Guide
What your club needs in place before it applies for funding
Updated
The good news is that the list is short and you probably have most of it. The bad news is that missing one item ends the application regardless of how good the project is.
Talk to a specialist Nation, club type, purpose and amount, all checked on 15 August 2026.
Get these sorted first
- A governing document. A constitution, set of rules or governing document adopted by your members, with the club's purposes, how decisions are made and what happens to assets if it closes. Funders ask for it and will read it.
- A bank account in the club's name, with more than one signatory. Not a personal account, and not one person's control.
- A committee. Most funders expect a minimum number of unrelated people running the organisation. Check the exact requirement on the fund's own 'Who can apply' page.
- Safeguarding and other policies where you work with children or adults at risk. Have the policy, and be able to say when it was last reviewed.
- Recent accounts or a bank statement. Even a small club is normally asked to show its financial position.
- Quotes for what you are buying. Real ones, from real suppliers, not estimates you have made up.
Read the eligibility pages, properly
Every National Lottery Community Fund programme page has separate sections for 'Who can apply', 'Who cannot apply', 'What we need to know when you apply' and 'What you can spend the money on'. Reading all four before you write is twenty minutes that saves weeks, and it is where most avoidable rejections are hiding. The same is true of the Football Foundation, whose eligibility rules on individual grants are specific down to the size of the goalposts.
Time it properly
| Fund | Decision time | What that means for planning |
|---|---|---|
| Sport England Movement Fund | Usually six to eight weeks | Apply at least 12 weeks before you want to start or spend |
| Awards for All England | 16 weeks | Do not build a season plan around it |
| Awards for All Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland | 12 weeks | Still a full term before you hear |
| Reaching Communities England | 40 weeks | Close to a year: phase the project |
One habit worth building: after every funded project, write the short report the funder asks for and keep a copy. A club with a delivery record gets the benefit of the doubt on the next application, and a club without one does not.