Crowdfunding success at Hythe Squash Club

Hythe Cricket and Squash Club's recent crowdfunding success has seen them raise £26,000 through Sport England's Active Together crowdfunding campaign.

We caught up with Rachel Gainsford, Club Welfare Officer at Hythe Cricket and Squash Club to find out more about their recent success through the Active Together crowdfunding initiative. Discover the approach the club took, the impact of the crowdfunding beyond raising the money and Rachel's top tips for starting a crowdfunding campaign. Watch now:

Rachel's top tips

1. Get informed, learn from other clubs and dive in. Make use of all the help available to you and look at how other clubs have approached it. Looking at other clubs' crowdfunding pages is so inspirational and seeing the power of sport around our country.

2. Think about how your club communicates early on. Clubs with a lively social media presence and a well used website have been able to run it using those things alone and it might only take one or two people it run it successfully. For clubs like us, who communicate in different ways between different people, it's important to consider early on how to get them involved as they will be key to reaching different audiences.

3. Think about who your 'crowd' is. On the crowdfunding web page, consider how you approach the content, you want to talk to the people who can support you. Design the page so your members, their families, their friends, their colleagues and the community will want to read it and so they can understand why you need their help.

4. Think about how to use your rewards. We walked down the high street and asked local businesses if they could help. It was a two-way process, we could acknowledge and support their business and it was a great way to involve the community, as well as bringing more people to your crowdfunding page. We also used rewards as a gift voucher and, particularly for clubs in Tier 3 at the moment, some of the things you might usually offer as a reward like a coaching session, with Christmas coming could perhaps be offered as a gift voucher that can be redeemed when circumstances allow it.

5. Never underestimate the power of the squash community. The generosity of the squash community blew me away, not only through donating money but other squash clubs supporting on social media and commenting well done or sharing our posts.

Inspired? Find out more about the Active Together crowdfunding initiative.