FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Inside The London Marathon Charitable Trust
Every year, all the profits from the London Marathon are handed to The
London Marathon Charitable Trust. Annie Rice takes a look at how grants
from The Trust are transforming lives in London and beyond
At the very core of the London Marathon's ethos is its dedication to the
growth of sports participation in London and beyond. Since the event was
founded in 1981, by Chris Brasher and John Disley, it has been committed to
developing sport and recreation facilities and access in London and in the
areas where it organises events.
Thirty-five years ago Disley and Brasher had a vision that all of the
London Marathon profits would go to support this cause. They turned this
revolutionary vision into reality by creating The London Marathon
Charitable Trust, which was set up to distribute the profits of the London
Marathon to charitable causes in and around London boroughs.
The Trust continues to support that original vision of a society in which
all people participate regularly in sport and physical activity,
contributing to individual physical and mental wellbeing, as well as to a
sense of community cohesion. To achieve this goal, The Trust awards grants
to projects that offer high-quality, accessible and affordable facilities
for sport and physical activity in the areas in which London Marathon
Events Ltd organises mass-participation sporting events – from London and
Surrey to Silverstone and Aylesbury Vale.
Since its founding, The Trust has allocated grants amounting to in excess
of £57 million across more than 1,000 projects, grants of anything from a
few thousand pounds to hundreds of thousands, helping to pay for everything
from astro pitches in Islington to cricket fields in Ealing, sprung floors
in a Hackney circus space and a climbing wall in Isleworth. Gym equipment,
multi-use games areas, basketball courts, training tracks, boxing rings,
changing rooms and parkour spaces have all been funded over the years.
Projects in all 32 of the London boroughs and the City of London have
received funding at some stage, although deciding where the money should go
is never an easy decision.
Trustees receive online applications on a rolling deadline and make awards
at quarterly meetings. All successful applicants must have a viable plan,
not just to rebuild facilities and replace equipment, but to increase
participation among inactive groups. This is what makes The Trust special,
according to Chief Grants Officer, Sarah Ridley.
"Our desire is to get people up and active, and without good facilities it
is hard to do that," she says. "But we only give money when organisations
have a real commitment to supporting participation in the long term.
"Lots of facilities require funding for refurbishment, to patch pot holes
in tennis courts, for example, but we can't fund all these. Our money goes
to projects where it really makes a difference, where organisations are
enticing people off the couch and where they have a plan for the future."
The Trust in action
Last year was a record-breaking year for The London Marathon Charitable
Trust. The profits from all of the events organised by London Marathon
Events Ltd totalled a staggering £5.2 million, which was all gifted through
Gift Aid to The Trust. This enabled The Trust to pay out 59 grants
totalling £4,494,163 from funding received the previous financial year.
Wey Kayak Club, for example, has used a £50,000 grant from The Trust to
help build a new secure store for 50 boats at Guildford Waterside Centre,
and pay for new kayaks. The investment has enabled the 53-year-old venture
to grow from 250 to 380 members, to offer new sessions to school-age
children, train more than 40 volunteer coaches, and improve access for
para-canoeists.
At the other end of the spectrum, £2 million of Trust money helped turn the
elite-level Olympic VeloPark in Stratford into a cycling facility for clubs
and local people, with cross country, road and BMX circuits created next to
the famous velodrome.
Every runner in this year's Virgin Money London Marathon contributes to The
Trust's work, enabling more grants to be awarded to projects that will
ultimately offer more people access to sport and recreation facilities.
Last year saw some exciting developments, here are some of the highlights.
The Archer Academy
The Archer Academy in East Finchley, London was awarded a grant of £500,000
from The Trust to install state-of-the-art sporting facilities. Thenew
facilities, which will be available for use by both pupils at the school
and the local community, include a bespoke indoor climbing wall, which is
suitable for disabled users, and an all-weather 3G pitch with
floodlighting.
