Sport England: return to play Small Grants available

The £15 million fund focuses on awards of up to £10,000 that support clubs and community groups responding to the challenges of returning to play during the coronavirus pandemic.

About the fund This fund will make awards, using National Lottery and government funding, of between £300 and £10,000 from a total pot of £15 million, to help sport and activity groups, clubs and organisations respond to the immediate challenges of returning to play in a coronavirus-safe way.

It seeks to help support sport and physical activity groups, clubs and organisations in responding to the immediate challenges of returning to play in a Covid-safe manner. This could include contributing to covering the costs incurred by having to deliver activity in smaller groups than normal, or having the correct hygiene and safety equipment.

Funding could be used for minor amendments to facilities, additional sports equipment, signage, sanitation and training courses to help you deliver your activities safely.

Key information

Awards of £300-£10,000 are possible
Awards are to help with essential changes to services or facilities
Applications should be focused on returning people to previously run activity, or enabling previous projects to adapt to resume delivery, when that's possible. At this time we're not looking to support new projects or start-ups.
Applications should be focused on the key funding priorities below.

The fund will have flexible priorities, to be able to best respond to the frequently changing challenges posed to community sport.

Funding priorities We'll assess your project against the current guidance on safely returning to the activity you provide, and we'll be unable to make awards that go against that guidance - even if it was correct at the time the application was submitted.

We're able to support and fund projects for up to a maximum of six months. Please ensure you only apply for funding if you believe your project is ready to start within six weeks from the point of the national and/or local restrictions being lifted to allow your activity to return.

We can't fund everything Please note, we only have limited funds available and therefore can't fund everything we'd like to - including some good projects - so we've set two levels of funding priorities.

Highest priority

Projects located in areas of high deprivation (decile 1-3 of the Indices of Deprivation). To see which decile your project location fits into, you can use this postcode checker.

Other funding priorities

Organisations working with Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities, people on lower incomes, disabled people, people with long-term health conditions and people experiencing a greater burden of care because of coronavirus.
Organisations working with communities most severely impacted by coronavirus - in particular adults aged 16-34 or 70+.

Responding to the third lockdown. Following the announcement of the third national lockdown measures, we adapted this programme to help further. The changes include:

Organisations based in Indices of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) 1-5 can now seek support towards ongoing running costs - for example rent, utilities and insurance. This is capped at a maximum of £3,000 and will only be considered with an eligible funding request. We won't solely support only running costs. Please see more details in the 'what we can fund' section.
Eligible organisations/activities in IMD 6-10 locations can apply to our crowdfunding option, Return to Play: Active Together, to seek support towards running costs.
Flexibility over start date - we ask that activity resumes within six weeks of national/local lockdown restrictions being lifted,
We've increased out total budget by £5 million to support more organisations.
We're now extending the programme and it will remain open up to 30 June.

Existing awardees. If you're in an organisation already in receipt of Return to Play: Small Grants funding, are located in IMD 1-5 - you can find your location here - and are now eligible for running cost support, please consider the following:

To repurpose part of your award, we're happy to discuss options to do so for part of your existing award - up to a maximum of £3,000 - to support running costs. You should contact us first before doing so, to agree these changes, by emailing us at smallgrants@sportengland.orgquoting your URN in the subject line.
We can offer flexibility on start and end dates of our offer. We'll not expect delivery/activity to commence until national/local lockdown restrictions are lifted but we ask activity is resumed within six weeks of them being lifted. We're happy to discuss this on a case-by-case basis. However, if the above solution works there's no need to contact us.
Where there's an urgent need for additional support, to support eligible running costs, we may consider an award increase in line with our new criteria. We'll ask you consider the above solutions first, before contacting us, but should this be needed please contact us to request an award increase. Please email your request to smallgrants@sportengland.org, quoting your URN and organisation name in the subject line. Please detail what support you're seeking and what period this covers - for example, £1,200 to support rent for three months from January 2021 (three months at £400 a month).
Please note, running cost support from this programme can't cover existing salaries or cover casual coaching (e.g. to cover loss of earning). Please consult other government support for these purposes.
For eligible organisations delivering a recognised sport or physical activity, in IMD 6-10 areas and in need of supports towards running costs, please consider applying to our Return to Play: Active Together crowdfunding programme.

CONTACT DETAILS

e. smallgrants@sportengland.org

t. 03458 508 508.