Whether you are a business, a sports club, or a grantor/sponsor for a non-profit, and depending on the phase of the project, I use my global experience to provide project support, from conception, design, planning, execution, developing training manuals, to analyzing progress, training and mentoring staff.

2 Budget Resource Challenges That Growing Sports Organizations Face

Many sports clubs, NGOs and community clubs begin because of strong interest and commitment from a group of people, who often begin programs purely as volunteers, pooling their resources and funding together. With time, the programs grow and new demands come in, often beneficiary-driven, whether it is a business or and non-profit. New or improved facilities, organization and quality of programs are demanded for, in order to keep everyone happy.

Challenges can include any of the following:

Facility and Equipment Resources

A primary need is where to get the finances to funding the growing needs for improved equipment and facilities. You would need to look at raising a budget to include improvement of equipment used for services, as well as facilities, as these deteriorate with time. This ensures that you stay competitive. Sports equipment often needs to take into account age and abilities, and can be quite expensive to purchase. Planning for this is a time-consuming, but an important art of development, and often needs to be planned at least three (3) years before an intended major work/activity comes into play. Funds may come from setting aside a portion of membership contributions, fundraising through events or grant applications, seeking corporate partnership, and government funding. When applying for grants, you will need to confirm if a percentage can go towards capital expenses, and thereby cover you costs, at least in part.

Personnel Resources

One of the first problems faced as the club/organization grows are the complaints from clients/members that they are not getting enough time with the staff, while the staff feel over-worked and unappreciated. There is need to plan ahead, and create job descriptions for positions, whether paid or volunteer, to provide clarity. Consider also some forms of motivation, which does not cost you more than you can manage. One way would be to set up a list of gifts and clearly identify which gift is given for what type and length of work done. Ideas of gifts include a reserved parking space, free t-shirt or kitting, meal vouchers at events, and attendance to workshops.

You may also consider introducing paid staff. Though they may not necessarily display the same enthusiasm as volunteers, they will often provide the necessary professional input that will stabilize the programs, and provide the consistency that purely volunteer systems may not. Members like to be trained by quality staff. They seek the assurance that the coaches running their sessions are qualified and certified. This builds trust that whatever they learn will raise their performance and lead to success. To ensure that you recruit well, therefore, it is important that you are clear about the skill sets that are required for the organization to move to the next level, and follow that with a job description. Just note that having salaried staff may look attractive, however, you may quickly discover that some of the roles that you previously did not have to pay for are now costing you, and, in addition, you will need to supervise and provide oversight.

People often find it hard to discuss money issues, yet it is critical to the existence of success of the organization. Often staff and founders are not fully aware of the importance and fail to plan ahead. Seeking professional support in the planning and budgeting can help you ride through the problems.

You can transform your business to a revenue-producing asset that lets you work as much or as little as you want.

We can:

This includes identifying the areas of training that will be required and identifying the current state of employee/volunteer and comparing this to the desired level.

We will assist your Management/Board in using the budget as an important plan that will assess your financial health as well as your ability to perform looking forwards.

We will help you develop tools that offer a mix of international and locally based philanthropy and self-help systems.