Through support from the Football Foundation, Kick It Out is able to offer grants of up to £2,000 each. The aims of the grants programme include helping to increase participation from BME communities in all areas of the game (including playing, coaching and refereeing), using football to create more inclusive communities and helping grassroots and amateur teams develop closer links with mainstream football including local County Football Associations.

Priority areas of activity
Kick It Out has introduced a number of priority areas of activity for applications for a Kick It Out Development Grant. Whilst we will still consider projects that do not fall under any of the headings, projects that fit one or more of the criteria are more likely to receive funding.

• Increasing participation of BME communities, especially women and girls
• Working with members of new communities especially eastern European or involving Gypsy, Roma or Traveller communities
• Organisations which want to use sporting activities to engage participants from faith based organisations or who use sport to address Islamaphobia or anti-Semitis
• Projects that address homophobia and promote the inclusion of the LGBT community in the game.

What can the grants be used to fund
Kick It Out Developments Grants have been designed to fund new areas of activity to help increase participation and involvement with football. Grants can be used to fund football coaching sessions, facility hire, referees, a limited amount of equipment and a variety of coaching courses including football coach education courses, refereeing and first aid.

Unfortunately the Development Grants are unable to be used for existing work, educational resources, full sets of football kit, employment of permanent staff and one-off events such as stand-alone football tournaments. If you have any queries about what the grant can be used towards, please contact a member of the Kick It Out team.

Who can Apply?
Applications are welcomed from amateur and grassroots football clubs, community groups, youth groups and faith organisations. Larger and more established organisations, such as local authorities and projects operating under the umbrella of professional clubs are advised to make links with community projects before submitting an application.

How to Apply?
All applications for a Kick It Out Development Grant need to be submitted using the online application form;

http://www.kickitout.org/dev-grant10/dev-grant-application.php

The closing date for all applications forms is 5.00pm on Friday 23rd April 2010.

What happens next?
A Kick It Out/Football Foundation panel will decide on all applications for a Kick It Out Development Grant. All applicants will be notified by Friday 14th May 2010. All projects that receive a grant will be required to produce a report of the activity; one month after the event is completed. Reports should include details of the event including photographs and copies of any pub­licity received. Kick It Out reserve the right to ask for any grant to be repaid if a full project report is not received.

Visit the Kick It Out website at www.kickitout.org for further information on how to apply for a grant.

Making an application for a Kick It Out Development Grant
Please read the guidance notes below before filling out an application for a Kick It Out Development Grant. Please do not hesitate to contact Kick It Out if you have any queries about any of the questions.

Details of the Project
Please give as much detail as possible about the project you wish to organise. Along with an outline of the project, it would be helpful if you could highlight the three main objectives of your project, i.e. why is the project needed, what you are hoping to achieve and how you are going to do it.

Details should also be given on how the project meets one of our priority areas. You may include in this section any facts or statistics to illustrate particular issues and needs within a community. Kick It Out Development Grants should not be used to fund work that is ongoing or something that is currently taking place.

Duration of Project
Applicants should give details of when the project will start and finish. Applicants will be told in April whether their application has been successful or not, therefore your project should not be started before this date. Grants can be used to fund activities for a maximum six-month period.

It may be helpful in this section to state what activity would take place on a month-by-month basis. This will help the panel to see how the project has been organised. For example, if you are hoping to run some taster sessions for the local community, which will lead to the formation of a team, you could include the following information;

Month
April - Produce publicity material to recruit participants
May - Hold first taster session
June - Contact County FA to enquire about joining a league
July/August - Continue to hold training sessions
September - Play first league match

The Participants
It would be helpful if organisations could give an approximate number of how many people will be involved in the project. This should include the numbers of those participating, split into four different age categories (under 11's, 11-16, 16-24 and over 24's) as well as an approximate breakdown by gender and ethnic origin.

Publicity
It is a condition of grant that groups attempt to gain maximum publicity for their event or activity to help raise awareness of the Kick It Out Development Grants. Kick It Out will help with this by issuing a press release but groups should detail other ways in which they will attempt to get publicity for the project.

Partnerships and Sustainability
As part of the Development Grants, we wish to encourage groups to form partnerships with other organisations within the community, particularly those within mainstream football. Please contact Kick It Out if you would like help making these contacts, especially those who wish to work more closely with their County FA's.

Development Grants can only be used to fund projects that last a maximum of six months. Please give details about how you plan to sustain your project in the future.

Monitoring and Evaluation
In this section, please give details of how you will monitor and evaluate the success of your project, i.e. how will you know that you have achieved what you set out to achieve

Project Costs
The maximum amount that groups can apply for is £2,000. Applications will need to include a full project budget that illustrates all expenditure. Kick It Out will ask for copies of invoices as part of the full project report, required for each successful grant recipient. Please make sure you read the details on the front page of this form, which lists some of the items that Kick It Out Development Grants can/cannot be used to fund.

Although no match funding is required, it is hoped that grants can be used to unlock other areas of funding locally.

For further information about applying for a grant, please contact a member of the Kick It Out staff team on 020 7684 4884 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .