People's Postcode Lottery

PEOPLE’S POSTCODE LOTTERY

Community Grants Programme

Supported by the players of People’s Postcode Lottery

Sported supports sport and physical activity community projects thanks to funding raised by players of People’s Postcode Lottery. The programme is delivering grants and support to groups in England, Scotland and Wales.

The funding is being distributed by Sported to community organisations delivering sport and physical activity for wider social purpose.

Grants of up to £25,000 will support a wide range of projects and activities that address local need, promote social inclusion, and strengthen communities in underserved areas.

Funding dates 2026

Sported will run three funding rounds in 2026. Funding round dates differ depending on where your organisation is based.

For organisations based in the South of England (Postcode Society Trust), West of England (Postcode Local Trust) and Wales (Postcode Community Trust), funding rounds are as follows:

Round 1: 23^rd February 9am – 2^nd March 12noon

Round 2: 26^th May 9am – 2^nd June 12noon

Round 3: 25^th August 9am – 1^st September 12noon

For organisations based in the East of England (Postcode Places Trust), North of England (Postcode Neighbourhood Trust) and Scotland (People’s Postcode Trust), funding rounds are as follows:

Round 1: 25^th March 9am – 1^st April 12noon

Round 2: 24^th June 9am – 1^st July 12noon

Round 3: 24^th September 9am – 1^st October 12noon

For most organisations, it will be clear which Trust you fall under. For organisations based on regional borders, you can click on the People’s Postcode Lottery Trust you think is most likely and enter your postcode. If you go through to the wrong Trust, it will redirect you and tell you in which Trust area you are based. Please ensure you double check the Trust area in which you are based and note the relevant funding dates.

Please only use the links above to check your postcode, not to apply. To apply for funding through Sported, please use the APPLY NOW button at the bottom of this page.

Any enquiries should be directed to grants@sported.org.uk

Who are People’s Postcode Lottery?

People’s Postcode Lottery is a subscription lottery which raises money for charities. To date, players of People’s Postcode Lottery have raised more than £1.5 billion for thousands of charities and local good causes.

Funding raised by players of People’s Postcode Lottery was awarded to Sported through People’s Postcode Trust, Postcode Community Trust, Postcode Local Trust, Postcode Neighbourhood Trust, Postcode Places Trust and Postcode Society Trust.

Sported manages and administers the programme to distribute funds to community groups.

Together, we are empowering local stakeholders to invest in the future of communities, creating opportunities for our next generation while building a strong and resilient society.

Who can apply?

Groups must be based in England, Scotland or Wales and serving people living in England, Scotland or Wales to be eligible for funding.

We welcome applications from charities, community groups and not-for-profit companies.

We provide funding to organisations with a turnover of less than £1 million and we will prioritise organisations with a turnover of £250,000 or below. Typically, we will fund no more than 1/3 of your organisation’s overall turnover.

Applicants must demonstrate that they are using sport for social purposes, focused on projects and activities that address local need, promote social inclusion, and strengthen communities in underserved areas.

Applicants must demonstrate support to one or more of the following underrepresented groups; people living in areas of high deprivation, women and girls, people from racially diverse communities, people living with disabilities, and individuals from the LGBTQ+ community.

We will prioritise applications from organisations that operate in and support people from areas of high deprivation (Indices of Multiple Deprivation 1-3).

To check you are eligible and to make sure you have all the information you need to apply, please click on our eligibility checker below and read through our funding guide.

Funding guide

Every day across the UK, sport is used as a tool to improve health, to teach life-skills, to connect people and to strengthen communities. To be eligible for funding, your organisation must be using sport or physical activity to achieve one or more of the following outcomes:

Improving health and wellbeing
Reducing inequalities
Empowering communities

This funding guide outlines our eligibility criteria. You can also use our eligibility checker above to see if you meet our criteria. We expect the fund to be oversubscribed so if your organisation does not meet our current criteria, please do not apply.

Organisation Criteria

We welcome applications from:

Registered Charities – Organisations registered with either The Charity Commission in England or Wales, or with OSCR in Scotland.
Community Interest Companies (CICs) with an asset lock (Schedule 1 and 2 only) – If the objects section in the governing document is blank or unclear, we will require the CIC36 ‘Community Interest Statement’ form to assess the application.
Companies Limited by Guarantee with an asset lock – ensuring that the assets of the company are used solely for its objectives and not for private profit.
Constituted clubs or groups (including CASCs) – with a constitution in place in the name of the organisation. The constitution should define the organisation’s objectives, outline the governance structure and decision making processes, detail financial procedures and have a dissolution clause in place.

