Funding guidance

The Movement Fund

What is it?

Launched in April 2024, the Movement Fund offers crowdfunding pledges, grants and resources to improve physical activity opportunities for the people and communities who need it the most.

If your project aligns with our priorities, we can fund a wide range of costs and items up to £15,000.

Our focus is to support projects that match our goal of getting more people active, reducing the number of inactive people and tackling inequalities.

This means our investments support the objectives of our strategy, Uniting the Movement.

At the core of the Movement Fund is its dedication to constant improvement, informed by everything we learn from the projects we fund.

A boy with a prosthetic leg stands on a paddle board, on water. while an instructor kneels behind him

What kind of help does it offer?

If your organisation and project are eligible for funding, and your project aligns with our goals, you could receive up to £15,000.

We provide this funding as either a contribution to a crowdfunding campaign or as a grant.

You can use these to cover a wide range of costs and items that'll help deliver positive change in your community.

Crowdfunding enables organisations to raise funds by setting goals and promoting them to attract supporters who can contribute financially - often using discounts and experiences as rewards for donations.

We’ll let you know how we can support you and your project, along with any tools and resources to help you reach your goals.

Other types of support

The Movement Fund provides support to help organisations access funding and develop their projects.

If it doesn’t meet your needs, we’ve gathered a list of other ways you could generate funding for your organisation or projects.

We also, via Buddle, offer free learning and support resources to inspire and strengthen clubs and community organisations offering sport and physical activity - and the professionals that work with them.

Need some assistance?

If you've any questions about funding or your application, you can contact our funding helpline.

We can support you with information about eligibility, the types of support we provide, who we support, other options available to you and any additional needs you might have.

By phone

For funding enquiries, call 0345 8508 508, Monday-Friday from 8am-5pm.

By email

[email protected]

What we do and don't fund

What we fund

The Movement Fund supports projects that promote physical activity, including active travel, walking, cycling, dance, fitness and sporting activities.

Here are some of the things our funding could cover: 
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- Equipment: support purchasing new or improved equipment that’s required for the delivery of your activity.
- Refurbishing or upgrading facilities: we can support you to improve or create spaces that can provide opportunities to get more people active.
- Developing new capabilities and leadership skills: providing formal training for staff and volunteers to improve their skills and leadership abilities to help improve how you tackle inequalities and get more people active.
- Delivery costs: paying for the people and facilities you need to deliver the project, where these are new costs to your project.
- Emergency relief: helping with costs during a crisis, like damage from extreme weather, that couldn’t have been avoided or insured.
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What we don't fund

We support projects that get more people active and increase sports participation across England.

However, there are certain things we aren’t able to fund:
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- People living outside of England: we focus on activities within England, so costs for activities involving participants living outside England aren't eligible for funding.
- Activities linked to statutory duties: we aren't able to cover costs for activities that are statutory responsibilities, such as funding activities that schools are already required to deliver, like PE classes.
- Projects for private gain: we’re unable to cover projects that solely benefit an individual (e.g. covering membership fees).
- Distribution of grants on our behalf: the Movement Fund doesn't fund organisations that'll redistribute our grants to others.
- Duplicate funding: we don't fund costs already covered by another source of funding. All sources of funding for your project should be declared in the application.
- High-risk sports and activities: we won’t fund projects that are for high-risk sports and activities, unless they're for recognised sports where the organisation/coaches are affiliated with the relevant national governing body. A full list of recognised sports can be found here, those marked with an asterisk are considered high risk and will require affiliation.
- General running or existing staff costs: we’re unable to cover costs for general running of your organisation or existing staff.   
- Recoverable VAT: we're unable to provide funding for VAT costs you can recover.
- Retrospective funding: we can't fund costs already incurred before the award letter date, or projects that have already started before you've received a funding confirmation.
- Children under five years old: projects focused solely on children under five aren't eligible for funding. However, we can support projects where children under five are part of a larger project where the majority of beneficiaries are over the age of five.
- Football Foundation projects: we won’t fund football-only projects where it's possible to receive support from the Football Foundation (e.g. equipment - goal posts or portable floodlights – or facilities). These projects should apply to the Football Foundation.
- Artistic dance activities: we don't fund artistic dance activities where the main purpose is for artistic or performance purposes, rather than for getting people active.
- Projects with distant start dates: we won't fund projects which aren't able to start within six months of the funding award confirmation, or projects which won’t be completed within 12 months of starting.
- Movement Fund awards over £15,000 in a 12-month period: you can make multiple applications to the Movement Fund but we won’t fund a project that would result in an organisation receiving more than £15,000 from the Movement Fund and Small Grants Programme in a 12-month period.
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Our priorities

While we'd love to fund every project that meets our aims, we also receive more applications than we can fund and, as such, must prioritise projects where there's most need.
 
