The County Development Manager has a key role to support any facilities project by guiding you through the funding that is available and most appropriate through the various funding available from the Football Foundatation, Sport England and local authorities.
Suffolk FA recognises the importance of high quality facilities within the County. Working in partnership with the local authorities within the County to understand the demand for facilities protecting playing fields and working together to address any issues with the loss of facilities.Funding for facilities is constantly changing, but Suffolk FA aims to keep you up to date with the main funding bodies that can support the development of any facility project.
There are two main funding bodies being the Football Foundation and Sport England, details of which are below:
Football Foundation
- Grass Roots Facilities Fund (GRFF). This is essentially the old Large Facilities Scheme, with revised funding criteria (e.g. maximum grant will be £500,000).
- Build the Game (BtG). The BtG small (capital) grants scheme will consist of two thresholds (up to £10,000, and £10,001 to £50,000)
Sport England
As part of the Olympic Legacy programme, the Places People Play programme which will be delivered by Sport England and the Government, in partnership with the British Olympic Association, British Paralympic Association and with the backing of The London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games.
The Places strand aims to transform the places where people play sport, making the benefits of London 2012 visible in cities, towns and villages across the country by modernising up to a thousand local community sports clubs through our Inspired Facilities programme. Funding is available between £20,000 and £150,000 with the following rounds, two in 2012/13 and two in 2013/14.
Budweiser Club Futures
The Budweiser Club Futures programme is a grant scheme for non-league clubs in step 5 to 7 of the English football pyramid funded by The FA Cup's lead sponsor, Budweiser. Budweiser Club Futures will give eight grants of £50,000 to clubs across the country per season over the next two years.
Those grants aim to help clubs to become more financially sustainable by improving their facilities. Projects that could be funded include everything from building conference facilities, improving any part of of the clubhouse interior or exterior, and expanding the car park. Anything that helps a club grow and play an even larger role in their local community.
Within each season, one of the chosen eight clubs will be given the chance to win an additional £100,000 super grant.
Budweiser Club Futures is part of Budweiser’s commitment to promoting Responsible Drinking, and each successful club will be given additional funding to run a community based Responsible Drinking activity in their area. Example activities include the promotion of a Designated Driver, encouraging families to educate their children about alcohol responsibility through the Family Talk programme and Good Sport – a training programme in responsible bartending.
If your club is in steps 5–7, apply for a Budweiser Club Futures grant applications can be made here.
For more information please visit www.youtube.com/user/budweiserUk
For the latest funding options available please contact Suffolk FA County Development Manager, Chris Walsh, on 01449 776313 / 07432 735985 or chris.walsh@suffolkfa.com
