Want to apply?

Who Can apply?

Small Grants can fund formally constituted not-for-profit organisations and statutory bodies. This might include sports clubs, voluntary organisations, local authorities, schools or governing bodies of sport. We will not fund an individual, sole trader or partnership, organisations established to make profit or organisations not established in the UK.

Your constitution or governing document should contain a clear not-for-profit statement and charitable dissolution clause and your membership should be open to all sections of the community. Your governing committee should include at least three non-related and non-cohabiting members.

If your organisation is a branch of a larger organisation, you should confirm that you are sufficiently independent of them. If you do not have your own committee, bank account and constitution you will need the support of your parent organisation, which must accept overall responsibility for the award.

Our Priorities  

We get many more applications than we can afford to fund so we will focus our funding on those projects that have the greatest impact on our strategic outcomes. Only those projects that show clear added value to current delivery are likely to be successful so applications should highlight how they either enhance the sporting experience for current participants (“sustain” or “excel”) or increasing participant numbers (“grow”). Applications requesting funding for ongoing running costs of an organisation, including the funding of worn or obsolete equipment are unlikely to be successful. Please see below for more detail on “What we won’t fund”.

Sport England particularly wants to increase participation in adults and so the following two types of projects will be funding priorities for the Small Grants Programme.

• Projects increasing the number of adults participating in moderate intensity sports

Sport England has a target of getting 1 million more adults participating in 3 x 30 minutes of moderate intensity sport per week by 2012.     

• Projects seeking to reduce the drop off rates for 16-19 year olds, in particular the following sports - Badminton, Basketball, Football, Hockey, Gymnastics, Netball, Rugby League, Rugby Union, and Tennis.  Research shows that large numbers of young people stop playing sport at this age.

What can we fund?

Your project is potentially fundable if it meets the following criteria:

• Applications must be for between £300 and £10,000 and total project costs must not exceed £50,000.
• Projects must be deliverable in a 12 month period from the date of our award letter.
• Your project will be able to demonstrate it will support delivery of Sport England’s strategic outcomes of growing or sustaining participation in sport.
• Projects must be focused on sports that are recognised by Sport England. Please note that for sports which Sport England deem higher risk appropriate affiliation to the National Governing Body will be required. Please call 08458508508 if you are unsure whether your sport fits into this criterion.
• Your project must be delivered to beneficiaries based in England.
• Your project start date must be at least 10 weeks after submission of your complete application and supporting documents.
• Your project must be for new activity and new costs delivering new sporting benefit.

What Kind of Projects do we Fund?

Project Case Studies

The following hyperlinks will take you to examples of typical projects.  They are not real projects, but they are the sort of thing we are likely to fund.  If your project is similar to one of these projects, you may find the format and information useful as a guide to what you should be putting in your application form.

If your project is not the same as these, whether it’s slightly similar, or completely different – don’t worry!  We are keen to hear about all ideas to get more people playing sport, but you may find that the information here is helpful to get you thinking about the types of details we need.

            An After School Club

            Additional Equipment

            A New Team

            Multi-sport Taster Sessions

            Sport in the Community

            A New Club

(Please don’t just copy what is here – we need applications to be in your own words so that we can understand the unique value of every project.)

How to use the Case Studies

Click on the hyperlinks above to read any or all of the case studies. 

The Key Points listed after each case study indicate essential information that has been given in each case, and that we will look for in our assessment of any application.

The Further things to think about are additional details that we will need to know about, and which would need to be included either within an application or as supplementary documentation.

Consider whether there are any similarities between your project and any of these examples, and if so, try to ensure your application includes the same types of details and information. 

These examples are not intended to be ‘perfect’ project descriptions.  They are provided here to give a flavour of the types of project we fund, and the level of detail we are looking for in your application form.  As you read them, you may notice yourself thinking of questions you would like to ask the ‘applicants’ – these will be the types of questions we ask real applicants, so remember to make sure you put all the answers in your application!

What don't we fund? 

The following are examples of projects or costs we will not fund:

• Projects that are for sports not recognised by Sport England.  
• The general running costs of an organisation. This includes day to day expenses such as  rent, gas, electricity, water bills, and insurance costs. It also includes the replacement of existing equipment  such as ground maintenance equipment, playing surfaces or training equipment.  We may fund additional equipment if it produces sporting benefit you don’t currently provide. For example, if your club requires additional equipment to meet defined league standard or needs additional equipment as part of a larger project to deliver continued membership.
• Repeat or regular events and existing activities (except the extra costs of involving new participants) or repeat funding of projects previously funded by Sport England.
• Projects that cannot measure their impact on Sport England’s strategic outcomes.
• Items which only benefit an individual e.g. bursaries or kit and equipment that is not shared. We may fund team playing kits for new teams or for teams who have not previously had a kit.  We are unlikely to fund training and coaches kits and other items of clothing.
• Salaries, except for coaching costs or fixed term positions needed to meet a specific project requirement. Funding of coaches must be clearly additional to usual club expenditure.
• Used road vehicles.
• More than £10,000 to the same organisation in any single year period, from the date of our award letter.
• Activities that the State has a legal obligation to provide, for example sport sessions which take place in school during curriculum time. We can also not fund any cost or activity previously funded by state funding or where state funding is due to end.
• Projects involving construction or refurbishment of property. We will also not fund the erection of temporary buildings or land improvement work (e.g. drainage, resurfacing of playing surfaces, laying of artificial surfaces or installation of irrigation systems).
• Fixed capital items, for example, goals or nets that cannot be easily removed. We also cannot fund any fixed equipment which may require planning permission, for example a storage container near to the perimeter of a ground. Applications submitted with confirmation from the Local Authority that planning permission is not required may be considered subject to other exclusions.
• Projects that take place or incur costs (including deposits and costs associated in submitting the application) before the date of the offer letter.
• Contingency costs and VAT you can recover.
• Projects involving travel to another Country where the same sporting benefit can be gained in England.
• Sponsorship, endowments or loan repayments.