Projects providing opportunities for groups facing barriers to activity are of particular interest, such as:

people living on low incomes
disabled people or those with long-term health conditions
older people
people from culturally diverse communities
pregnant women and parents with very young children
girls aged 5-16
LGBTQ+ people
people who are in foster care
people who provide care without pay.

We're also particularly interested in projects that address the challenges faced by individuals with combined characteristics, such as people with long-term health conditions alongside caring responsibilities – to help assess this we've developed our inequalities metric.

We also give priority to projects in communities where there is a greater need.

To help with this, we use Place Need Classification (PNC) – this combines physical activity data from our Active Lives Surveys, as well as wider social data including the index of multiple deprivation (IMD), community need and health inequalities data to help us understand the needs of an area.

Making a project even better

Alongside your great ideas to get more people active, we love to see projects that also:

Encourage positive experiences in sport and physical activity

Fostering a lasting commitment to an active lifestyle by emphasising enjoyable and meaningful activities. Projects that cater to users' preferences and quality of experiences. 

Involve the community in planning and delivery

Ensuring inclusivity and collaboration. Projects that understand and address local needs and incorporate feedback from potential participants. 

Prioritise environmental sustainability

By aiming for net zero emissions, adapting to extreme weather, promoting climate justice, and enhancing water quality and biodiversity. Find out more about ensuring you organisation is planet-friendly.

Are a good use of public money

By demonstrating a clear financial need, ensuring sustainability of benefits and reaching new organisations that haven't previously received Sport England investment. 

Check if your organisation and project are suitable

If you're unsure whether the Movement Fund would fund your project, you can either use the suitability checker or get in touch with us to talk about your project.

Check your suitability

How to contact us

Get in touch

If you've any questions about funding or your application, you can contact our funding helpline.

We can support you with information about eligibility, the types of support we provide, who we support, other options available to you and any additional needs you might have.

By phone

For funding enquiries, call 0345 8508 508, Monday-Friday from 8am-5pm.

By email

[email protected]

Who can apply

The Movement Fund supports a variety of formally constituted not-for-profit organisation types, including:

sports clubs
charities
local authorities
schools
Community Benefit Societies
not-for-profit companies

To receive funding, you must have at least three non-related trustees or directors who don't live together. And you need to ensure decision making and voting rights are equally distributed between your trustees or directors.

To receive more than £10,000 of funding from us, you need to meet Tier 1 of our governance code.

If you're unsure if you meet these requirements or want advice on how to reach them, please contact us using the details at the bottom of this page - we're here to help.

Who can't apply

We aim to support projects that get more people active and enhance sport and physical activity participation across England.

However, there are certain organisations we don't fund - these are:

for-profit organisations
organisations applying on behalf of another
organisations based outside the United Kingdom
individuals/sole traders.

Are your organisation and project suitable?

If you're unsure whether the Movement Fund would fund your project, you can either use the suitability checker or get in touch with us to talk about your project.

Check your suitability

Need some assistance?

If you've any questions about funding or your application, you can contact our funding helpline.

We can support you with information about eligibility, the types of support we provide, who we support, other options available to you and any additional needs you might have.

By phone

For funding enquiries, call 0345 8508 508, Monday-Friday from 8am-5pm.

By email

[email protected]

What's the process?

Applying for the Movement Fund is easy. Here's how it works:

Get ready

Read our funding guidance - this will give you all the details you need about what kind of projects we support.

If you need more help, you can contact our funding helpline using the contact details at the bottom of this page.

First-time applicants need to create an account on our application portal, using the link below. This lets you save draft applications and come back later to finish them.

Apply for funding

Fill out our application form. We've included a short suitability checker at the beginning to help you check if your project and organisation are a good fit.

For tips on crafting a strong application, see our resources below.

Finally, we'll review your application and get back to you. Typically, this process takes 3-6 weeks but during periods of high demand it might take longer.

What we'll ask you

Before starting your application, take some time to get organised.

Make sure you can explain your project clearly, including who will benefit, why it's needed and how you'll make it happen.

Below is a summary of the information we'll ask for in the application form, and beneath that is a list of the precise questions.

About your organisation

To help us decide if your organisation is a good fit for our funding, we'll need some basic information about your organisation.

Project contact details

To ensure smooth communication, we'll need you to provide contact details for two people we can reach at your organisation. For example, the person leading on the project and the CEO.

