Sports and Leisure

Sport England has launched a new £5 million fund to mark the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee that aims to use sport and physical activity to bring communities together and tackle inequalities. Grants of between £300 and £10,000 are available to community organisations; including schools in support of new projects that inactive people to get active, or less active people to become more active. The funds could be used for things such as facility...

The Department for Communities for Northern Ireland has made funding available to sports clubs and a range of other not-for-profit organisations which have been negatively affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. Delivered by Sport NI, the Covid Recovery Programme for Sports Organisations aims to reduce or remove operating deficits in organisations which have arisen in the 2021/22 financial year because of the pandemic. Grants of up to £50,000 are...

Constituted community groups can apply for grants of £2,500 for projects which will make artistic and aesthetic improvements along the National Cycle Network in Scotland, with the ultimate aim of encouraging more people to travel by bike or foot. Sustrans’ Scotland ArtRoots Fund encourages the showcasing of local talent and expression for youngsters through their arts, and encourages local communities to shape their local environment and b...

Barclays, in partnership with Sported, has launched a new fund to make playing football more accessible at grassroots level. Through the Barclays Community Football Fund, 5,550 community groups across the UK wishing to start offering football or expand their existing provision, will receive grants and additional support to develop inclusive football activities. The fund will primarily support girls and young people in deprived or underrepresen...

Grants of up to £50,000 are available to support sports organisations in Northern Ireland which are experiencing financial difficulty as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. The Covid Recovery Programme for Sports Organisations will provide support to local sports clubs, charities, and community and voluntary organisations offering sport and/or physical activities which have been negatively affected by the pandemic in the 2021/22 financial year...

A total of £15 million has been allocated to invest into Scottish indoor tennis facilities over the course of the next 10 years. Priority for funding will initially be given to transformational projects which involve a minimum of 3 indoor courts and are located in six areas: Dumfries & Galloway; Dundee; Edinburgh; Glasgow; Highland and the Scottish Borders. Funding of up to 66% of total project costs is available up to a maximum of £250,000...

Sport England is investing £6.5million of National Lottery funding to improve sporting facilities and level up access to community sport across the West Midlands as part of a legacy from next summer’s Commonwealth Games. The investment is made up of two funds to help community sport and physical activity groups tackle inactivity in local communities and engage underrepresented groups, such as people on lower incomes and disabled people. The...

Grants of between £500 and £3,000 are available to organisations, schools and clubs involved in Rowing to help purchase equipment, such as boats, sculls, ergos, oars and essential safety equipment. The funding is being made available through the Rowing Foundation and preference is given for activities focused on the young or disabled. Grants can cover up to 50% of costs. The next deadline to apply to the Rowing Foundation is the 28th Febru...

The Premier League, The FA and the Government's Football Foundation have announced the launch of their 'Power Up Your Grass Pitch' campaign, to transform the state of grass football pitches in England. The aim is to improve over 7,000 grass pitches by 2024 and 20,000 by 2030, to ensure the 12 million grassroots football players across the country have great places to play. To support the campaign, the Foundation has developed an app which is n...

To reduce the negative impact of coronavirus and the widening of the inequalities in sport and physical activity, Greater Sport and GM Moving have launched phase 3 of their Tackling Inequalities Fund to help people get active. Grants of up to £10,000 are available to local community organisations across Greater Manchester to help reduce the negative impact on activity levels in under-represented groups, with a specific focus on lower socio-ec...

Sport England are making a further £20 million in funding available to help tackle inequalities in physical activity levels as the country continues its recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic. The Together Fund will help community organisations to recover and grow and enable them to reach and engage communities disproportionately affected by the pandemic to become active or get more active. This includes lower socio-economic groups, culturally d...

Grants of up to £25,000 are available for facilities that will encourage social housing residents in Scotland to be healthier and more active through walking and cycling. The Social Housing Partnership Fund offers grants to social housing providers in areas of high deprivation to improve cycle parking, storage, shelter, security and lighting at their properties. It also funds street furniture, planters, litter bins and community gardens to ma...

An additional £5 million of National Lottery funding has been made available to continue supporting clubs and local organisations to set up and run their own crowdfunding campaigns to help sustain them through the Covid-19 pandemic and return to play. Sport England’s Return to Play: Active Together Fund is a crowdfunding initiative that can match fund successful Crowdfunder campaigns by up to £10,000. Sports clubs, charities and other comm...

Schools, and other organisations such as local authorities, area sports associations, sports trusts and charities; etc can apply for funding of up to £100,000 (to a maximum of 50% of the project costs) to improve their sports facilities. In areas of high deprivation, the maximum grant can be up to 75% of project costs. Grants are available to help with the provision or upgrading of sports facilities that are for the public good and which bene...

