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Dave Pitchford
- Thursday, March 29, 2007
OVER THE LAST TWO DAYS I've been pointing out to TV and radio interviewers that our Giving Premier League - comparing clubs by the amount of hard cash they give to charity - is the only way to meaningfully compare premiership clubs' charitable contributions. This is because:
- The clubs all do community work already. You can take that as read, and there's little point trying to compare them because:
- The work is often inextricably tied up with statutory funding or organisations
- Some of the work actually makes money for the club
- The line between club branding and community work is blurred to the point of indistinction
- The annual accounts don't itemise or explain the figures (apart from Chelsea's CSR report)
- Fundraising events bring in money from... the public, not from the club. If they cost a lot to stage, the clubs can reasonably mention the amount in the annual accounts.
- Clubs have to declare how much money they give to charity in their annual accounts. Company law doesn't demand they have to state anything else to do with community or charitable work.
- The most useful thing to charities is hard cash. Celebrity visits and free (or subsidised) strips are valued, but they don't pay the bills (and they don't cost much).
The BBC Northwest interviewer quoted several clubs saying how much hard cash they'd given to charity, amounts we had apparently missed. Well, that was their accountants' fault. They should have declared these amounts in the annual accounts. And, yes, we did ring all the clubs twice to ask for more information while we were doing the research, and hardly any would talk to us. Maybe they will next year.
Elford
Football in the Community is another farce that you seem to have missed. Centres of Excellence for lower clubs another, But the biggest if the Football Foundation. They give so much money to league Clubs to run football in the community, when Charities like ours, bringing football to low income and rural areas of Milton keynes get nothing from them. They also don't like being questioned and our last grant request was turned down because of a clash of personalities. That was when we had only girls teams, now we have 11 teams of boys and girls and have recently put in a paper to the County Office and once again the clash of personalities came up, even though there was a two year gap. As a Charity we live on the edge, but at least we provide football for 248 kids and have just had one accepted by an Academy. You have to remember that big clubs like Chelsea, PFA and other clubs give money to the Football Foundation for passing down the line, but sometimes that line leads back to lower division football clubs. Complicated isn't it?? But we have to get on with it and live with a clash of personalities that deprives our children of an astro or other training aids and drainage. What we would give for £70 Thousand?my right arm if they want it.!!!! Although they would probably like my head!!!!
I work for a funder (London only sorry, as most of our monitoring is through face-to-face - meetings and visits). We frequently come across small community-based football groups who are in receipt of funding from or have applied to the Football Foundation.
The Foundation seems to be quite willing to dish out a few thousand here or there for pitch fees, equipment and sessional coaches, but appear reluctant to grant significant amounts of money to support clubs' central costs/growth. From what I've heard from several sources (and have no evidence to make me change my opinion) I get the impression that they are quite bureaucratic and risk-averse.
By the way, anyone mentioning a "personality clash" in an application (with anybody, not just another funder) would ring my alarm bells. I very much doubt whether the "decline" said "We're not giving you the money because we don't like you." Is it safe to presume that no reason for declining your application was given, but that you contacted the Foundation to ask for one? If the person at the end of the phone refused to comment, I am afraid that you have no legal grounds to demand a reason: the law basically says that funders do not have to explain their decisions (although best practice recommends that they should). However, unfortunately, sometimes there isn't a good reason for declining a project except that no funder has enough money to fund everyone who applies to them, and the trustees have simply not picked yours. It's not necessarily personal. I would suggest you a) don't diss the Football Foundation over a "personality clash" - although by all means have a go at their procedures if there is a lack of transparency and b) find some way to sort it out - yes, you - you need the Football Foundation more than they need you.
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... nearly Vlad the Impaler