Organisations must also meet the following criteria to be eligible to apply:

Your organisation’s turnover should be under £1million in the most recent financial year (organisations with a turnover of less than £250k will be prioritised).
For Companies/Charities, we require at least three Directors/Trustees to be in place with no more than 50% of those serving as Trustees or Directors related.
For Companies, we require more than one person with significant control contributing to the company’s governance and decision making. This approach promotes accountability and ensures that the company’s operations are aligned with its stakeholders’ interests.
The organisation’s aims and objectives must align with at least one of the funding themes (Improving health and wellbeing, Reducing inequalities or Empowering communities). Applications without clear alignment will be considered ineligible.

Supporting Documents

To support your application, we require the following documents to be uploaded when submitting the application form. Before you upload, please check your documents contain everything required. Failure to upload the correct documents will render your application ineligible.

A governing document* in the name of your organisation

This should clearly show your organisation’s objectives and be in the name of your organisation.
For charities or companies, it should name three or more Directors/Trustees with no more than 50% of those serving related. It should also name multiple persons with significant control.
For Community Interest Companies, if the objects section in the governing document is blank or unclear, we will require the CIC36 ‘Community Interest Statement’ form to assess the application.
For constituted clubs, we can accept National Governing Body templates but these must be formally adopted, clearly showing the name of the organisation applying and date of adoption.
Depending on your organisation type, an asset lock or dissolution clause should be present.
*You can alternatively provide your company/charity number and we will check details on Companies House/Charities Commission.

Your organisational accounts

Your uploaded accounts must be your most recent year-end accounts, showing income and expenditure for a full financial year.
If you are registered with Companies House or the Charity Commission, accounts should be signed and include a profit and loss page and balance sheet.
If you are not a registered organisation (e.g. constituted club), please provide the latest income and expenditure statement presented at your last AGM. This should also include details of any assets and liabilities.
If the end date of your accounts is more than 13 months ago, if you have negative reserves, or have made a loss for the past two years, please upload any draft accounts and/or an explanation of how you plan to turn this around in the interim period, in addition to your latest accounts. This will help us understand the current financial health of your organisation.
For new organisations operating for less than 12 months, please provide income and expenditure to date, along with projected figures to cover a full 12-month period.
Please note that bank transactions lists are not accepted as accounts.
Your organisation’s income should be under £1million in the most recent financial year (organisations with an income of less than £250k will be prioritised for funding).

A bank statement dated within the last 3 months

This must be dated from the last 3 months and have the name of your organisation clearly visible.
The name on the account must match the name of the organisation applying. Please note, we cannot accept personal bank statements or accounts named ‘Community’.
The bank statement must show your bank account number and sort code so that we can make payment if you are successful. We do not need to see any balance or transaction information if you wish to blank this out.
We can accept screenshots from online banking but only if they meet the above criteria.
If we assess your application and you do not have a UK bank account that meets our criteria, your application will not be eligible.

Safeguarding information

You must confirm that your organisation meets the following safeguarding requirements:

A safeguarding policy is in place, signed and dated, and updated within the past two years (best practice is annual review).
A named Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) is appointed, with name, role title, email address and contact number provided.
Safeguarding information, including the DSL’s details, is clearly communicated to staff, volunteers, participants, parents and carers.
Appropriate safeguarding training is provided for all staff and volunteers.
DBS / Disclosure Scotland checks are carried out for staff and volunteers working directly with young people and/or vulnerable adults.
A clear reporting and case management process is in place for safeguarding concerns and incidents.
Awareness of the relevant Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO) and/or National Governing Body (NGB) safeguarding lead.
A code of conduct is in place for staff and volunteers.

Evidence of ownership or long term lease of facility

If applying for funding for capital developments e.g facility developments / refurbishments, we will need to see evidence of ownership or long term lease on the facility.

Evidence must include the name of your organisation, address of the facility, evidence of ownership or duration of the lease and signatures of relevant parties.

We will also need to ensure that you have the necessary policies in place to deliver activities safely. We will ask you to declare that you have the following in place:

Relevant insurance cover

To cover your people and acti
Insurance must be valid (in date) for the full period of the funding.
It is the responsibility of the organisation to determine what type and level of insurance cover is needed.

Health and Safety policy

This should include:

Accidents and first aid
Training
Reporting concerns
Named responsibility
Written, activity-specific risk assessments
Evidence of regular review

Equal Opportunities policy

This should include:

Clear commitment statement
Reference to Equality Act 2010
Protected characteristics listed
Reporting process
Named responsibility for oversight
Evidence of regular review

Your organisation’s name must be identical on your governing document, bank account, annual accounts and safeguarding policy, and the application under which you are submitting. Any changes to the name must be officially documented and provided when you apply.

Please do not submit an application unless you meet the criteria listed above. If you do not have some of the documents but would like to apply for a grant, please contact us here on our Sported website. We will be able to support you in how to become ‘Investment ready’ so that you have the opportunity to apply in future rounds.