About your project

To get a clear picture of your project, we'll ask you for some detailed information about it.
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- We’ll need a name for the project, to help refer to it later, and we’ll need you to provide a brief overview so we can quickly understand what you’re proposing.
- We're eager to hear what drives you to make this project a reality. This is an opportunity to share your passion. For example, you could tell us about the impact - why is this project important to you and the community? How will it address a specific need? You could describe an urgency - why is now the perfect time to launch this project? Are there any current trends or opportunities that make it especially impactful?
- To help us understand the impact our funding will have, we want to know more about how this project will make a difference. For example, how will it benefit the people you want to support? Imagine how participants might feel or what experiences they might have thanks to your project. We want to see a lasting impact, so explain how your project will set them up for continued activity beyond the project itself.
- We also will want to know how you’ll make the project happen. For example, who will be responsible and when and where the activity will take place. This is an opportunity to give us confidence in you and your organisation.
- We’ll ask you to tell us when you plan to start the project and when you plan to finish it. (It’s worth noting that we might be unable to fund your project if you’re not planning to start soon)
- And we’ll want to know how many people you expect to benefit from your project.
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Funding your project

Alongside getting a clear picture of your project, we also need a clear picture of your funding needs.
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- We’ll need you to describe how you'll use any funding you are awarded. We will need an itemised breakdown of the costs involved in your project, as well as how much you’re requesting from us for each item.
- And, we’ll need to understand how your estimated costs have been calculated and how you will fill any gaps in funding for your breakdown.
- Let us know how we might be able to provide any additional support, for example advice or further guidance on the delivery of your project.
- You can attach a detailed budget if you want to.
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Supporting documents

You don't need to send any documents when you apply, but we might ask for some later.
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This could include things like your organisation's constitution, recent accounts, bank statements and safeguarding policies.

If your sport is high risk we will require affiliation documents.

You can also include plans, budgets, letters of support, photos or videos that explain your project.
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Application questions

What we'll ask you

If you'd like to see the questions on the application form before applying, you can find them here.
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About your organisation
1. Which of the following categories best describes your organisation?
1. Are you a registered charity?
1. Are you a limited company?
Project contact details
1. Who should we contact about this project idea?
Tell us more about your project
1. What is the name of your project?
1. Please give us a brief overview of your project
1. Why do you want this project to happen?
1. What do you want to achieve from delivering this project?
1. How will you make it happen?
1. When will your project start?
1. When will your project finish?
1. How many people will benefit in total?
1. Would a photo or video help explain your project?
1. Which sport(s) will your project involve?
1. Are you affiliated to a national governing body?
1. Where will the project take place?
Funding your project
1. Please provide a breakdown of the total cost of your project
1. If project cost is greater than application request:
  Where will the funding you still need come from?
1. If you wish to tell us more about your project costs and how they’ve been calculated, you can do this here.
1. Attach a detailed budget
Before you submit your application
1. Attach supporting documents
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How we collect, use and look after your personal data

We take our responsibility to look after personal data very seriously and we ensure that respecting privacy is at the heart of all we do.

The Movement Fund Privacy Statement can be found here.

Need some assistance?

If you've any questions about funding or your application, you can contact our funding helpline.

We can support you with information about eligibility, the types of support we provide, who we support, other options available to you and any additional needs you might have.

By phone

For funding enquiries, call 0345 8508 508, Monday-Friday from 8am-5pm.

By email

[email protected]

After you apply

We'll get back to you with a decision as soon as possible, usually within 3-6 weeks. During busy times, it might take a bit longer.

Our funding teams appreciate your patience as they review all the applications.

Applications are considered in the order received.

If we need more information we will contact you.

Please understand that our funds are limited, so we can't support every project.

If you're successful

If your application is successful, we'll send you an award agreement by email that'll explain exactly what your crowdfunding pledge or grant is for.

It'll also outline our terms and conditions, as well as our monitoring and evaluation requirements.

As a condition of your award, you'll be required to report on the progress of your project.

This report will be emailed to you at the end of your project.

You can find more information and guidance on the data you'll need to collect, and what the final report will include, using the link below.

If you're unsuccessful

While we can't fund every application, we'll still get in touch with you even if your application is unsuccessful.

We'll provide feedback so you can improve your chances for future success and we’ll also try to offer helpful information and links to support your project's development.

Appealing funding decisions

We understand you might be disappointed if your application isn't successful and there are a few situations where you can appeal our decision.

We'll consider appeals if:

we made a mistake: you believe we didn't follow our procedures fairly or that we made an error in assessing your application
we missed something important: you've evidence showing we misunderstood crucial parts of your application or did not take into account information you gave us
we considered the wrong things: you believe we ignored relevant information or considered irrelevant details in making the decision.

We understand you might disagree with our decision about whether we award funding. However, appeals are reviewed based on whether our decision-making process followed the outlined guidelines, not solely on the outcome itself.

For information on appealing a funding decision, visit our Corporate information page.

Need some assistance?

If you've any questions about funding or your application, you can contact our funding helpline.

We can support you with information about eligibility, the types of support we provide, who we support, other options available to you and any additional needs you might have.

By phone

For funding enquiries, call 0345 8508 508, Monday-Friday from 8am-5pm.

By email

[email protected]

The Movement Fund

What is it?

What kind of help does it offer?

Other types of support

Need some assistance?

By phone

By email

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