Friends of Football offers $20,000 ‘helping hand’ for innovative projects

posted in: Helping others, News

Friends of Football invites applications to its Helping Hand fund to support football-related projects that benefit the sport in an innovative way.

The fund has a total of $20,000 available to support suitable projects, and applications are sought by August 30, 2022.

“Our aim is to get behind the type of project — or even a number of projects — that might otherwise be lost because there is no current way to easily get them off the ground,” Friends of Football president Earle Thomas says.

Individuals or organisations are welcome to apply for funding providing their proposal meets the following criteria:

  • It has significant benefit for football in New Zealand.
  • The proposal has clear and measurable objectives.
  • The applicant can demonstrate an ability to successfully achieve the objective(s) within an agreed timeframe.
  • The project can not be easily funded through applications to traditional sources of support, such as gaming trusts.

“This fund isn’t for clubs to seek money to buy apparel or equipment. There are many other sources of funding for those types of items.

“We’re looking for the type of initiative where someone, or an organisation, has seen an opportunity to do something that has the potential to make a real difference but they need a helping hand,” Thomas said.

Friends of Football has provided support before for projects outside the mainstream of the sport.

An example was supporting members of Auckland’s Special Olympics team so they could enter a football team at their national tournament. As these footballers played outside the affiliation structure of the sport, they needed our help.

Click here for more about our Special Olympics sponsorship >>>>

Another example has been Friends of Football’s sponsorship of Manukau United’s Hungerball project, which is a programme to introduce young South Aucklanders to football in a fun way.

Click here for more about our Hungerball sponsorship >>>>

How the funding will be decided

Friends of Football will consider written applications to decide which proposals meet our criteria and warrant our support.

The fund currently has $20,000 available.

Whether we are able to support a single or multiple projects will depend on the proposals received.

If we cannot identify the best way to use money in this funding round, we will seek a fresh set of applications at a later stage.

The fund has been created through fundraising by members and supporters of Friends of Football.

How to apply – next deadline

Our deadline for the current round of funding is August 30, 2022.

Click here to apply >>>>

You can contact Friends of Football by email at [email protected] if you have any queries.

Conditions

Friends of Football reserves the right to decline applications without providing reasons or entering into further correspondence.

The successful applicant(s) will be asked to agree to a process that enables Friends of Football to ensure the money has been put to proper use.

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