We understand that fundraising and ensuring long-term financial sustainability can often feel overwhelming and you might also lack the time and headspace to progress this important area of work. Many organisations in the StreetGames network have told us that they find it difficult to know where to start, where to look for funds, how to build sustainable funding streams that go beyond short-term grants, and how to adopt a long-term approach to fundraising. Others find it difficult to find the right balance between direct delivery, financial planning, relationship-building, and communicating their impact effectively.
While there’s no one-size-fits-all solution, there are several practical strategies, tools and good practice examples that can help. To support organisations in strengthening their fundraising capacity and securing long-term sustainability, we’ve put together the StreetGames Fundraising and Sustainability Toolkit.
This toolkit is designed to provide practical resources, tips, and tools to help you build diverse funding streams, increase your expertise and confidence and plan for a financially secure future. Whether you’re just starting out or looking to refine your approach, the toolkit will guide you in creating a sustainable fundraising strategy that aligns with your mission and goals.
Explore the Toolkit
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1. Latest Funding Opportunities and Funding Search Engines
Newsletters
To gain access to regular funding updates, we would encourage you to sign up to local VCSE and local authority newsletters that will provide updates on local funding opportunities.
The Fundraising Team at StreetGames also produce a bi-monthly ‘Funding Flash’ newsletter, which you can sign up to here.
Funding Search Engines
If you are new to using funding search engines, they can seem like a vast and complex world to navigate. But don’t worry! These tools are here to make your fundraising efforts much more efficient and targeted, helping you find grants, funding opportunities, and resources that match your organisation’s needs and goals.
Funding search engines allow you to quickly search and filter through a wide variety of available funding sources, from government grants to private foundations, corporate sponsorships, and more. By entering a few key details about your organisation and the type of funding you’re looking for, these platforms can provide tailored results that save you time and effort.
Tips for Success:
- Be patient! The search process may take time, but persistence pays off.
- Regularly check for new funding opportunities, as new ones are launched all the time.
- Tailor your approach for each opportunity to increase your chances of success.
Funding search engines can be a game-changer in your fundraising efforts. By using them efficiently, you’ll be able to find the right funding opportunities faster and focus on what matters most… making an impact!
There are many funding search engines available, each with its own strengths. Some popular options include:
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2. Access to StreetGames Templates and Resources
At StreetGames, we understand that securing funding and ensuring long-term sustainability can be challenging. To support you in this important work, we’ve developed several templates, top tips and resources designed to make fundraising more manageable and help you build a sustainable future.
These resources are tailored to help you access new funding opportunities, build your capacity and capability and plan for lasting impact.
We hope these tools make your journey a little easier and empower you to focus on what really matters, delivering quality programmes and making a difference to the young people in your local community.
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3. Online Funding Tools
With the advancement of AI and technology in general, we are keen (where appropriate) to help organisations within the network to make the most of such tools, to save time, resources and to help you become more effective at accessing funding.
Fundraising Readiness Tool
StreetGames has partnered with Remedy to create a custom Fundraising Readiness Tool. This tool is designed to help you assess your organisation’s current position on its fundraising journey. We understand that each organisation is at a different stage, so while the tool is tailored for community organisations using sport for good, its core fundraising principles are applicable to a wide variety of groups.
AI for grant applications
There are many AI grant writing tools available on the market. If you are looking to use AI to support you with grant applications it is important that you don’t expect to rely solely on the tool; ‘human input’ is still essential and required to ensure you produce a balanced and well written application.
The National Lottery have produced some excellent tips around the use of AI; we would encourage you to read these before using AI technology within your own organisation.
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4. Signposting to Advice and Tools from Other Organisations
In addition to the resources provided by StreetGames, we can also signpost you to a wide range of tools and advice from other organisations in the fundraising sector. These resources include guidance on fundraising, sustainability, strategic planning, training, governance and much more, all aimed at supporting your organisation’s growth and success. By tapping into the expertise of trusted partners, you can explore new strategies and gain insights that may be useful to your specific needs.
Disclaimer: While we aim to share high-quality, relevant resources, please note that these tools and resources are provided by external organisations. StreetGames does not directly endorse or guarantee the effectiveness of any third-party resources. We encourage you to carefully assess the relevance and applicability of each resource to your own organisation.
