Grant Fundraising Catalogue

Funding an adaptive/para program is a good-news/bad-news situation. The good news is that fundraising for adaptive equipment is some of the easiest fundraising a boat club will do. The bad news is that adaptive rowing needs lots of funding for specialised equipment which are expensive due to their limited production numbers (and second-hand units rarely become available).

But let’s focus on the good news here. Charities and businesses are typically focused on helping disadvantage and disabled individuals to provide support for the extra challenges they face. For starters, the video above of Norfolk RC’s fundraising efforts provides a useful case study which includes adaptive rowing (Norfolk is one of the most prominent adaptive programmes in the far east of England).

LOCAL BUSINESSES – Very often local businesses will support community activities as a part of their corporate responsibility and a bit of PR/marketing.

• BRANDING – In the past, rules were quite strict about what sort of branding you could put on a boat in a competition (especially some of the more elite one), but those rules have relaxed considerably in recent years. In fact, I was at the World Championships, ostensibly one of the strictest competitions for protocol, and many countries brought boats with prominent branding on them (and no marshals batted an eye). Offering to put a company’s logo on the side of a boat they have contributed to is a great way to provide something back to the donor. As boats often are in service for 10-20 years, their logo will get years of visibility.
• BACKSTORY – Years ago, corporate (most large corporate) marketing departments specifically shied away from sponsoring anything to do with disability as they perversely felt that connection with disability would make customers associate their product with being “disabled” or impaired. Thankfully, such archaic and misguided notions of brand dynamics have long been discarded. Actually, in recent years, marketing trends have shifted to more heartfelt, personal stories and triumph over adversity is perhaps the most popular themes for campaigns. High profile competitions of the Paralympics and the Invictus Games (especially in the UK) have made disability sexy from a marketing perspective. And that means bigger opportunities to secure financial support for adaptive sport.

CHARITIES AND GRANT FOUNDATIONS – A wide range of charities and grant foundations provide funding opportunities targeted at sport and disability. Sometimes their remit is further focused on areas like young people or geographic areas. Over the years, I’ve done a fair amount of research into the charities and grants for which adaptive rowing applications might be suited. With the help of Maidenhead and Stratford-upon-Avon who have been successful along with Marlow in a number of applications, I have collated a list of some actual adaptive rowing grants for examples (table directly below). At the bottom, I have added another table which for one reason or another the source wasn’t appropriate to my current needs to I wasn’t successful in my application, but other clubs might have more success.

If you have any other examples of funding your programme has received or know of any other sources, please let me know in the comments or by email and I will add them to this catalogue (thanks!).

Mark Dewdney, Coach and Coordinator of the Stratford-upon-Avon adaptive/pararowing wrote in to note that many towns have local Mayor Fund charities specifically to provide modest donation (eg.  up to £1000) for various causes and initiatives in their community.

FUNDING EXAMPLES FOR UK ADAPTIVE PROGRAMMES

OTHER POTENTIONAL FUNDING SOURCES FOR UK ADAPTIVE ROWING