skip to content
 
 
 

Funding and fundraising for centres

There are a number of funding opportunities available for riding centres and clubs. Before you consider applying for any funding, though, we recommend you use one or more resources to support you. Club Matters from Sport England, Club Support from Sport Wales and Clubs from Sport Scotland are great resources that will help you to run your organisation, including applying for funding.  

Please note that most of these funding opportunities are open to certain types of organisations such as charities, community interest companies (CIC), community interest organisations (CIO) or community amateur sports clubs (CASC). Funding from the Sports Councils (Sport England, Sport Wales and Sport. Scotland) may also fund companies limited by guarantee with a not-for-profit statement, but you would need to check with any potential funders before applying. 

We're not currently aware of any grant funding being available for limited liability partnerships or sole traders.   

We recommend you take independent business advice in relation to company structure if you're considering making any changes as there are likely to be other impacts to your business. 

Get grants

Get Grants provide practical support, advice, and information to grant fundraisers and grant makers. Providing, free resources, networking events, funding finder and online training courses. The Funding Finder is a free resource for grant fundraisers with information on hundreds of grant funders, including what they fund, how much they give, and how to apply. 

Sported

Become a member of Sported and receive free finance and fundraising support through monthly funding e-bulletins, bespoke funding reports or funding application feedback 

Active partnerships

In England, the local Active Partnership in your county will be able to signpost you to other opportunities in your area. 

For more assistance regarding funding, email participation@bef.co.uk 

Grant Funding for facilities

Sport England

Support for environmental sustainability projects- Sport England are looking to support sports and communities to protect and adapt the environments in which sport and physical activity takes place and work together towards our collective net zero ambitions. 

The three key environmental areas projects should focus on include: reducing energy usage, encouraging responsible travel and reducing waste.

Biffa

The BIFFA Award offers a range of different funding opportunities, aimed primarily at not-for-profit organisations that are based within a 5-15 radius to one of their BIFFA sites, depending on the grant. The most accessible grants are: 

  • Rebuilding biodiversity 
  • Community buildings 
  • Recreation 
  • Cultural facilities 

Veolia

Veolia offers a Community Grant Scheme aimed at not-for-profit organisation of between £10,000 - £75,000 to create or improve buildings or outside spaces for the benefit of the community.  Organisations would need to check to see if their project site is located in an area that Veolia fund. 

Funding for delivery of sport 

Below we have outlined some of the other funding opportunities that are available for sporting projects.  This may include facilities/equipment (capital), but also include other costs (revenue).  This is by no means exhaustive and appropriate funding often depends on the nature of the project you'd like funded.  

Sport England open funds

Sport England have a number of funding opportunities available, aligning with their Uniting the Movement strategy to help people get involved or return to sport and physical activity. 

Small Grants Programme

The Sport England Small Grants Programme uses Lottery funding to make awards of between £300 and £15,000 to not-to-profit organisations aiming to help young people and adults take up, and keep, a sporting habit for life. 

Applications for this type of funding are open until 31 March 2024.

Active Together

Sport England's Active Together is a £7.5 million fund, with up to £10,000 in match funding, as part of a support package to help clubs and organisations set up and run crowdfunding campaigns related to the ongoing impact of Covid-19, as well as the emerging energy, cost of living or other local crises – such as adverse weather. 

Regional

For funding opportunities in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, click on the links below: 

Sport Scotland
Sport Wales
Sport Northern Ireland

The National Lottery Community Fund

This fund offers a range of different opportunities, aimed primarily at not-for-profit organisations. The most accessible grants are...

  • Partnerships – Funding available for over £10,000
  • Awards For All – Funding available for up to £10,000
  • Reaching Communities  – Funding available for projects over £10,000
  • Equestrian related grants

For more information, click here.

Comic Relief  

Through Sport Relief, Comic Relief offers a range of different funding opportunities aimed primarily at not-for-profit organisations.

Children in Need

Children in Need offers a range of different funding opportunities aimed primarily at not-for-profit organisations.

Grant funding for coaches

UK Coaching provides advice and information about funding for coaches, as well as a comprehensive list of funding opportunities.  

The British Horse Society  aims to increase the number of qualified BHS Coaches across the UK, from those individuals currently working at BHS Approved Centres. The BHS Career Transition Fund is designed to support individuals who have obtained BHS Stage 1 (or Equivalent), to train for BHS qualifications at Stage 2 and Stage 3. 

The Association of British Riding Schools Jeffress Scholarship Trust considers awarding scholarships to dedicated coaches, able-bodied or disabled, who are working in the equine industry, either full or part time/self-employed. The bursary is for training to improve existing coaching ability. The Trust runs two training cycles per year (normally March to September and September to March).

Crowd Funding

It's possible to galvanise the support of your local community and supporters to raise funds for specific projects through crowdfunding such as Crowdfunder. The idea is to use the internet and social media to collect relatively small amounts of money from a large number of people, usually in return for incentives and rewards.  

There are a number of organisations who offer this service. You'll need to select an organisation that meets your needs, so carefully read about what they offer in relation to the percentage of the money raised that they take. 

Additional fundraising support

British Equestrian

As part of the delivery of the Together Fund project funded by Sport England to help centres with their recovery, growth and development post-Covid, BEF has collated a number of useful resources.

See below for Get Grants recent presentations on fundraising, aimed at charities and community groups: 

One of the key ways of providing evidence of need for projects within a funding application is to include externally verifiable quote or statistics. View Get Grants Evidence of Need document here: Evidence of Need Handout

View a list of current funders here: Funding Pots

The British Horse Society

As a BHS Approved Centre employers benefit from: 

  • Regular regional updates highlighting any funding opportunities available.  
  • Coffee mornings focusing on successful bid writing.  
  • Advice available from business consultant and accountant around tax and legal structure and how this can optimise funding if appropriate.  

ABRS+ 

ABRS+ holds a consolidated list of funding opportunities across the UK that organisations can bid for; in most cases, you will need to be a not-for-Profit or Charity.

They also offer a number of webinars and workshops around funding and fundraising.