As part of Sport England’s response to the pandemic the Return to Play package has been developed to support the sector by helping people safely return to activity. This £16.5 million fund has three parts all focussing on a safe return to play and narrowing the inequalities gap in sport and physical activity. You can find out more information on each fund by clicking the links below:

• Small Grants Fund https://www.sportengland.org/how-we-can-help/our-funds/return-play-small-grants
• Community Asset Fund https://www.sportengland.org/how-we-can-help/our-funds/return-play-community-asset-fund
• Active Together Fund https://www.sportengland.org/how-we-can-help/our-funds/return-play-active-together

Wesport recently attended an information session about the Active Together Fund and wanted to share some key findings and highlight some successful projects locally.

Crowdfunder and Sport England have teamed up to make £2.5 million of match funding available to help the sport and physical activity sector through the ongoing coronavirus crisis and with the safe return to play.

Some of the basics:

• You will need a crowdfunding project in order to apply for funding
• Match funding is up to £10,000
• Create a project that your community can get behind and you can get a boost of match funding if your application is successful
• You will need to reach 100% of your target in order to draw down the match funding
• If applicant is successful your funding request will appear on your crowdfund page when you reach 25% of your overall goal, giving you page a huge boost!

So far about £1.3 million has been distributed by Sport England through this fund. If your club or organisation received support from the Community Emergency Fund in 2020 you are eligible to apply. Crowdfunder suggest to set projects to last for 4 weeks and have waved their normal fees to host the projects but do take 0.9% from total donations.

You can find out everything you need to consider ahead of applying by visiting the funding page here: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/funds/active-together

Take a look at some successful projects that hit their target fundraising amount and secured their match funding from Sport England by visiting their project pages:

Keynsham Amateur Swimming Club - https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/keynsham-amateur-swimming-clubs-covid-19-appeal

City of Bristol Aquatics Club - https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/support-city-of-bristol-aquatics-club-covid-appeal

Wincanton Rugby Project Restart - https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/wincanton-rugby-return-to-wincanton-sports-ground