Gillette celebrates the announcement of ‘Great Start’ coaching programme for 2013

 

Gillette has announced its ‘Great Start’ programme which celebrates the role of coaching and supports coaching excellence by offering coaching grants awarded through the scheme. The announcement marks the second year of Gillette’s partnership with sports coach UK sports coach UK is a beneficiary organisation of Gillette’s ‘Great Start’ programme and is not affiliated to the IOC or London 2012, re-affirming the brand’s promise to help support coaching development and invest in sporting legacy beyond London 2012.

 

The grants are available to both aspiring and amateur coaches who wish to further their qualifications. Applications for grants open from the 9 May 2013 via the brands Facebook page www.facebook.com/GilletteUK. Gillette is also continuing to supporting the UK Coaching Awards hosted by sports coach UK which celebrate the role of coaching in encouraging participation, performance and excellence. As part of the Great Start programme Gillette is offering people the chance to nominate a coach who deserves recognition for their work for the UK Community Coach of the Year Award.

 

England Rugby League Head Coach Steve McNamara said: “The brilliant thing about the ‘Great Start’ programme is that it recognises the importance of supporting coaching in the UK and the integral role it plays in nurturing the future sporting talent of Great Britain.  Without great coaches there would be no great athletes and it is essential that we continue to invest in coaching to ensure our future champions get the right training and support.”

 

Gillette brand manager, Jared Regan, commented: “Gillette has a rich heritage in sport and we appreciate the crucial role that both amateur and professional coaches play in the success of sport in the UK. Coaching is the sporting embodiment of a great start and we’re absolutely delighted to be able to sponsor these grants for a second year and give more people the opportunity to feel at their best by giving back to their community through coaching.”

 

sports coach UK CEO Dr Tony Byrne said: “Gillette understands that without the tireless efforts of volunteer coaches and educators, the next generation would not be inspired to pursue careers in sport and new talent would remain undiscovered.  We also know that the cost of gaining a qualification is seen as a major barrier by many aspiring coaches, so we’re delighted that Gillette’s Great Start programme will enable more people to develop their skills”.

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How a 6 stage marketing campaign can increase activity

At Make Sport Fun we recommend using the following 6 stage approach to running your marketing campaigns. It’s proven itself time after time to be an effective way of increasing participation.

We started using this model after researching dozens and dozens of activity marketing campaigns, we found that one of the common themes amongst the successful campaigns was that they all had six stages:

1.    Plan your campaign – who is your target audience, what activities appeal to them, how many people do you need to get more active? What marketing budget do you need?
2.    Set up your campaign set up your website, build a database of where to get active, set up ways for people to register with you.
3.    Recruit – Find people who want to get more active and encourage them to register their details. Think about using PR, advertising, Search Engine Optimisation, Pay Per Click, Direct Mail. Social Media and referrals.
4.    Intervene – call the people that have registered, support them in becoming more active and find them somewhere local to do an activity.
5.    Active participation – People try the activity on their own, and hopefully have a good experience
6.    Review – Phone people back at 1, 3, 6, and 12; months address any barriers and issues and offer further motivation and support.

It works because it covers everything you need to do as part of your campaign and it is such a straightforward model to follow.  It takes everything back to basics and ensures that you don’t omit to include any important elements.

We’re currently running an activity marketing campaign in Greenwich – Greenwich Get Active – by following the 6 stage model.

Plan your campaign – We identified our target market which were living within the borough of Greenwich and worked with our partners at NHS Greenwich to understand how many people we were wanting get more active. We used the segmentation mapping tool (http://segments.sportengland.org/) to identify who to target. We used the communication plans from the promotingactivity site started to identify the messages and communication channels our audience would respond to. This enabled us to identify the marketing budget we would need to assign.

Set up your campaign – We created and set up a bespoke CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system, an activity database and a website. This enabled us to help people to search for a local activity in the area to take part in. We made it as easy as possible for people to sign up by setting up a text number, email address, and phone number for registration.

Recruit– We worked with a local community trust, who ran a 9-week roadshow for the campaign, produced and displayed posters; placed adverts in newspapers, on the tube and at bus stops; ran Google Ads to target people searching for where to do activity. We researched the words people were searching for on the internet and optimised our website. Over 3,000 people registered and gave us their permission to communicate and market to them.

Intervene – We communicated to all the people that responded. Again – we worked with the local community trust who have called everyone and helped them find the ideal activity for them from our database.

Active Participation – People went off and tried the activity we’d help them find. This included over 1000 possible local activities from our database such as walking, cycling, gym, dance and sports clubs.

Review – We followed up with people by telephone to motivate them to continue their activities. We congratulated them on their successes and didn’t judge them if they were struggling. Instead we found ways to get them back on track; including other activities for them to try. This ensured that if anyone had dropped out they were more likely to start up again. We also used a newsletter, automated texts and emails to engage people and keep them interested in keeping active.