What We Will Fund

You can only apply for one grant per organisation.

Funding offered is flexible, and we want to hear about the work your whole organisation does. The grant is unrestricted, meaning you can use it for anything that will help you. Typical examples of costs might include a contribution towards:

Venue hire
Utility costs e.g. heating or lighting
Staffing and Coaching costs
Volunteer expenses
Kit and equipment
Marketing and communications
Training and qualifications
Insurance and affiliations
Facility development

What We Won't Fund

Organisations we won’t fund:

Organisations who are not based in England, Scotland or Wales.
Organisations solely delivering sport for participation, talent or competition, without a wider focus on social purpose.
Universities, colleges, schools, academies, nurseries and preschools, including Parent Teacher Associations and affiliated groups.
Local, regional or government institutions and organisations with core statutory responsibilities (e.g. NHS Foundation Trusts and NHS Charities, parish councils, town councils and public bodies).
Organisations with solely religious objects in their governing document.
Political parties or party-political activities.
Schedule 3 Community Interest Companies Limited by Shares.
Sole traders.
Individuals.
Organisations with a turnover of over £1,000,000.
Organisations that do not have a bank account in the name of the organisation.
Organisations with less than three Directors/Trustees, less than 50% of the members serving as Directors/Trustees unrelated, or with one person who has significant organisational control.
Organisations funded through People’s Postcode Lottery programmes within the last 12 months. 12 months must have passed from your last payment date.
Organisations who have received funding from Sported and/or People’s Postcode Lottery and have not returned the required monitoring paperwork.
Organisations supported by People’s Postcode Lottery’s long term partners, these include but are not limited to: Carers Trust, Girlguiding, Home-Start, Hospice UK, Mind, Onside Youth Zones, Riding for the Disabled, The Royal British Legion, Royal Voluntary Service, RSPCA, Scouts Association, Trussel, The Wildlife Trusts and Woodland Trust.

Costs we won’t fund:

Activities taking place outside of England, Scotland, Wales or foreign travel.
Any costs associated with elite sport, talent development or sport for sport sake rather than sport for social purpose.
The promotion or practice of religion.
Distribution of grants/funds to individuals or other organisations.
Funding being allocated to the organisation’s reserves.
Retrospective requests for activities that have already occurred or costs that have previously been incurred.
Alcohol.

How We Make Our Decisions

We expect funding rounds to be consistently oversubscribed, meaning that not all strong applications can be supported. We do not have a set number of organisations that we wish to fund in each round and base funding decisions on a wide range of factors. To assist with decision-making, priority will be given to organisations that meet one or more of the following:

Have an income of £250,000 or below.
Work in communities located in areas of high deprivation (Indices of Multiple Deprivation 1-3).
Organisations whose main activities are focused on supporting underrepresented groups. This includes, but is not limited to, women and girls, people from racially diverse communities, people living with disabilities, and individuals from the LGBTQ+ community.
Organisations who have not received Sported funding before.

It is important to note that the strength of an organisation’s overall application is the primary factor in our decision making.

Funding Timeline

We aim to communicate our decisions to all applicants within 6 weeks of the application submission deadline. Some applicants may be contacted for additional information so that we can make a thorough assessment.

You can find the expected decision date for each round below:

23^rd February 9am – 2^nd March 12noon, decision by 6th April
25^th March 9am – 1^st April 12noon, decision by 6^th May
26^th May 9am – 2^nd June 12noon, decision by 7^th July
24^th June 9am – 1^st July 12noon, decision by 5^th August
25^th August 9am – 1^st September 12noon, decision by 6^th October
24^th September 9am – 1^st October 12noon, decision by 5^th November

Successful organisations will receive a Funding Agreement by email. They must confirm acceptance of the grant terms and condition’s. Once we receive acceptance confirmation, your grant will be sent to our finance team for payment. Payment will be made by BACS transfer and can take up to 3 weeks.

Our timelines are dependent on the timely return of any additional information requested and acceptance of your award agreement. Please make sure your contact email address is closely monitored.

Submitting Your Application

Organisations may only make one application per funding round and are not eligible to apply to other Trusts supported by players of People’s Postcode Lottery while their application is being considered.

A copy of the application form questions is available below. We recommend using this to prepare your answers to the questions before the round opens, as you are not able to save the live application form. Please note that this document is for reference and application planning only. We will not accept applications in this format.

Application Questions and Guidance

Which trust should we apply to?

Please ensure you double check the Trust area in which you are based and note the relevant funding dates, so that you don’t miss out.

