This guide could help you attract and manage funding for your bike club. It does not cover funding for building a bike park which we will cover in a later post. For The Trax and I would guess many urban bike projects funding will be core to the success of the club itself. It's worth addressing this early as alternatively you will be relying on the whip round of the hat that we did or be forced into membership fees which may not suit your local environment or even be enough to cover your costs.

What are the objectives of your project?

Be clear on what you are doing, why and for whom. The what may be setting up a youth club or renting a club hut or paying for some professional coaches to run a summer scheme to teach skills or maintenance classes. Be very clear as to the what. Then you need to be even clearer as to the why and for whom i.e. what are the reasons behind and driving your project and what will it deliver. For us it was to have a sustainable community in place to run a future bike park in Oct 2011. In addition to get at least 40 kids of minority ethnic groups into sport by March 2011 and to get more women (50%) into sport, to improve health, self esteem and increase social inclusion in the community as well as to teach skills that could lead onto improved education and employment opportunities. Quantify it i.e. number of sessions and the mix. Make it realistic and achievable so ask yourself do you have the bandwidth and volunteers to achieve it.  This section is the most important if you are vague go back as a team, talk to the community locally or other clubs. Be sure and honest with yourself that your project reflects the needs of your community not just you and your mates. All objectives need to be SMART - Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time Bound.

What are the costs of your project?

It may sound very straight forward but you need to know what money you need to achieve your objectives. It's worth working out your costs from marketing to volunteer expenses to equipment, travel and so on. I attach our spreadsheet that manages what we spent so you can see what we spent money on in our first year. Around £2500 got us through the first year and that covered quite a lot including paying for professional coaches to run a six session skills course. It also covered a day trip for travel to ride in Trent Park, our affiliation fees, volunteer expenses, a few first aid, coaching and volunteer training courses, printing some marketing material like flyers and posters and having a stock of helmets. So identify your project specific or annual cost and break it down to start off.

Most funds have a minimum requirements.

OK, most funds before you can apply will expect the following from you like a signed constitution, CRB checks of volunteers, a voted in Chair and Secretary and someone to act as Treasurer. They will ask for community references as well as references from your regional sports development board and potentially your affiliation partner like British Cycling. So if you haven't started building relationships get onto it. These folk will also read and give recommendations on your application in advance which helps lots. Most funds will ask to see your last bank statement or annual general meeting minutes and accounts but you won't have this. Instead they will want you to have a bank account. We went with the Co-operative bank and got 3 -4 signatories with the Secretary being the default contact (we had no Treasurer at the time). Other type of things they ask for are Child Protection Policy, Health and Safety Policy and Equal Opportunities policy. British Cycling are a brilliant resource for all this.

Some funds will expect the money to be spent in a set time frame and others may ask for match funding or partial match funding when another funder pays some money in too. This can be overwhelming but don't worry it's easier than it seems. NB Funders will often accept volunteer time that is committed to be costed and put forward as match funding. If your project reflects local needs then you be pleasantly suprised with the support you get.

Find Suitable funds

Your council Club, Coach and Volunteer Development Officer will be able to point you in the right direction and sites such as Running Sports and Pro Active North London are also a good place to look.

Funds that support clubs can be either:

1) Individual i.e. it is a fund an individual applies for e.g. to cover or part cover a coach course. Pro Active North London do these at time
2) Project based i.e. to cover a specific project e.g. setting up a youth club or running a summer school programme in the holidays . Funds that cover this type of thing that I have had experience of are.

1. Play Sport London - cover summer and winter sporting programmes
2. Make the Difference - Specific projects or materials
3. Councils - council can often part or match fund projects.
4. Sports England Small Grants funds
5. Bike Club
6. Interactive - sport for disabled people in London
7. Team London Small Grants Funds
   

I attach all our funding documents as a template to see how we acquired the funds we needed. We applied and won funds from Play Sport London, Grassroots, Make The Difference and Haringey Council.

Once you have identified your funders where you have mutual objectives and can pass the minimum criteria then start to set up a funding calendar as most funds have deadlines.

Filling in the Form

OK if you have done the other steps this bit should not be hard. The main piece of advice I would give is funds have good guides on what their fund is about. it is worth really spending time reading this. It is a bit like customising your CV to the job offer. Customise you project needs to the funders drives and requirements. If this is a struggle then find another funder or question your project.

Funding Strategy

One of the main observations I have with clubs is they often have an over reliance on one fund raising approach. This post mainly covers this approach which is applies to government and charitable grants. This though should not be misconstrued as the only way. I would strongly recommend a mixed approach that covered multiple means of raising funds. This has two benefits a) you dont have all your eggs in one basket which when the economy turns you could lose out and b) your project is more sustainable once off the ground (this also increases likelihood of a grant body approving a fund as sustainability is a key requirement always).

Alternative means could be (not an exhaustive list):

• Charging for membership and activities
• Charging for events
• Sponsorship of club and website (local stores a good source here)
• Donations box

Tracking and Managing the Fund

So you have won your fund. Congratulations. It is paid into your shiny new bank account. Hmhhh! now what?

The instinctive answer is start spending. Well I advise stop for a sec and set yourself up a process first otherwise it will be impossible to track and have your funder audit your spend down the line. Without a process you are also not sure how much money you ever have left and you are open to abuse or allegations. So it's win win to do it. If you have a treasurer great otherwise put someone in charge to manage and own the process.

Ours goes a bit like this:

Only a voted in committee member and bank signatory can request any spend
The request is made to at least one other committee member in writing copying in Treasurer. We use email giving details, justification ,cost and which fund it applies to.
If approval is given the purchase can be made and the receipt sent to the Treasurer for records
The Treasurer tracks on spreadsheet all funds
Each monthly meeting all transactions spent are raised and bank balance left stated.
All upcoming expenditure (you can foresee is raised)
The spreadsheet is publicly available to download form the club website site.

Regular Funder Communication and Tracking KPI's

Things change and your funder gave you the money because they care and want you to be a success. I recommend quarterly conversations just to check in on how objectives are going, the challenges and where you are in spending the fund. To make these conversations valuable and you need this at the end when audited anyway, is too track your KPI's i.e. the measures of success of your objectives as you go. If you can still hit your objectives then I find most funders are flexible if circumstances change.

Identify a Fundraising Officer

Having a volunteer help manage the fundraising calendar as well as the forms and funder liason is invaluable. I attach a role description that gives an idea of the scope of such a role.

Finally

Spending sounds easy bit it takes up time and energy and so resource. Plan your spend carefully but track your spending. Don't spend your whole fund in the first quarter and don't leave it to the last either. Forecast your spend, share the burden of spending and track where you are. Good Luck

Attachments:

Grassroots	[ ]	247 Kb
Make The Differance	[ ]	73 Kb
Play Sport London Application.pdf	[ ]	23 Kb
TheTraxJDs_Fundraiser_Aug2011DM.doc	[ ]	41 Kb
Finance Spreadsheet	[ ]	30 Kb