Sponsorship or financial support for young athletes

[bethjake]

Hello, I have come across this forum whilst researching for funding for a talented Athlete - My Son, who is a climber. I have searched the archives but have bitten the bullet to see if anyone can offer any advice.
My son has worked his way through the ranks and gained a place on the GB climbing team this year. In order to continue at this level, we need to find some financial support. Despite being an olympic sport form 2020 there is very little support for youngsters.
I have recently found this letter that my son has written himself (which he left open on the family PC!) He has also qualified as a lifeguard and is working hard to save to help towards costs.

Dear Sir/Madam,


I appreciate you may receive many letters such as mine, but as a local lad trying to achieve a sporting goal in a relatively unusual sport, I though, if you were looking for a young person to support, I might be the one.

My name is Jake and I have just completed my GCSE’s at XXX school for boys. My sport, passion and life is climbing. I have been climbing since I was 8 years old and have progressed through the junior and youth ranks to this year where I gained a place on the GB climbing team.

Due to lack of facilities, until recently, I have trained 3 times a week in reading, however due to timing, cost and studies I have been training alone with my dad belaying or spotting at High Sports in Brighton and Boulder Brighton.

This year I have been selected to attend the European cup events in Austria, France, Holland, Portugal and Bulgaria, all of which must be self-funded due to the lack of funding for the sport (despite becoming an Olympic sport in 2020). My parents work tirelessly to support and attend the events but it is becoming more and more difficult.

I hope to keep my place on team GB in the future but now need to help my parents fund the opportunities I have been given. Therefore, I am turning to a well-known and trusted local company like XXXX to see if you would consider assisting me in achieving my goals whether through a donation or a more formal sponsorship.

Thank you for taking time to read my letter and I hope to hear from you.

If anyone has any guidance or suggestions on where to try, we would be extremely grateful.

 

[Chris Willman]

Morning,

Firstly kudos to your son for clearly being awesome and pushing himself to be great, you should certainly be proud - particularly with the sentiment of his letter.

So in response to your question, firstly you've got - as you likely already know - a tough job on your hands in finding funding to support him. This doesn't mean you can't do it by any means or that it's not worth pushing (quite the opposite) to make it happen, just that'll it be a tough slog.

In my day job i receive quite a few approaches of a similar nature each year where folks are requesting funding in return for some sort of partnership. Even though i work for a multi-billion dollar company, finding money to look at things like this and what we'd class as CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) programmes is hard to do and often sadly a long way off the radar. This doesn't mean to say it's always a no, but it's likely worth knowing that even for a big company it's not massively easy to look at these sort of things.

My suggestions to you would be as follows to try and maximise chances of success:

1. Make the opportunity absolutely clear. Whilst i don't mean to say "ask for £x and offer the company y" exactly, an organisation needs to see how they can get involved, what would be asked for them and yup, what they get back. Even the most caring and supportive person or business will connect with the message better, the easier they can understand it and evaluate it. Are you offering visibility of logos and company info (if so where will it be seen and by who), free tickets to events or activities or PR and so on?

2. Think about the type of company that you're approaching. A one size fits all approach for this isn't going to work. Think about the type of business that could connect well with what your son is trying to do and who would get the best return back for themselves. Maybe a local sporting store/ chain or organisation - not necessarily anything to do with climbing - that is going to have an obvious connection. Maybe it's a drinks or supplement or equipment company and the obvious link is to promote to their brand to the audience and it's good,positive for PR for them.

3. Be a little creative and visual. Don't just send a letter, add some pics and imagery showing the sport - i'd imagine there's some pretty cool shots available? Maybe some info on who's involved in rock climbing, the size of the sport or anything else that's interesting. Don't just post the letter with text but add something to make it pop. If you've not got a colour printer at home, maybe go with your son to a local printing shop, explain to them you want to get 100 or 200 copies of something made and why, perhaps they can do you a deal on very cheap or free high quality printing. Don't be afraid to ask and don't be afraid to think outside the norm

Hope that helps
Chris

 

[bethjake]

Gosh, thank you so much for taking the time to reply with some very useful information. Yes we have some amazing images that could be used. I'm very conscious that companies receive so so many 'begging' letters.
Back to the drawing board, will keep Jake busy this week while he awaits the dreaded GCSE results!

 

[Chris Willman]

You're more than welcome and i hope that offers even just a little bit of help - hopefully this is the start of a fantastic journey for Jake. Do remember that, whilst you're right in saying that folks do get a ton of begging letters people also like to give back. They also like to get value from things. If you can combine those together and give it a bit of punch and pazzazz you'll get their attention - if you go in too softly or too subtly you won't get their attention!

Good luck with it and feel free to drop me a line here, on LinkedIn or tweet me @ChrisWillmanUK with any questions or hopefully, good news!

Chris

 

[Mr D]

Perhaps a small booklet / leaflet on a computer with photos, achievements etc.

May be worth looking at some of the charitable trusts too. Most won't be interested but a few will consider grants.

 

[ethical PR]

Hi @bethjake

Have you spoken to Sport England and the sports body for climbing to ask them about sources of funding?

Your son is far more likely to get funding through established sports funding set up for up and coming young sportspeople like him.

Also do get a friend to have a look through anything you send out to iron out any spelling and grammar glitches.

Best of luck.

 

[SteveHa]

UK Sport may be able to assist with APA (Athletes Performance Award), which comes from the National Lottery.