London Sport funding services to help organisations to survive and thrive post covid-19
London Sport has influenced an incredible £1.6m into the physical activity and sport sector in 2019/20, Specialist Advisor for Funding Mel Antao looks at the success of recent covid-19 funds and how it's directly improving Londoners' lives.
When the time is right to look back and review our responses to the covid-19 crisis, I hope that the speed and flexibility with which funders reacted will be noted as a huge positive.
Back in April, I wrote about how funders were quick to react to the needs of the civil society sector - which includes physical activity and sport - and I hope that their hard work is already paying dividends (no pun intended).
The London Community Response Fund, a collaboration of more than 50 funders, has already awarded more than £11m in grants (to over 1,100 applications) to support the capital’s community organisations during the covid-19 pandemic.
This is an astonishing achievement in such a short amount of time.
And the demand for grants in this current climate is far from shrinking.
The Coronavirus Community Support Fund run by the National Lottery Community Fund received hundreds of applications when it launched on 22 May and broke the Lottery’s record for the most number of applications received in a single day.
Sport England’s Community Emergency Fund has received more applications than the organisation did across all its other funding steams.
Moreover, I suspect that funding will continue to be a major issue with respect to the covid-19 lockdown and the gradual easing of restrictions which we hope will continue throughout the summer.
Which is why I was delighted to learn, with funding still high on the agenda, that London Sport has influenced £1.6m through our free Check and Challenge service into the sector during the 2019/20 financial year.
From a professional and personal perspective, I know how tight every penny can be for the grassroots physical activity and sport community.
As such, I’m immensely proud of this figure and know it has already made a major impact to the organisations concerned. It has, and will continue to, change Londoners’ lives for the better.
But our work doesn’t stop there!
We continue to update our website with regards to covid-19 funding opportunities for the sector as well as offering comprehensive advice and guidance on our dedicated funding page.
We’ll continue to offer a free check and challenge service to those struggling with their applications to boost their chances of success when submitting a funding or grant application.
And funding remains a key part of our enhancing Consultancy offer. Our services can help you survive and thrive through and beyond covid-19 with identification of opportunities, effective applications, evidencing need and much, much more.
London Sport are working, alongside partners, to ensure the physical activity and sport sector in the capital is ready and available for all Londoners during and after this pandemic.
