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Get help to find what you need

Club Matters offers support and guidance to clubs in a wide range of topics.

To help find what you need, select the option below which best describes your current situation.

Back

  • Get started >

    My club is new or in the process of getting set-up

  • Keep it up >

    My club wants to maintain what we have and check we're doing the best we can

  • Get back on track >

    My club is struggling in one or more areas and is looking for some specific guidance

  • Raise the bar >

    My club is keen to develop and wants to improve our current offer

  • >

    My club wants to achieve Clubmark accreditation and/or I want to understand more about Clubmark

Get started

If your club is new or in the process of being set-up, we recommend exploring our Start a Club section.

This section is split into the following topics:

  • Things to think about before starting your club
  • The rules and structure your new club will adopt
  • The facilities and funding you will need in place
  • Raising awareness of your club
Go

For further information on the support available across Club Matters, visit our Get Started with Club Matters section.

Keep it up

If your club wants to maintain what it has, or check you’re doing the best you can, we recommend exploring our main topic areas in more detail.

Sign-up to workshops which cover key topic areas such as business planning, marketing, club structures, finances and tax.

Register for free for full access to our resources

Click on these boxes to access toolkits, online modules and interactive content. Have a look around to see which areas your club could benefit from.

For further information on the support available across Club Matters, visit our Get Started with Club Matters section.

Get back on track

My club is struggling on one or more areas and is looking for specific guidance.

We need help growing or maintaining our membership levels We need to manage our finances better We are looking for guidance on applying for funding We need more volunteers to help run our club We are unsure what good governance really means or how we can improve We don’t know if our club’s legal structure is right for us We need support with our facilities or lack of facilities We want to better understand our members and what they want from the club

Top Tips

1. Think about the best way to market your club to reach potential new members

2. Make sure your club is welcoming and inclusive to appeal to new members

3. Make your club experience extraordinary, so that your current members want to stay

Links

Check out the following pages for specific guidance:

Marketing Inclusivity Members and Participants

Top Tips

1. Get into a routine of checking your club’s financial position and keeping records

2. Plan for the future and develop a budget, to help you keep costs on track

3. Get your income from a variety of sources, to stay sustainable

Links

Check out the following pages for specific guidance:

Managing Money Budgeting Generating Income

Top Tips

1. Create a clear club development plan to show funders that you have realistic goals

2. Research the best funding for your club

3. Don’t forget the other ways to raise funds for your club, including fundraising, forming partnerships and gaining sponsorship

Links

Check out the following pages for specific guidance:

Club Development Plan Funding Guidance Generating Income

Top Tips

1. Look beyond your current volunteer base - don’t just rely on those who already have a link to the club

2. Convey the wider benefits of volunteering, such as improving a CV or boosting self-confidence

3. Improve the experience of your current volunteers to reduce the risk of them leaving

Links

Check out the following pages for specific guidance:

Finding Volunteers Developing Volunteers Keeping Volunteers

Top Tips

1. Governance is all about having the right people, policies, procedures and structure in place at your club

2. Protect your club’s reputation by creating, communicating and following a robust set of policies

3. Have an effective committee with clear roles and responsibilities, skills and experiences

Links

Check out the following pages for specific guidance:

Governance Policies and Procedures Effective Committees

Top Tips

1. Explore all the options available and consider seeking legal advice

2. Incorporating your club creates a separate legal entity and protects your committee and members from entering into contracts in their own name

3. Adopting charitable status or becoming a Community Amateur Sports Club (CASC) can provide benefits such as tax relief for your club

Links

Check out the following pages for specific guidance:

Club structures Incorporated Charitable Status CASC

Top Tips

1. Carry out risk assessments for the facilities you use

2. Hiring or leasing facilities is often the simplest solution if you only need to access them for a few hours each week

3. If you own your facilities, make sure you are clued up on business rates and energy saving measures to keep costs down

Links

Check out the following pages for specific guidance:

Club Facilities Risk Assessment Managing Costs

Top Tips

1. The way people participate in sport is changing, you need to make sure your club is flexible and can adapt to modern lifestyles and demands

2. Seek feedback from your members

3. Every club can improve, keep trying to make your club’s experience even better by creating and following an action plan

Links

Check out the following pages for specific guidance:

Understanding Your Members Understanding Your Offer Delivering a Great Experience Being Consistently Brilliant

Raise the bar

If your club is keen to develop and you want to improve your current offer, we recommend using our Club Improvement Tool.

