A £20 million Community Emergency Fund package will help Sport England’s partners, clubs and community organisations cope with the short and long-term impact of the pandemic. It will be opened immediately for clubs and community organisations to bid into and grants between £300 and £10,000 are available.

This fund aims to deliver immediate funding to those most in need. It’s specifically targeted at organisations, including those not currently supported by Sport England, who have a role in supporting the nation to be active but who are experiencing short-term financial hardship or the ceasing of operations due to the impact of coronavirus.

The types of organisations eligible include local sports clubs forced to close at short notice but who are facing ongoing costs around maintenance and utility bills, and voluntary and community sector organisations who deliver or enable sport and physical activity.

A specific example might be a grant to support a local boxing club pay costs for their facility when no activity is taking place, or a grant to support a league who have paid for equipment to run a competition which has now been cancelled.

Other funding support includes:

• A £5 million pot for existing partners to bid into if they’re facing specific financial difficulty
• An additional £55 million to support our sector during an ongoing period of restrictions, to fund new and innovative ways to keep people active and, when the period of restrictions is over, to help organisations get back to business and adjust to a different environment
• A £115 million rollover of current funding into 2021/22 to give long term certainty to over 100 well established partners who play a vital role in the delivery of sport and physical activity in England.