From The Sideline
Welcome to 'From The Sideline', the new feature showcasing successful funding stories from Derbyshire Clubs!
We know how difficult it is to run a football club, and that's what we know it's important to share news around funding opportunities in order to help your club thrive.
In this new series of articles, you will hear from clubs who have benefitted from the funding schemes we have helped them to access, in particular, our Club Retention Fund.
The Derbyshire FA Club Retention Fund was released in line with the Retain The Game funding scheme. It was designed to help Derbyshire's male teams further, with £300 per team available for clubs who applied and fit the set criteria.
For the first article, we asked Lemonbomb FC, who play in the Alfreton and District Sunday League, to talk about their experience to help raise awareness of the possibilities that are available for our clubs.
How has the Club Retention Fun benefitted your club?
The retention fund has enabled the club to put some frustrations to bed. Securing sponsorship at adult football level is very difficult, you try to do all the right things as a club, work closely with Derbyshire County FA to achieve FA Charter Standard and get actively involved with the Respect campaigns to name two good work streams, but the day to day running and funding falls squarely on the club shoulders and getting knock backs when trying to secure private sponsorship can be very disheartening.
What has the club spent the funding on?
We have been able to put the funding towards buying a new kit, which was badly needed as our last kit was a second hand kit from another club. We had managed to save up an amount ourselves but the retention fund money pushed us towards the total amount we needed. The new kit has given the team its own identity and helped instil a new togetherness, which can only be a positive.
Do you have any advice for clubs looking to apply for funding pots like the Club Retention Fund?
The only advice I can give is that unless you try to access funding pots, you will never know! It can be a bit daunting with all the information some need but the Derbyshire FA can always lend a helping hand if clubs aren't sure on some of the fields to fill in, or even just to explain how the process works.
How have Derbyshire County FA helped your club?
Without their help, we wouldn't have even known these funding pots were available! Once I had spoken to the Derbyshire FA and understood what the acceptance criteria was, the rest was fairly straight forward and the whole process was quickly dealt with and explained every step of the way.