Grays Athletic FC are a club with 25 teams, male and female and covering a variety of ages. The community owned club have raised more than £2,200 with easyfundraising to date, so as we are just kicking off a new football season, we spoke to club member Glyn to find out more about the club and how they have raised so well.
Tell us about Grays Athletic
We are a football club 100% owned by our supporters. Our first team plays in the Isthmian League North Division but we have a total of 25 teams including juniors, seniors, walking, male and female teams. We aim to provide community football facilities for all.
Why do Grays Athletic need funding?
We are a physically big club. We find it difficult to find sufficient pitches in our area to allow our full roster of teams to train, play and enjoy their football experience. So we use additional funding to enable us to hire pitches in the surrounding areas as well as funding equipment so that training sessions can be run simultaneously.
Why did you sign up to easyfundraising?
When we were looking for ways to raise, we were attracted by the fact that so many clubs were already using the platform and raising well. It’s a really simple way for our club community – players / coaches / families / friends to support our club without it costing them anything extra.
What have you spent your easyfundraising funds on to date?
The donations have helped us hire facilities to enable our boys, girls, mens and womens teams be able to train and play football. The training sessions are a vital part of the member experience – it enables them to have healthy exercise and join in a team game which helps them to develop inter-personal skills. For some of them members of our walking football team, having the opportunity to play has literally been life changing.
What are you currently fundraising towards?
We’re currently fundraising to buy a set of portable floodlights for use in the winter months.
How do you promote easyfundraising to your members?
We have made use of the ready made leaflets that easyfundraising provide and handed these out our supporters at matches and we also promote easyfundraising through our social media channels as much as possible.
What is your top tip for other clubs to help them raise as well as you have?
Continue to promote easyfundraising at regular intervals as we find with new younger players joining our club, parents are not necessarily aware of the fantastic opportunity to raise funds at no cost to themselves. Pick your times as well – start of the new season is a great opportunity, so are match days and we also ramp up promotion at key shopping times like Christmas too.
How you can support Grays Athletic
Grays Athletic are certainly one our top-scoring football clubs – and they certainly need the extra funding with 25 teams to cater for! If you would like to support them every time you shop online, sign up to support them here.
Member of another club or cause not currently using easyfundraising? Register your cause here.
You can learn more about Grays Athletic on their website here.