Ways to save and raise money

There are plenty of ways for cricket clubs to develop and improve which don’t cost the earth and can be done with a little bit of organising and cajoling others into action. We have produced supporting information and examples of how clubs can save money and also raise money. Please get in touch if your club has had any success with self-help projects that we could share with others, we are always on the lookout for innovative ways for clubs to develop.

Reducing costs is a great place for cricket clubs to start. Investigate all outgoings at a club and see if there is a way to lower the costs involved. Clubs who have done this have saved in some cases thousands of pounds.

Are you CASC (Community Amateur Sports Club) registered? If your club wants to receive an 80% reduction in business rates then investigate becoming one. On average clubs who are CASC registered save over £4,000 a year. In Somerset we currently have 32 clubs who are CASC registered, this number could be much higher! More information on becoming a CASC club can be found here.

Greater bar management and training of those behind the bar is often overlooked. Ensuring that no stock goes out of date and that pints are poured correctly can eradicate wasted stock for example.

Lowering utility bills by insuring lights are only used when required and turned off when they are not and installing energy saving bulbs or better still light tunnels into the building to increase the natural light flowing in. Install push taps instead of twist taps to reduce wasted water in both sinks and showers. Purchase a water butt to capture water from the roof and re-use on pitches, why use drinking water to water the grass!?

Buy in bulk where possible to lower costs. Why not team up with some other cricket clubs and increase your purchasing power. Examples may include cricket balls, bar stock, food for teas or BBQs, loam or grass seed and boundary flags/rope. The sharing of assets with other local clubs can work too, this may range from sharing a cricket coach or a junior team to a piece of ground machinery or a BBQ. Think outside of the box in order to save money, times are changing and costs are increasing.

Utilise skills from within your club membership. You may have several plumbers, electricians, chefs, teachers, plasterers, accountants or solicitors for example, all of whom have skills that could be put to great use at a cricket club. How do you find out what skills are hidden in your membership? Just ask. Include a question in the membership form for what job they do or what skills they have that might benefit the cricket club. Don’t forget to make the most out of NatWest CricketForce too, more information on the ECB flagship self-help event can be found here.

Team up with other organisations or business’s who have skills or resources that would benefit the club. A great example of this is construction colleges, they have students who need experience in building and cricket clubs often need things built. Huish & Langport Cricket Club recently teamed up with Yeovil Construction College who built them a new scorebox.

Fundraising is a vital – and fun – way to generate extra income for your cricket club and fund future development. There are funding schemes in place through the ECB and other sources for capital and smaller projects but clubs must also find additional ways of generating income. This is where fundraising comes in.

Discover all you need to know about fundraising to make your club more financially secure on this page, including ideas, tools and resources to set you on your way.

Our detailed fundraising guide for cricket clubs (PDF) provides advice on managing events at your club as well as suggestions on how to bring your club and community closer together and raise valuable funds in the process.

Easyfundraising.org.uk allows your club to raise unlimited funds, simply from online shopping. Easyfundraising is the UK’s leading good-cause shopping site and gives your members and supporters a free way of generating money for your club. More than 1,700 clubs have registered with the site to date, raising over £290,000 in free donations.

Getting started:
  1. Register your club.
  2. Once you’re registered, search for a retailer you’d like to shop with, such as M&S, John Lewis and Amazon. The retailer will make a donation to your club as a thank you for shopping with them.
  3. Ask club members to help you raise money by signing up to support your easyfundraising page. Once you’ve registered your club, you’ll have your own club page with an individual URL. Share this URL with your supporters so they can find your club and sign up to support it.
Business contributions

You can raise even more for your club through business contributions. With 3,000 retailers giving free donations through easyfundraising, including some of the biggest names in office supplies, materials, equipment, accommodation and travel, there is huge fundraising potential in getting a business supporter on board – and we want to help your club find yours.

ECB Club Support

The ECB have a number of different ways in which they can support clubs across various aspects of the game. Make sure you have a look at what they can help with.