To celebrate the easing of lockdown restrictions and the success of Team GB BMX at the Olympics, Access Sport is offering BMX bike clubs grants of £500 to run open days that enable thousands of beginners to try out BMX across the UK. Funding will give clubs the opportunity to try to remove barriers to inclusion by opening their tracks up to the public or promoting the club to a new audience, particularly in deprived areas. Access Sport are al...

The UK Government has announced a £50 million investment to build and improve grassroots football pitches across the UK. The funding will be made available in 2022 to enable more people to access high-quality football pitches that can be used for football and other sports. The investment, which will prioritise disadvantaged communities, will aim to address health inequalities, encouraging children and young people to get more active while ens...

The Premier League has announced that it will provide funding for the implementation of more than two thousand defibrillators at grassroots football clubs and facilities in England. Working in partnership with the Football Foundation and the FA, a first phase of the Premier League Defibrillator Fund will provide defibrillators in time for the start of the 2021/22 season to Football Foundation funded facilities which are currently without a lif...

To reduce the negative impact of coronavirus and the widening of the inequalities in sport and physical activity, Versus Arthritis are making grants of up to £5,000 available to registered charities and other not-for-profit organisations to help people get active. The Charity has teamed up with Sport England to help distribute £100,000 in funding to increase the availability of exercise opportunities for people with arthritis and musculoskel...

To prevent the cancellation of thousands of football matches in England each year, the Football Foundation has launched a new £14 million fund to improve and maintain the quality of grass pitches. The Grass Pitch Maintenance Fund will provide eligible grassroots clubs, leagues, charities and National League System Clubs (Step 1-6) a grant of £2,500 to enhance pitches that are considered 'poor' or 'basic', or £750 to help them sustain pitche...

Charities or not for profit organisations wishing to provide or organise leisure activities for people with physical disabilities can apply for a grant to help them to deliver their project, service or activity. The majority of grants awarded are for £5,000 and under. The funding is being provided through the Bruce Wake Charitable Trust. Applications can be submitted at any time and applications are considered quarterly by the Trustees.

Emergency flood relief funding is available to community sports clubs and not-for-profit organisations to help them repair flood-damaged facilities. A targeted flood relief option has been added to Sport England’s Return to Play Fund to provide support for local authorities, leisure operators and other not-for-profit organisations from the areas worst affected by recent flooding caused by Storms Christoph and Darcy. Applications from other a...

£10.1 million of funding is being made available to enable schools in England to open their sports and swimming facilities outside of the school day to encourage pupils to be more physically active once the Covid-19 pandemic is over. The funding, which will be distributed through Sport England and Active Partnerships, who will distribute the funding in areas and schools who need it most, especially those with high inactivity among children. T...

An additional £1.5m of National Lottery funding has been made available to continue supporting clubs and local organisations to set up and run their own crowdfunding campaigns to help sustain them through the Covid-19 pandemic and return to play. Sport England’s Return to Play: Active Together Fund is a crowdfunding initiative that can match fund successful Crowdfunder campaigns by up to £10,000. Sports clubs and organisations in England a...

From late January 2021, adventure and marine tourism businesses in Scotland will be able to apply for grants of up to £15,000 through the Marine and Outdoor Tourism Re-start Fund. Administered by VisitScotland on behalf of the Scottish Government, the fund will support essential re-commissioning and re-start costs for businesses, aimed at those who have been significantly affected by the pandemic due to their seasonality and high set up cost...

Sport England has announced the launch of a new £100 million National Leisure Recovery Fund to support publicly owned leisure facilities through the coronavirus (Covid-19) crisis. The fund aims to assist the reopening and recovery of the leisure service and prevent further closures of outsourced leisure trusts and operators. Applications will be accepted from local authorities in England who hold responsibility for the provision of leisure s...

Not-for-profit sport clubs and organisations delivering community sport and physical activity can apply for funding of between £300 and £50,000 to address inequality in access to sport and improve the sustainability of community sport. This can include improving and adapting facilities, using technology to engage more participants, upskilling of volunteers, and targeting underrepresented groups, etc. The funding is being made available throu...

Organisations in Northern Ireland who are working to improve the quality and quantity of sports activities for people with a disability can now apply for funding to enable the delivery of Mencap NI’s Learning Disability Awareness Training. This training will improve accessibility in sports facilities, improve the quality and quantity of sports and activities available to people with mental and physical impairments and will provide staff with...