Earlswood Cricket Club | Cause of the Month

Earlswood Cricket Club in Solihull, West Midlands have been using easyfundraising for over 5 years and have raised over £1,138 so far. They’ve been very successful in gaining simple, free donations via their supporter’s online shopping activities and through referring other clubs to register. After being referred to easyfundraising by another cricket club, Neil Thorne, Earlswood’s membership secretary, became the main advocate of the easyfundraising message through the club, to both staff and members.

Why did they sign up?

As a voluntarily run operation, like most clubs, Earlswood recognised the need to raise funds, but do this in a way which did not interfere too heavily with volunteer’s time during the working week and their free time away from the club. Easyfundraising made this possible: “it’s essential for us to get funds from wherever we can” said Neil. “This seemed like an excellent way of raising money without impacting people with more work”.

How did they get started?

Following initial sign up, easyfundraising provided a range of promotional tools to help Earlswood spread the word to target supporters in the club and beyond. Neil explained, “I raised a news item on our website to talk about the benefits, this was then emailed to all of our members, as well as via social media to the wider followers. I follow this process multiple times through the year.” To date, Earlswood have 51 active supporters, providing donations each time they shop online.

How do they know how it’s going?

The easyfundraising web portal for the club, allows all supporters connected with the club to see the difference they are making, “It’s very easy to track our progress, our cause page shows our earnings and shows a ranking of our top 10 supporters, creating competition and motivation!” said Neil. This unites the club community together for a greater social good, generating excitement and fun along the way.

What has the funding made possible?

The club have been able to invest significantly in their juniors team, buying a range of new equipment for the under 11’s team to train and develop their skills as they continue on their path to the senior side and provide future success for the club out in the middle.