Barclays Community Sport Fund (Access Grant) is sponsored by Barclays, in partnership with Sported. The Access Grant supports the delivery of football, tennis, or cricket activities for women and girls. It aims to reduce inequalities in sport, with a focus on deprived and rurally isolated areas.

It also funds coaching courses to increase the number of female coaches.

Barclays Access Grant - Sported The Barclays Community Sport Fund supports charities, community groups and grassroots sports organisations who are working within the most deprived and rurally isolated areas of the UK and are making football, tennis, and cricket more accessible to women and girls.

We want to make sure our funding reaches organisations who are providing football, tennis, and cricket activities for people and communities that need support the most. Who is eligible to apply? We welcome applications from not-for-profit organisations, including charities, community groups, youth groups and traditional sports clubs.

Groups must meet the following criteria: You deliver football, cricket, or tennis activities for women and girls – or are applying for funding to start. You operate in an area of high deprivation. * *We use the Government Indices of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) to establish eligibility and only organisations located in or supporting people from IMD areas 1-3 are eligible to apply.

We will consider applications from groups engaging women and girls with disabilities or facing challenges of rural isolation, that are not in deprived areas. How much can I apply for? You can apply for one grant of £1000 per organisation to support delivery of your football, cricket or tennis activities.

We cannot give out grants to different teams within an organisation, so please consider where the funds are most needed. If your group delivers more than one of our focus sports (football, tennis, or cricket), you can only apply for one grant to cover all activities per club. What are the open and closing dates for the fund?

The access grant programme will be open for applications for two months; from 9am on Wednesday 25th March 2026 until 5pm on Wednesday 27th May 2026 . Please note, we expect the fund to be extremely popular and may close earlier if we receive a high volume of eligible applications. We encourage you to read the criteria thoroughly and apply early for the best chance of success.

To check you are eligible and make sure you have all the information you need to apply, please read the Frequently Asked Questions below. Frequently Asked Questions How many grants can my group apply for? Can my group apply separately for football, cricket, and tennis?

We will only award one grant per organisation. You may split the £1000 grant across your football, cricket, or tennis activities. How can I check whether we are in an area of high deprivation (IMD 1-3 area)?

We use the Government Indices of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) from across the UK. Please use the links below to check your organisation’s postcode. If your group is based outside of these areas but your beneficiaries are from IMD 1-3 areas, you must clearly demonstrate this in your application.

We will consider applications from groups engaging women and girls with disabilities or facing challenges of rural isolation, that sit outside of IMD areas 1-3. What can the funding be used for? The funding is unrestricted, meaning it can be used for anything that will support your delivery of football, cricket, or tennis activities for women and girls.

Typical examples of costs might include a contribution towards: Venue hire including floodlights / heating Marketing and communications Training and qualifications Insurances and affiliation What can’t the funding be used for? We are unable to fund trips abroad, costs associated with elite sports or talent development, and any school based sports activities. We are unable to fund sports other than Football, Cricket or Tennis.

We are unable to fund Futsal, Gaelic Football, Padel or Pickleball. When does the funding need to be spent? The funding will ideally be spent within a six-month period, to allow us to monitor the impact of the programme.

We are flexible with this as we understand that sometimes plans can change. What reporting will we be required to complete? We want to hear how the fund and support has impacted your organisation.

You will be required to complete a short monitoring form six months after receiving your grant. You can find a copy of the reporting requirements below. Some organisations may also be selected for an audit and be required to provide copies of invoices paid and receipts for any items connected to the grant.

Are schools eligible to apply for the fund? Schools and other educational institutions are unfortunately not eligible to apply for the fund. Charities that support schools may be considered if they are inclusive of girls from the wider community and not just pupils from that school.

Our organisation has already received a grant from the Barclays Community Sport Fund, can we still apply? Yes. Groups who have previously received funding from the Barclays Community Sport Fund can re-apply if they meet the eligibility criteria.

We would need to see how the grant will support you to develop and extend your activities from what we previously funded. Can I save my application as I go along? No, you will need to complete and save your grant application at one time.

You can find a copy of the grant application questions using the link below. You may like to complete the questions offline first and then copy and paste your answers into the online form when you are ready, to prevent losing any of your work. Please do not submit this as your application.

You will need to complete the online form. Applicant Guidance Information You will also need to attach a copy of your bank statement and governance document / company or charity number, so please have these to hand when you are ready to complete the online form. What support can you offer if I have additional needs, or I am facing barriers in applying?

We will accommodate different accessibility needs to give organisations the best chance of communicating their idea and plans with us. This could be arranging a conversation with a member of our team to provide clarity on the questions and process, or providing information and the application form in accessible formats. We will consider any requests for accessibility that will reduce barriers to applying.

If you require additional support or wish to make an accessibility request, we are happy to help. Please get in touch at barclays@sported. org.

uk When will we hear if we have been successful? The grant programme closes on 27th May 2026. You will hear back from the Sported team to let you know the outcome of your application or request additional information by the 31st July 2026.

Our organisation has a high turnover, are we still eligible to apply? Open from 9am on Wednesday 25th March 2026 until 5pm on Wednesday 27th May 2026.