Crowd Funding Campaign - Sussex Coast FC

Pbeard18 · May 31, 2015

Hi all,

Just to start by saying that I did seek permission before posting this, and was given the green light. So I shouldn't be breaking any rules..

I run a Sunday League team - Sussex Coast FC - and I have launched a crowd funding campaign to raise some much needed funds for the new season.

crowdfunder.co.uk/sussex-coast-fc

We are trying to raise £500 to put towards a new kit, and to help in general with the rising costs.

For those not aware, Sunday League Football is surprisingly expensive for what it is, and smaller clubs like us can sometimes struggle financially. Luckily, we have just about managed to keep things together over the past 2 seasons, but as I'm sure you can appreciate, that is becoming increasingly difficult.

We pay around £100 per home game, which means a typical 20 game season would see us spend around £1000 on match fees alone, with admin fees etc..on top. We spent around £2000 last season, so extra cash would be a real bonus to us.

You can help out by donating any amount from £5 upwards. Every pledge is appreciated an awful lot, but we wont get any money unless we can raise the £500 in the time left. I'm doing as much as I can to try to raise the money, but as with traditional sponsorship, it's proving difficult to get peoples attention.

If you can't donate, I'd appreciate if you could pass the link on perhaps to someone who might be able to help.

I'm hoping that the football community can help us out, and help us keep Sunday League Football alive and kicking!

Thanks

desprateseagull · May 31, 2015

Any lottery funding available?

Da Man Clay · May 31, 2015

desprateseagull said:
Any lottery funding available?

Unlikely - quite a number of Sunday league sides all in the same boat. Having run a Sunday league side I'm always pretty surprised to see stuff like this. We managed to turn enough of a profit to buy a new kit every couple of years and we certainly weren't charging extortionate fees for signing on excetera. Maybe we were just lucky with the numbers we had signed on and had players actually paying what they owed.

Pbeard18 · May 31, 2015

Nope, pretty much no funding available at our level I'm afraid.

Da Man Clay - How long ago did you run yours?

We manage to pay our bills, but we are a small group. 16-17 or so registered. Some clubs have 30-40 players so are a little better off financially. We charge our players £35 each to register, which raises enough money to pay for start up fees, insurance etc...But after that, there isn't enough money left in the tank. All money received on match days from players (£5 per game) goes towards paying match day invoices.

supaseagull · May 31, 2015

Pbeard18 said:
Hi all,

Just to start by saying that I did seek permission before posting this, and was given the green light. So I shouldn't be breaking any rules..

I run a Sunday League team - Sussex Coast FC - and I have launched a crowd funding campaign to raise some much needed funds for the new season.

crowdfunder.co.uk/sussex-coast-fc

We are trying to raise £500 to put towards a new kit, and to help in general with the rising costs.

For those not aware, Sunday League Football is surprisingly expensive for what it is, and smaller clubs like us can sometimes struggle financially. Luckily, we have just about managed to keep things together over the past 2 seasons, but as I'm sure you can appreciate, that is becoming increasingly difficult.

We pay around £100 per home game, which means a typical 20 game season would see us spend around £1000 on match fees alone, with admin fees etc..on top. We spent around £2000 last season, so extra cash would be a real bonus to us.

You can help out by donating any amount from £5 upwards. Every pledge is appreciated an awful lot, but we wont get any money unless we can raise the £500 in the time left. I'm doing as much as I can to try to raise the money, but as with traditional sponsorship, it's proving difficult to get peoples attention.

If you can't donate, I'd appreciate if you could pass the link on perhaps to someone who might be able to help.

I'm hoping that the football community can help us out, and help us keep Sunday League Football alive and kicking!

Thanks

I am the club secretary for a youth football club. We are always looking for kit sponsors for our teams across the club and we tend to ask parents, supporters and local businesses to donate.

What I would recommend is that you register your club as a Community Amateur Sports Club (if you meet the eligibility criteria)

https://www.gov.uk/register-a-community-amateur-sports-club/overview

What this enables you to do is to ask for donations toward kit sponsorship and for the companies donating, to receive tax relief from HMRC; so it's in their benefit to donate from a financial and from an ethical perspective.

I would also suggest speaking to the Sussex County FA and the Football Foundation as they often offer places who will provide kit grants to clubs. You can get hold of a decent Nike Teamwear kit at a reasonable cost.

Pbeard18 · May 31, 2015

supaseagull said:
I am the club secretary for a youth football club. We are always looking for kit sponsors for our teams across the club and we tend to ask parents, supporters and local businesses to donate.

What I would recommend is that you register your club as a Community Amateur Sports Club (if you meet the eligibility criteria)

https://www.gov.uk/register-a-community-amateur-sports-club/overview

What this enables you to do is to ask for donations toward kit sponsorship and for the companies donating, to receive tax relief from HMRC; so it's in their benefit to donate from a financial and from an ethical perspective.

I would also suggest speaking to the Sussex County FA and the Football Foundation as they often offer places who will provide kit grants to clubs. You can get hold of a decent Nike Teamwear kit at a reasonable cost.

Thanks for the link. The FA reserve most of their money - perhaps rightly so - for youth set ups and county teams.

Da Man Clay · May 31, 2015

Pbeard18 said:
Nope, pretty much no funding available at our level I'm afraid.