The tool prompts you to think about how your club is performing now and where you would like it to be in the future. Based on your responses, the tool directs you to specific resources to help you reach your goals.

Go

For further information on the support available across Club Matters, visit our Get Started with Club Matters section.

Clubmark

Clubmark is Sport England’s universally acknowledged, cross-sport accreditation scheme.

If your club wants to achieve Clubmark accreditation or you want to find out more, we recommend exploring our Clubmark section.

Go

For further information on the support available across Club Matters, visit our Get Started with Club Matters section.

Club Matters Sport England > Club Matters Workshops

Club Matters Workshops

Club Matters workshops are short training sessions, funded by Sport England and delivered across the country by Club Matters facilitators in a range of specific topics. The sessions will develop your skills, improve your knowledge and ultimately help you develop your club. They are for groups of at least 4 clubs and build upon the content of the online resources, but also include case studies, topical issues, exercises and a discussion section. 

Workshops

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The workshops typically last approximately 2 hours and like all Club Matters support, workshops are open to anyone involved with a community sports club. The topics covered will mostly be relevant to those who have responsibility for, or involvement in running their club, either now or in the future. We encourage more than one person from a club to attend so that knowledge and business skills can be shared within their club.

The current topics include:
Club Structures

Club Structures

Understanding the Options for Club Structures - Building your club for success

It is important that sports clubs take the time to explore different club structures. By attending this workshop you will gain an understanding of what structure is right for your club to enable success and stability.

This workshop covers:
  • The importance of your club structure
  • An overview of different legal structures
  • Top tips for becoming incorporated
  • Selecting the best status for your club, including CASC, charities and CIO’s
  • Getting to grips with gift aid
Marketing Strategy

Marketing Strategy

Developing a Marketing Strategy - Reach out & attract with impact

With so many marketing options out there it can leave you in a muddle. This workshop will guide you through the marketing minefield and help you attract new members, raise funds or enhance your club’s profile. Launch your marketing mission today.

This workshop covers:
  • Shaping up your marketing strategy- what to consider
  • Fit to follow framework - to develop your club’s strategy
  • Methods to motivate - considering different marketing options
  • Evaluating your efforts - focus your energy effectively

 

Business Planning

Business Planning

Developing a Business Plan - Securing a brighter future

Do you have a dream for your club but struggle to make progress? This workshop will help you put together a simple yet effective business plan for your club to help you plan a brighter future and take real steps to reach your goals. Stop dreaming, start doing.

This workshop covers:
  • What a business plan can do for your club
  • Key players in developing a business plan
  • A simple framework to support your planning
  • Top tips of what to include in your plan and common pitfalls to watch out for
Club Participant Experience

Club Participant Experience

Club Experience – How to give your club members and customers a great experience​

The world is changing, how do you ensure your club is chosen over all the other opportunities that are competing for people’s leisure time? By making it a place people want to keep on coming back to. To do this you need to understand what existing and potential members want from your club and deliver a great experience to them. This workshop explores how you can do this.​​

This workshop covers:​
  • Why delivering a great experience for in your club is important​
  • How to listen to and respond to the needs of the people in your club and potential members​
  • How to consistently deliver a great club experience​
Club Volunteer Experience

Club Volunteer Experience

Club Volunteer Experience – giving your club volunteers a great experience​

Clubs often find themselves short of volunteers, they way that people volunteer and the time they have to give is not the same as it used to be. Ensuring volunteers feel recognised, rewarded and part of the team is essential.​​

This workshop covers:
  • Develop a positive culture of volunteering within a club environment
  • Identify how to develop the volunteer’s experience by assessing the value of club volunteer
  • Develop the volunteer experience by identifying top tips in recruiting, retaining and rewarding new and existing volunteers
  • Develop an action plan to improve the volunteer experience within a Sports club environment
  • Where to find out more information to help improve the volunteer experience​

 

These workshops will be available in the spring, for updates and information on their release sign up to the club matters newsletter or follow club matters on either Facebook or Twitter.

What clubs have said about workshops:

 

Great workshop which will help us to look to the future and provide long term stability and growth for generations.”

 

Very interesting and informative session. Really made us think about the best way forward for our club and consider the different options open to us.”

 

Very thought provoking. I will be meeting with my committee to review this information ASAP.”

Interested in organising a workshop?
Click on the button below to find out more:
Organising a workshop

Would you like to attend a workshop?
Click on the button below for our schedule:
Workshop schedule