Community Amateur Sports Club Embraces Cashless Fundraising

Gareth explains: “Sports participation has really deteriorated among young people, especially since the pandemic, so we are very focused on doing everything we can to bring them back to sports and doing real things. It’s good for their mental and physical health and this is the overall driver and philosophy of our club. We also focus a lot of our efforts on recruiting youngsters from state schools locally as pupils often have less access to sports like rugby in comparison to those at private schools.” 

On how important it is for clubs like Leamington Rugby Club to raise funds, Gareth adds: “People often don’t realise how much the club relies on volunteers and the committee to get things done including raising cash for important projects such as sorting out training lights on the pitch. This kind of project requires raising funds of around £60k, which is a significant hill to climb for a community club. To help with this, the committee recruited me to their first development role and it’s part of my job to think about how we can raise money for projects like this. That’s where Give A Little comes in. Since Covid, everything has moved to contactless payments. Our bar at the club is now completely cashless and Give A Little enables us to collect contactless donations, claim Gift Aid and get in-depth reports including a dedicated report to help with our claim to HMRC.”

Gareth is using Give A Little’s DIY approach to collect cashless donations with an Android tablet, the Give A Little App and a SumUp card reader: “I have put the donation point by the till at the bar and we are suggesting that visitors pay for a beer for the club when they buy a round. Although we’re pleased with the amount we’ve raised in our first two months (£1200), we’re in the early stages of using the kit and I’m looking forward to implementing a more engaging fundraising campaign using images and video of the local community members enjoying rugby and the club. I think that will help the community understand what we are doing and why we need to raise funds and ultimately, I think it will help us raise more.”

Introduced in April 2002, the

Community Amateur Sports Club ( CASC ) Scheme

allows local amateur sports clubs to register with HMRC and benefit from a range of tax reliefs, including Gift Aid. To be eligible for CASC status, a club has to adhere to the following:

• be open to the whole community

• be organised on an amateur basis

• have as its main purpose the provision of facilities for, and the promotion of participation in, one or more eligible sports

• not exceed the income limit

• meet the management condition

• meet the location condition

For more information about CASCs, visit the

and to get started with cashless fundraising, create your account here:

https://givealittle.co/