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Our funds

Coronavirus hit the sport and physical activity sector hard and we know things have been tough, so we modified our funding streams to align with the goals of our Uniting the Movement strategy and to help people safely return to play in the places impacted the most.

Funding explained

Our funds landing page skating group together

Each year we invest more than £250 million of National Lottery and public money to help people play sport and take part in physical activity.

We know that applying to one of our funds for the first time can seem a little daunting, but here we’ll guide you to the appropriate fund and explain exactly what you need to do.

Find the right fund

We’ve always tried to address inequalities through our funding and particularly encourage applications for projects that support people who have poorer health outcomes and lower activity levels.

Coronavirus (Covid-19) had an impact on everyone but our insight showed it was more significant in some communities/groups and the rate of recovery back to pre-pandemic levels is slower for some people.

To help support those most severely affected by the pandemic, we have our Active Together fund.

While our Small Grants Programme is fund dedicated to projects using sport and physical activity to bring bring people together and tackle inequalities.

Our open funds

Small Grants Programme

This fund seeks to develop opportunities for communities to get more people physically active and we'll support new projects through providing National Lottery funding of between £300 and £15,000.

Our priority is to support projects working with people in disadvantaged communities.

Small Grants Programme

Active Together

Active Together is a crowdfunding initiative that can match fund, up to £10,000, successful Crowdfunder campaigns from a total pot of £7.5m.

With expert advice and guidance to support you, this will help local clubs and organisations to run their own crowdfunding campaigns, fundraising for things such as a loss of income due to the crisis, or any other coronavirus related needs.

Active Together

Other funding options

Other ways to generate funding

There are a number of other sources of funding that organisations can apply to and should consider in addition to the programmes we have available.

Find out more about the traditional sources of funding and social sector opportunities out there.

Other ways to generate funding

If, after reading our information on the funding we have available, you're unsure whether your project meets our funding criteria please contact us to discuss further.

Legacy funds

Together Fund

The Together Fund was another £20m fund that followed the Tackling Inequalities Fund, which helped reduce the negative impact of coronavirus and the widening of the inequalities in sport and physical activity.

We worked with Active Partnerships and selected national partners to connect funding to local community organisations, who were best placed to support our priority audiences through their extensive reach and networks.

Together Fund

Places and Spaces Fund

A £7 million pot with up to £10,000 available in match funding for Crowdfunder projects, as part of a Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games package to help community sport and physical activity groups improve places and spaces across England.

Places and Spaces Fund

A group of children listen to a coach in a wheelchair

Evaluation framework

We evaluate our investment programmes to gather learning that improves outcomes for existing and future projects. Evaluation reports show and explain impact and return on investment, increase our insight and support advocacy for further sport investment.

We've designed an Evaluation Framework to help our colleagues and partners to evaluate funding streams and projects effectively, and to get maximum value from measurement and evaluation.

Evaluation framework website

Funding FAQs

Check out our FAQs if you have any questions about our funding pages. 

Funding FAQs

Claim and reconciliation forms

If you've been awarded a revenue grant you'll need to claim your funding and reconcile your expenditure.

Claim and reconciliation

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