For most organisations, it will be clear which Trust you fall under. For organisations based on regional borders, you can click on the People’s Postcode Lottery Trust you think is most likely (links below) and enter your postcode. If you have come through to the wrong Trust, it will redirect you and tell you in which Trust area you are based.

If your organisation covers more than one Trust area, you can apply to any of those Trusts. However, we will only accept one application from an organisation per funding round. This means an organisation may only apply to one of our trusts within any one funding round.

South of England (Postcode Society Trust)

West of England (Postcode Local Trust)

Wales (Postcode Community Trust)

East of England (Postcode Places Trust)

North of England (Postcode Neighbourhood Trust)

Scotland (People’s Postcode Trust)

Accessibility

What support can you offer if I have additional needs, or if 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 or processes, or providing information and the application form in accessible formats. We will consider any requests for accessibility that will reduce a barrier to applying.

Please get in touch at grants@sported.org.uk

What Happens After We Apply

Once you submit an application to us, you will receive confirmation via email that this has been received. Please make sure you check junk and spam folders. If you do not receive email confirmation, please contact us at grants@sported.org.uk

You can find the expected decision date for each round below:

23^rd February 9am – 2^nd March 12noon, decision by 6th April
25^th March 9am – 1^st April 12noon, decision by 6^th May
26^th May 9am – 2^nd June 12noon, decision by 7^th July
24^th June 9am – 1^st July 12noon, decision by 5^th August
25^th August 9am – 1^st September 12noon, decision by 6^th October
24^th September 9am – 1^st October 12noon, decision by 5^th November

Please do not contact us about a decision. We will not be able to tell you before these dates.

Successful Applicants

What steps should I take after learning my application was successful?

If you are successful in your application, we will send you a grant offer by email to confirm your funding. You will need to click to agree to the terms and conditions and confirm acceptance of your grant. Grant offers will be sent to the email address used to submit the application. Please regularly check junk/spam folders just in case. Once you click to confirm acceptance of your grant, you will receive a confirmation email.

If you are having difficulties with your grant offer, please contact us via email at grants@sported.org.uk

When will my organisation be paid?

Release of funds is dependent on all the timely acceptance of your grant. Once we receive your signed grant offer, we will arrange for your grant to be paid. Payment will be made by BACS transfer and this can take up to 3 weeks.

Spending your grant

The funding should be spent within a 12 month period, to allow us to assess and report on the impact of the programme. If you are unable to spend the funding in this timeframe please contact us as soon as possible.

Reporting back on your grant

12 months post grant, you will be required to complete a short feedback form to help us understand how the funding has supported your organisation and what impact this has had.

You can see a copy of the questions we will ask here – Grant Reporting Requirements

You may also be selected for a grant audit, please keep copies of invoices paid and receipts for any items over £100 connected to the grant.

We will also ask for quotes and images and may request to visit some groups to develop case studies. This will be optional.

Can our deadline be extended if we need more time to spend our funding?

We understand that circumstances may arise which could impact the deadline. If you require an extension on your deadline, please contact us via email at grants@sported.org.uk

How do I acknowledge an award from Sported and People’s Postcode Lottery?

For more information on acknowledging an award from Sported and People’s Postcode Lottery, please see our promotional advice pack here – Promotional Advice

Where can I find the terms and conditions for my grant?

Find your grant terms and conditions here – Sported Grant Terms and Conditions

Unsuccessful Applicants

Can I apply again for funding from this programme?

Organisations can apply to Sported for People’s Postcode Lottery funding twice per year. We have three funding rounds in 2026. Our round dates are:

For organisations based in the South of England (Postcode Society Trust), West of England (Postcode Local Trust) and Wales (Postcode Community Trust), funding round dates are as follows:

Round 1: 23^rd February 9am – 2^nd March 12noon
Round 2: 26^th May 9am – 2^nd June 12noon
Round 3: 25^th August 9am – 1^st September 12noon

For organisations based in the East of England (Postcode Places Trust), North of England (Postcode Neighbourhood Trust) and Scotland (People’s Postcode Trust), funding round dates are as follows:

Round 1: 25^th March 9am – 1^st April 12noon
Round 2: 24^th June 9am – 1^st July 12noon
Round 3: 24^th September 9am – 1^st October 12noon

What if we still have questions about why our application was unsuccessful?

We appreciate that it can be disappointing to receive the news that your application was unsuccessful.

Due to the volume of applications we receive, we may struggle to provide individual feedback. Please bear in mind that due to being consistently oversubscribed, not all strong applications can be supported.

If you have a question that you feel was not answered by the above, you can contact us via email at grants@sported.org.uk

Apply now!

Applications are now closed.

The next funding round is open from Tuesday 26th May 9am until Tuesday 2nd June 12noon 2026.

Please check your organisations postcode before applying. Applications from outside the eligible postcode areas will be declined.