Charlbury Football & Social Club

Mon 4 Jan 2016, 14:02

I've split the thread into two accordingly.

As I understand it (and people closer to the issue will know more than me!), the problem is that the Community Centre is largely expected to be funded by grants from third-party organisations, such as the County Council, (hopefully) Sport England, and private grant-giving trusts.

These organisations are usually set up to give money for specific causes. This is the list of causes that Sport England will support, for example.

Unfortunately, no-one yet appears to have identified any such funds that are prepared to give grants to build social clubs. The organisations that are funding the Community Centre usually have requirements for what their money is spent on, which means the funds already obtained can't be used for this purpose.

An ideal solution would be to identify such a fund, and then for the Football & Social Club to bid for money from it. There are some possible funds listed on the County Council website. The keys to a successful bid are generally to explain in what way the club will meet the aims that the fund seeks to achieve; to demonstrate that there's no alternative in and around the town; and to demonstrate that there's genuine need for it. The club would need to be set up as a non-profit-making body (a charity, Community Interest Company or similar) before making such a bid.

Failing that, the club could of course try and raise the money privately, through fundraising events, selling shares/membership to local people (perhaps including 'in kind' contributions to the building?), and so on. It would be a mountain to climb - building work is never cheap! - but should be doable.

I know the Town Council would very much like to see the club continue and no doubt the Gifford Trust would too. Finding the money won't be easy, and it would need to be the club itself that takes the lead there, but I'm sure there'd be lots of support.