions are expected within three weeks, or longer during periods of high demand.

Guidance notes and the online application form are available on the Sport England website.

First time applicants will need to register their organisation on the Sport England website before they can start an application.

Contact Sport England for further information.