Results
Over 3,000 people have registered to say that they want to get more active. And according to our research from previous campaigns over 50% of them will become more active.

For further information about running campaigns download our FREE guide to marketing from http://www.formstack.com/forms/?1309487-UPrIByBlEG.

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Does your club/charity claim Gift Aid?

From 22 April 2013, charities and Community Amateur Sports Clubs (CASCs) can sign up to make repayment claims electronically.

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The new service, Charities Online, is being introduced in response to customer feedback. It will make repayment claims faster and easier by filing online. The current R68(i) print and post repayment form will be replaced by three options for making claims.

These guides tell you what Charities Online means for your organisation and how to prepare for it.  Simply visit:

 

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About Trustfunding

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Charitable trusts are bodies set up to do good. Money – capital – is invested and the income is spent each year. Trustees are responsible for the money and for how it is given away.

Charitable trusts in Britain give away something like £750m a year. They get tax concessions on their money because they are “charitable” – the Inland Revenue has to be satisfied that they use their income for purposes that are charitable in law. In practice this means that most trusts will only give grants to registered charities.

On average, charitable trusts give something to one in twenty or so of the appeals they receive. Many trusts are limited as to the geographic area they can make grants to. Usually trusts give smallish amounts (even trusts with large incomes) to local appeals – £50 or £200, not thousands. And often giving by trusts is one-off and for capital, not revenue. Trusts may help you buy the sand-pit for the community centre, they’re less likely to help you heat it or pay the salary of a worker.

There are exceptions. A few trusts are more interested in funding running costs or salaries of projects.

Trusts don’t have to publicise what they do, what sort of things they give money for, how you apply – or even that they exist at all. Some are very open about what they do, some aren’t.

Many trusts meet only once or twice a year. You may need to get applications in well in advance of meetings.

Most trusts don’t have application forms. In these cases you need to write a letter. Make sure it looks as if you’ve written to them personally; if your letter looks like a circular you stand less chance of success.

It’s worth spending time making sure you’ve got information on the trusts you intend to approach which is as accurate, up-to-date and comprehensive as possible. It’s a waste of your energy and effort writing the wrong letter to the wrong funders and trusts are understandably frustrated when they receive applications from projects which fall outside their remit.

For help on applying to charitable trusts please speak to us today.

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Grant Funding Organisation Checklist

To ensure your group is ready to apply for funding, 4Grants have produced a checklist which you may find useful.

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About your group

  •     Does your group have a constitution or set of rules?
  •     Does your group have a Management Committee?
  •     Does your Management Committee have a Chair?
  •     Does your Management Committee have a Treasurer?
  •     Does your Management Committee have a Secretary?
  •     Does your group have a bank or building society account,in its own name?
  •     Does the bank account have at least 3 signatories?
  •     Does your group have a clear understanding of its aims and objectives?
  •     Is your group clear about the services it provides?

What kind of Group are you? What legal structure does your group have?

  •     Unincorporated association (group, club, or society)?
  •     Registered Charity?
  •     Company Limited by Guarantee?
  •     CIC?
  •     CIO?
  •     Are you branch of a national organisation without your own constitution?

About your groups policies and procedures:

  •     Do you keep minutes of all committee meetings?
  •     Do you have systems in place to record income and expenditure?
  •     Do you have relevant policies e.g. : Health and safety? Equal opportunities?
  •     If you have employees, do you have Employment Policies?
  •     Does your group have insurance to cover its legal responsibilities?

About your group’s funding:

  •     Do you have a fundraising plan?
  •     Do you have a fundraising group?
  •     Does your group have an independent referee?
  •     Does your group identify a named person to act as a point of contact for bids?

Many grants are complicated and time consuming, 4Grants can take away the hassle and apply our knowledge and experience to your funding bids.  Contact us today for further information.

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11 Things That Funders Look For

4Grants – 11 Tips to help with grant funding

1. Need:
Funders want projects that meet a genuine need, and for you to have evidence of that need, they’ll also want to know exactly how their money will help improve things.

2. Clarity of purpose:
Ensure that your aims are clearly described. This means more than just listing your goals: funders will also want to know how you intend to achieve them. We see a lot of general statements and too much explanation of the need for the work, rather than explanations of the work itself.

3. A measure of success:
How will you measure the impact of your work? What would constitute a positive outcome? Most funders will want you to address these questions in your application – if you don’t know what success looks likes, then you’re unlikely to instil confidence in those holding the purse strings.

4. A realistic budget:
Budgets should be realistic, transparent, and take into account any costs that might be incurred in the course of your project or work. Funders will also want to know that you can do your sums. “Ensure that your figures add up – check and triple check!