Resources and guidance
- Sported support hub
- Cranfield Trust
- NCVO
- The Sports Governance Academy
- Get Grants
- Buddle
- initiative for Social Enterprise (iSE)
- DigiQuick
- Charity Excellence
- Muslim Charities Forum
- The Charity Commission
- Companies House
- MyCommunity
- HACT UK Social Value Bank
- Report Database for Social Value UK
- UK Finance Voluntary Organisation Banking Guide
- GOV.UK: Setting up a charity
- Locality
Webinar recordings
- Choosing the right legal structure for your business
- Director’s responsibilities – data protection – what you need to know and where to start
- Community interest companies: all you need to know about submitting a successful CIC application
- Community interest company or charity, do you know the difference?
- From idea to impact: your guide to setting up a CIC
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5. Access to Tailored Advice/Support from the Fundraising Team
The Network Fundraising Officers are here to help you on your fundraising journey. We provide support to StreetGames Network members in the following areas:
- Access to online and face-to-face training across a wealth of topics within the realms of fundraising and sustainability. To view forthcoming FULLY FUNDED training webinars on offer for StreetGames Network members, please visit our What’s On page.
- To request bespoke training for your organisation, please visit our Training Menu page to view training courses on offer and associated costs.
- To contact your local Network Fundraising Officer, please complete our online form and we will be back in touch to provide you with one-to-one support tailored to your organisation’s needs. We can assist you with signposting towards relevant funding opportunities, help with the use of funding search engines, discuss project ideas and review draft applications.
If you are not yet a member of the StreetGames Network, please take a look at what it means to be part of the Network. If you share our purpose, please do join us. Only StreetGames network members can access direct one-to-one support from our Network Fundraising Officers.
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6. Training Opportunities for Organisations within the StreetGames Network
StreetGames’ training develops the workforce to activate change by building skills and knowledge in the areas of sport, physical activity, community safety, and mental and physical wellbeing. View our full training programme to learn more.
We also run courses to specifically support our network organisations with Fundraising and Sustainability; view the courses available and associated costs here.
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7. Alternative income generation
In today’s rapidly evolving funding landscape, many organisations are finding it increasingly difficult to secure financial support through traditional grant channels. Limited resources, heightened competition, and shifting funding priorities have prompted a growing need to explore innovative income streams.
We have highlighted below some alternative income generation methods that can help diversify and strengthen your financial sustainability. From building strategic corporate partnerships and securing sponsorships, to launching crowdfunding campaigns and engaging in community-based fundraising initiatives, these approaches offer flexible, creative solutions to support a wide range of goals. Whether you’re navigating cuts to public funding or simply seeking to expand your income base, understanding these alternatives is a crucial step toward long-term resilience and impact.
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8. Theory of Change
Theory of Change is a framework that helps organisations clearly outline how their activities/interventions address specific problems/inequalities facing local young people that will lead to their desired outcomes or goals. It explains the “why” and “how” behind a project, mapping out the steps, resources, and actions required to achieve the intended changes.
Why it’s important for funding applications:
- Clarifies Impact: It helps funders understand how your project will create meaningful change and the expected outcomes.
- Demonstrates Planning: A well-thought-out Theory of Change shows that you have a clear strategy and that your project is well-planned.
- Shows Accountability: Funders want to know that their money will lead to measurable results. A Theory of Change outlines the process, making it easier to track progress and success.
- Strengthens Your Proposal: Including a Theory of Change can make your application stand out by showing that you have a solid plan for achieving your goals.
- Demonstrates Co-design: By clearly articulating the inequalities/problems that have been identified through local insight and consultation, illustrates how co-design underpins the design of your project.
In short, the Theory of Change is important because it demonstrates that your project has a clear, logical path to success, making it more likely that funders will trust you with their support.
Here are some examples of a Theory of Change from other organisations and toolkits to help you create your own:
Thanks to your guidance, I feel so much more confident and inspired to apply for funding to support our services. The Race for Investment workshop has also given me the courage to start exploring larger funding opportunities. I used to feel overwhelmed and intimidated by the idea of tackling those bids—especially the thought of putting in so much effort just for an expression of interest stage, only to face potential rejection. But now, I’m ready to take on the challenge!"
Coach Ceejay, Community Sports Coordinator, Future Kidz Development CiC
After attending the Race for Investment course with StreetGames, their Network Funding Officers assisted me with my funding application. Their knowledge, expertise and understanding of our project is the reason behind the success of our funding, for which I am truly grateful. I can't thank StreetGames enough for aiding us to make a difference in the lives of the young people in our community."
Ngozi Ijanboh, CEO, Divine Purpose