Through this project the Stanley Road playing fields, which were abandoned
for 12 years, have been given a new lease of life with the creation of this
innovative sporting centre on the site. It is anticipated that the
facilities will offer a massive boost to the North Barnet area, with an
estimated 40,000 people a year able to benefit from sporting opportunities
in the evenings and weekends.
London Marathon Events Ltd Director and Paralympic gold medallist, Baroness
Tanni Grey-Thompson, led the official opening, meeting with pupils from the
school and locals eager to use the facilities, saying: "It's absolutely
incredible to see what the donation from The London Marathon Charitable
Trust has done and it is great to see how proud the children are of the new
facilities."
Headteacher of the academy Lucy Harrison said: "The London Marathon
Charitable Trust has enabled us to have sports facilities we wouldn't have
had. It is fantastic to see the benefit that the facilities will bring to
both the school and the local community."
Creating a new community hub
Grants from The Trust totalling £142,000 contributed to the creation of the
Healthy Lifestyle Community Centre at Abbotshall in Catford.
The funding helped to regenerate the playing field and construct a
community hub to provide junior football and cricket, sports day
facilities, changing rooms, an exercise and fitness hall, community meeting
rooms, a community cafe and community garden. Response to the initiative
from the local community has been magnificent with the centre being fully
used seven days a week.
The venue is also being used for a crucial initiative to prevent the onset
of health problems by supporting inactive residents aged 14 and over.
Bespoke 13-week activity programmes including 30 minutes of sport-related
activity per week, will be provided to inactive residents for them to
follow.
The new programme will work in partnership with local GPs, pharmacies and
secondary schools to support the health of more than 1,000 participants a
year. The aim is to enable them to become more active and healthy and
therefore reduce the need for individuals to consult their GPs in future.
The project is forecast to achieve a social return on investment of £40 for
every pound spent.
"In a way, our aims are the same as the Marathon itself," says Ridley. "The
Marathon gets people active through running, we do it by funding projects,
whether it's a running track or playing fields, a skatepark or a community
hall."
How it works
The London Marathon Charitable Trust provides grants for capital projects
that both inspire and increase the numbers of people regularly taking part
in physical activities.
The London Marathon Charitable Trust was created in 1981, the inaugural
year of the London Marathon, to meet one of the six objectives set by race
founders Chris Brasher and John Disley: "to raise money for the provision
of recreational facilities in London".
Every year, the profits achieved by London Marathon Events Ltd are
transferred under Gift Aid to The London Marathon Charitable Trust and the
Trustees award grants to organisations that further The Trust's objective
to encourage people to become more active.
The Trust's objective "to provide or assist in the provision of facilities
for recreation or other leisure time occupation" was subsequently widened
to enable grants to be made for projects in any area where London Marathon
Events Ltd currently stages an event. These are: the 32 London boroughs and
the City of London, Surrey, South Northamptonshire, and Aylesbury Vale.
In the past 12 months, the LMCT has restructured its grant-making process
and now makes grants four times a year (previously it was annually in
December). Grants are now made in three categories:
• Small Capital Grants, from £5,000 to £19,999, intended to help improve
existing amenities or to build new facilities and support more people to
become physically active.
• Major Capital Grants, from £20,000 to £150,000, for the renovation,
modernisation or creation of significant facilities for organisations
already encouraging people not physically active to participate in sporting
activities.
• Strategic Grants, a separate fund to deliver major sports and recreation
facilities. Applications for Strategic Grants may be submitted on an
invitation-only basis.
The Trust's current priorities are to fund the capital component of
projects that increase participation, especially among individuals and
groups who are currently physically inactive or have low levels of
activity, plus children and young people outside of school hours.
An 'inactive person' is defined as an individual who has participated in
less than 30 minutes of moderate intensity exercise in the previous four
weeks. Sport England suggests that some 25 per cent of people across the
country are inactive.
"We are really looking at the impact of capital spending on participation
and activity," explains Chief Grants Officer Sarah Ridley. "As we are
unable to fund all applications, we are looking for good quality
applications from organisations that are committed to getting people
active."
More information about The Trust, the criteria and the application process
can be found at: www.lmct.org.uk
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