5. Competence:
Proving that you can deliver is crucial,  Make sure that your goals are realistic, and demonstrate competence by showing what you’ve achieved in the past.

6. Acknowledgement of potential problems:
Acknowledging where the risks lie, and more importantly what you’ve done to mitigate them, shows you understand that you’re operating in the real world and you’ve thought through what you are planning.

7. Vision:
An application is an opportunity to communicate the distinctiveness of your work, your values, your passion, your success and your potential.  Think about the competition you’re likely to be up against: why should your organisation be the one that receives funding?

8. Flexibility:
That said, if you operate in a particularly competitive area, don’t underestimate the virtues of potential collaboration. Funders may be impressed if you demonstrate that you’re willing to consider working in partnership with other organisations in order to deliver best value, and you may consequently stand more chance of funding success.

9. An exit strategy:
Even if one isn’t specifically required. If you make no mention of what you will do when their money runs out, [funders] will assume either that you haven’t thought about it, or that your default exit strategy is to come back to them and ask for more – neither of which are likely to impress them.

10. Attention to detail:
Answer all the questions and provide all the necessary documentation. If a stamped addressed envelope then send one. Ensure that your final application is free from spelling and grammatical errors.

11. One more tip:
Always make sure your application is in the week before the deadline, it looks much better.
 

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Do active video games increase physical activity?

Active video games have been on the market for some time now, but how useful are they as a tool to increase physical activity, reduce sedentary behaviour and aid rehabilitation?

This latest evidence briefing from the BHF National Centre summarises what is known about active video gaming (known as exergaming) from both laboratory and ‘real life’ research. It also provides recommendations on the use of exergaming as a physical activity intervention.

Key findings from the research evidence include:
•    Most exergames are considered to be a light-to-moderate intensity activity for both adults and children.     
•    In older adults, most games are likely to be a light intensity activity.
•    Exergames provide an alternative to sedentary behaviours, but they only contribute a small amount to daily moderate-to-vigorous physical activity.
•    More high quality research is needed to assess exergaming’s potential for providing long term changes to levels of physical activity and sedentary behaviour.
 

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How Can I Increase my Chances of Receiving Further Funding?

How can I increase my chances of receiving further funding?

1. Complete monitoring or progress reports fully and in a timely fashion.
One leading funder told me recently that less than 30% of their grantees provide their progress reports on time.

2. Be prepared to go the extra mile.
See getting the money initially as a good start, but work to maintain the relationship, keep your end of the bargain, and look beyond reporting the operational outcomes of your funded work. Communicate how the work contributes to the shared bigger picture/vision that you both have.

3. Be truthful in your feedback, even if things haven’t worked out as well as you’d hoped.
Honesty and a positive commitment to learn from the grant will keep you in a funder’s mind.

4. Make it personal.
If you can, develop a personal relationship with someone in the trust or foundation,
Get in touch well in advance of when you need more funding to find out what their current aims are – don’t just go to them in a crisis.

5. Say thank you.
Acknowledging the support of funders in your own publicity and promotional material is vital.

www.4grants.co.uk
 

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4Grants Top Grant Funding Tips

4Grants have produced this quick guide to help with grant applications.

The dos

  • READ the guidelines. If you don’t meet a funder’s eligibility criteria, don’t waste your time applying.
  • Do learn as much as you can about a funder before applying and tailor your application to fit. Generic “cut and paste” appeals for support are unlikely to impress.
  • Do remember that there may be restrictions on how funds can be spent. Ensure that you’re clear about all the terms and conditions to which a grant might be subject.
  • Do seek help if you need it. Most funding bodies will be happy to provide assistance if you’re unclear about an aspect of the application process, and many provide detailed guidance on how to apply on their websites or in other literature.
  • Do get someone unconnected with your organisation to read your application. If they can’t understand the case you’re making, you’ll need to think again.
  • Do keep a copy of your application and supporting materials. Not only is this essential if there’s a query or problem with your bid, it will save time when it comes to making your next application.
  • Do keep a file of “supporting evidence”: press cuttings, background research, comments from service users and so on. All can play a vital part in making your case.
  • Do learn from unsuccessful applications. Not all funding bodies will be able to provide feedback, it’s always worth asking.

The don’ts

  • Don’t send masses of documentation. You don’t want your case to be obscured by irrelevant material.
  • Don’t be greedy. While it may be tempting to ask for the largest permissible sum, it’s rarely advisable.
  • Funders may be wary if you ask for the maximum amount without showing how you arrived at that figure and precisely why it’s needed.
  • Don’t forget that processing an application takes time. If your project is time-sensitive, be realistic about how soon any funding might arrive.
  • Don’t play the numbers. Better a few very well targeted applications than blanket appeals.

4Grants – We are always here to provide all the support and help that your organisation requires.

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