Da Man Clay - How long ago did you run yours?

We manage to pay our bills, but we are a small group. 16-17 or so registered. Some clubs have 30-40 players so are a little better off financially. We charge our players £35 each to register, which raises enough money to pay for start up fees, insurance etc...But after that, there isn't enough money left in the tank. All money received on match days from players (£5 per game) goes towards paying match day invoices.

Finished running it last year. We had about 22 registered most years. The first year we did need to go out and get some sponsorship in order to get our first kit. Fortunately one of our players had a firm who was willing to pay for it but after that it was all self funded.

We charged £30 for sign on and then £5 for playing 60+ minutes and £2.50 for anything less than that. Home games cost us about £80 which we lost out on obviously but made up for it as away games don't cost anything.

16-17 is a tiny squad - must have most of those turn up every week which is an achievement in itself!

Pbeard18 · May 31, 2015

Da Man Clay said:
Finished running it last year. We had about 22 registered most years. The first year we did need to go out and get some sponsorship in order to get our first kit. Fortunately one of our players had a firm who was willing to pay for it but after that it was all self funded.

We charged £30 for sign on and then £5 for playing 60+ minutes and £2.50 for anything less than that. Home games cost us about £80 which we lost out on obviously but made up for it as away games don't cost anything.

16-17 is a tiny squad - must have most of those turn up every week which is an achievement in itself!

Haha, yeah it's a small group. But they all turn up, and we finished second last season an got promoted.

We did register about 23 in the summer, but once autumn kicks in, you learn who are loyal to the cause and who can't be bothered to get out of bed. We would generate money if pitch fees weren't so high. That's the killer for us and most others. £70 for the pitch, plus £30 for the ref.

Black Rod · May 31, 2015

£100 seems ridiculous excessive for a home game - when I played Sunday League it was £60 to use Waterhall

Is that just for pitch hire?

Pbeard18 · May 31, 2015

Black Rod said:
£100 seems ridiculous excessive for a home game - when I played Sunday League it was £60 to use Waterhall

Is that just for pitch hire?

Yup. £70 pitch - £30 ref.

maltaseagull · May 31, 2015

supaseagull said:
I am the club secretary for a youth football club. We are always looking for kit sponsors for our teams across the club and we tend to ask parents, supporters and local businesses to donate.

What I would recommend is that you register your club as a Community Amateur Sports Club (if you meet the eligibility criteria)

https://www.gov.uk/register-a-community-amateur-sports-club/overview

What this enables you to do is to ask for donations toward kit sponsorship and for the companies donating, to receive tax relief from HMRC; so it's in their benefit to donate from a financial and from an ethical perspective.

I would also suggest speaking to the Sussex County FA and the Football Foundation as they often offer places who will provide kit grants to clubs. You can get hold of a decent Nike Teamwear kit at a reasonable cost.

It just demonstrates what is wrong with football when league 1 players earn enough in a week to sponsor a whole team for a season and premiership players could probably fund a whole division with a weeks wages.
Very sad.

Pbeard18 · May 31, 2015

maltaseagull said:
It just demonstrates what is wrong with football when league 1 players earn enough in a week to sponsor a whole team for a season and premiership players could probably fund a whole division with a weeks wages.
Very sad.

No-one wants to help the little guy. You'd think that the FA would be able to set aside some money for the smaller teams in the country. We are looking to raise £500, which in the grand scheme of things is peanuts..

littlebean · May 31, 2015

There are 60 teams in the Sussex Sunday league. Why don't you get sponsorship from pubs and clubs like thy do? It's not hard to ask around.

Pbeard18 · May 31, 2015

littlebean said:
There are 60 teams in the Sussex Sunday league. Why don't you get sponsorship from pubs and clubs like thy do? It's not hard to ask around.

Thats exactly what I do. When we first started, I must have contacted well over 100-200 businesses. About 5 responded. 1 did decide to sponsor us for a season. But we lost that sponsor last season due to us no longer being able to full fill their sponsorship terms.

Vegas Seagull · May 31, 2015

I was paying a fiver, 20 years ago
With 20 games & 16 players, if you charged £7 per game it would all be sorted @ £640

Pbeard18 · May 31, 2015

Vegas Seagull said:
I was paying a fiver, 20 years ago
With 20 games & 16 players, if you charged £7 per game it would all be sorted @ £640

We charge £5 a game, but that is spent on pitch fees. Once those are paid, there is generally no money left. The money we are trying to raise is separate from the general admin fees etc, and is money we can put into the club to invest in kit/equipment etc...

littlebean · May 31, 2015

you should do fundraisers, quiz nights, get support from your team mates if they want the club to continue

Bry Nylon · May 31, 2015

Write to FIFA

Pbeard18 · May 31, 2015

Bry Nylon said:
Write to FIFA

Ill promise to vote for Qatar if they give us £500

Black Rod · May 31, 2015

How many pubs are in Brighton, 250 odd?

If you take say 14 players back to a pub on a Sunday afternoon, they all buy a pint at £3.50 and you do that for 20 games a season the pub could be looking at taking about £1000 a year off you. Effectively doubling their £500 sponsorship

You'd have to be mad not to take up that sort of money making potential

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