Clubs look at Fundraising options in a Covid-19 environment

On Wednesday April 22^nd, Cricket Leinster ran a “Fundraising in a Covid-19 World” with our clubs. This webinar was hosted by Darren McMahon of 2into3, specialist in fundraising in the charity sector. The webinar had almost 60 attendees from over 40 cricket clubs. There were also attendees from Munster Cricket, Confederation of Golf in Ireland, Triathlon Ireland, Sport for Business, Hockey Ireland, Leinster Hockey, Clann Credo and the NI Sports Forum.

Participants were given an overview of the fundraising landscape in Ireland and how it is going to be impacted by Covid-19. According to 2into3, the sector will see a 15% decline in fundraising income in 2020, estimated at a total value of €179m. The impacts on individual sectors and organisations will differ. Sports clubs in particular will be impacted dramatically because of their reliance on event fundraising and raffles.

However, our clubs were shown what they can do in the short and medium turn in order to focus their fundraising efforts. This included assessing your club funding gap as a result of Covid-19. Clubs were also encouraged to be more open and transparent with people about how funding is used. Finally, clubs were shown how to develop a case for funding through case studies of internationally based cricket clubs.

Feedback of the event has been very positive and will no doubt help Cricket Leinster clubs prioritise their fundraising drives in the coming weeks and months.

In order to support our clubs Cricket Leinster will be operating a Your Club Your Province Online Draw in 2020. With prizes in the region of €7,500 committed already tickets will be available online, with revenue distributed to clubs over the course of the season.