SoccerNet solves coordination problems in local sports funding
Grassroots football clubs and local sports organisations miss funding opportunities on an enormous scale: applying for funding to get a pitch resurfaced or a local team’s training gear replaced can be a bureaucratic nightmare. What’s worse, finding out about funding bodies, available grants and prize monies in the first place can be a daunting task. In their 2017 Report on ‘Governance in community sport’, the ICSA Governance Institute, the UK’s professional body for governance, finds: ‘Due to increasing levels of bureaucracy, regulations and governance structures, volunteers are not as willing to give their time in small sports organisations. Participants are all too wary of the large amount of time commitment and cost related to getting started’ (1). When it comes to funding in particular, local football clubs face insurmountable bureaucratic hurdles.
Mandatory Credit: Action Images / David Slater
Funding applications require comprehensive research, evidence and supporting material to find consideration in the first place. Even for a small grant of no more than £300, Sport England, the ‘arms-length body of government responsible for growing and developing grassroots sport’, require applicants to fill in copious forms (2). This is a seriously time-consuming task. To make matters worse, however, it’s finding out what’s available which is the bigger problem. Each Council takes a different approach to making funding opportunities public. This creates an unnavigable sea of data. For instance, Greater Sport, the Greater Manchester Sports Partnership programme that is all ‘about changing lives through physical activity and sport’ invites registered use to ‘search through the thousands of grants and loans’ (3). The time that grassroots volunteers spend skimming through this avalanche of material, most of which won’t even apply to them, cannot be spent on the pitch.
SoccerNet aims to make lives easier at both ends. The app solves coordination problems by making it easier to find out about grants. As it stands, local councils invite applications and need to sweep through a high volume of requests. Local football managers lose precious time drafting complex applications. This is where SoccerNet intervenes. Once registered with the local Council via SoccerNet, the app allows for quickly searching for grants that are available to teams. As key information has already been entered upon registration of the grassroots organisation, SoccerNet only prompts relevant grants, highlights upcoming deadlines and details what further documents are required, if any. Relevant contact information is shown where it’s needed: on the phone. The SoccerNet app presents funding opportunities that are only a swipe away; opportunities which can be accessed from the pitch, not the office.
References
(2) https://www.sportengland.org/funding/small-grants/
(3) http://www.greatersport.co.uk/funding/grant-search
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