Sport England Funding 2026: Movement Fund Guide

Before you read: Grantsights' search tools and grant reports are built for funding in the United States only, so there's nothing on this page to buy. It points you to Sport England's own pages and published records instead. If you'd use a UK version of our tools, let us know you're in the UK.

Sport England Funding in 2026: What's Open and What's Closed

Sport England invests over £250 million of National Lottery and government money a year, according to its Our funding page (opens in a new tab), but only one door is open to a local club or community group applying on its own: the Movement Fund. Most of the rest goes to long-term partners, Active Partnerships, national governing bodies and place-based work that you can't apply for.

Here's what Grantsights found on Sport England's pages on October 29, 2026:

According to Sport England's historic funds page (opens in a new tab), the Movement Fund launched in April 2024 as a £160 million fund that pulled the older schemes into one application. If a website or council funding list still sends you to "Sport England Small Grants", it's out of date. The Movement Fund's own page says it invests more than £20 million a year.

Football is a partial exception. Sport England's activities page (opens in a new tab) says pitches, goalposts, floodlights and similar football facility costs go through the Football Foundation, which it funds with government, The FA and the Premier League. Sport England will fund football directly when it serves wider social, community or health goals, such as walking football.

What 3,039 Movement Fund Awards Show

Grantsights analysis of Sport England's 360Giving data counted 2,641 Movement Fund grants and 398 crowdfunding pledges awarded from April 1, 2025 to March 31, 2026, worth £28.7 million together. That's a big step up from the 1,560 grants and 202 pledges recorded in 2024-25, the fund's first year in the data (its first award in the file is dated May 31, 2024).

Grantsights analysis of Sport England's 360Giving file, awards dated May 31, 2024 to March 31, 2026, grouped by award date into April to March years.

The grants aren't clustered at the top the way some small-grant programmes are. Here's how the 2,641 grants in 2025-26 break down by size:

Grantsights analysis of 2,641 Movement Fund grants, April 2025 to March 2026. The smallest was £321 and the largest £15,000.

The middle half of grants fell between £6,280 and £13,913. Pledges ran lower: the middle half was £4,387 to £11,731, and 71 pledges were for the full £15,000.

Where the money went. Every English region got a share, with the North West and London leading:

Region is the location scope Sport England assigns to each award. Grantsights analysis of 2,641 grants, April 2025 to March 2026.

At council level, Birmingham organisations got 98 grants, Manchester 60 and Liverpool 55. That fits Sport England's stated priority for places with greater need.

Which activities. Multi-sport projects took 1,102 grants, then exercise and fitness (333), cricket (132), football (125), yoga (77), bowls (74), basketball (69), movement and dance (69) and boxing (63). Pledges tilted towards clubs with facilities: multi-sport (84), cricket (83), bowls (50), tennis (22) and rowing (18) led the 398 pledges.

Money source. Of the 2,641 grants, 2,278 were funded from the National Lottery and 363 from Exchequer (government) money, according to the funding source field in the data.

Limits of this data. It shows awards made, not applications refused, so it can't give a success rate. Sport England doesn't publish one on its Movement Fund pages either. The newest record is March 31, 2026, so seven months of awards are missing. The "region" field is Sport England's own location scope for the award, which may differ from where every participant lives.

Who Can Apply to the Movement Fund (and Who Can't)

The Movement Fund needs at least 3 unrelated committee members, trustees or directors who don't live together, one more than many small-grant schemes ask for. According to Sport England's who can apply page (opens in a new tab), it's for not-for-profit organisations, such as:

• sports clubs
• community groups
• charities
• local authorities
• not-for-profit companies
• schools, where the project benefits the wider community

You'll also need a formal governing document (a constitution, terms of reference or articles of association) and fair decision-making and voting rights. Companies should check their people with significant control (opens in a new tab) record on Companies House: Sport England says no one should have significant control.

Who Sport England can't fund:

• individuals or sole traders
• organisations based outside the UK
• companies that can pay profits to directors, shareholders or members, including companies limited by shares
• organisations applying on behalf of another organisation
• organisations that have already received £15,000 from the Movement Fund in the last 12 months

That last rule has a nuance. If you got less than £15,000 in the last 12 months, your project is finished and closed, and you've sent all the monitoring information, you can apply for a new project, but the two awards together can't exceed £15,000 in a rolling 12 months.

Here's who actually got the 2025-26 grants, by the organisation type in Sport England's data:

Grantsights analysis of Sport England's 360Giving data, April 2025 to March 2026.

Unregistered clubs got 534 grants, so you don't need charity or CASC status, and CICs did better than any type except registered charities (our CIC funding guide covers other funders that accept them). They did get smaller grants on average, with a median of £7,595. If your club is weighing up formal status for tax reasons, GOV.UK explains how to register as a community amateur sports club (opens in a new tab), and points out that a CASC can't later become a charity without closing and transferring its assets.

What the Movement Fund Will and Won't Pay For

Sport England lists 7 types of cost it'll typically fund, and caps project management at 10% of the award. According to its costs page (opens in a new tab), you can ask for:

• coaches and sessional workers
• training and development
• facility hire
• equipment
• new facilities or upgrades to existing ones
• volunteer expenses
• costs to manage and coordinate delivery, if they're new to the project and no more than 10% of the award

It won't pay for: costs you're already committed to (existing staff salaries, rent, utilities), hiring your own spaces, feasibility, consultation, evaluation or contingency, anything you've already spent before the award letter, regranting to other groups, personal kit or clothing, costs another funder already covers, recoverable VAT, or cash purchases.

Activities it won't fund: artistic or performance dance, children's play or activities focused on under-fives, gardening and manual tasks, self-defence, eSports and virtual reality, and anything outside England. Walking, cycling, fitness and almost every recognised sport are in. If your activity is on Sport England's high-risk list, your club or coaches must be affiliated to the recognised governing body, and you'll need to prove it.

Facility projects must be small-scale. You need to own the land or building, hold a long-term lease, or have the landlord's consent, and the project must start within six months and be finished and open within 12 months of the decision.

Continuing an existing activity is allowed only if the activity is at risk of being lost, will grow to reach new people, or will be put on a sustainable footing. Plain "keep doing what we do" bids don't qualify.

Grant or Crowdfunding Pledge: How Sport England Decides

You don't choose between a grant and a pledge; Sport England does, and in 2025-26 about 13% of Movement Fund awards (398 of 3,039) were pledges. Its pledge page (opens in a new tab) says you're more likely to get one if your project focuses on buying equipment or improving or creating facilities.

How the two work, according to Sport England:

The data backs up the pledge rule. Two pledge examples from Sport England's published records: Hopton & District Bowls Club in West Suffolk received a £9,404 pledge in December 2025 for solar panels, and Butlers Arms Bowling Club in Blackburn with Darwen received £5,000 in November 2025 for a new lawn mower. Both are kit-and-facility projects, the type Sport England says it'll usually route to Crowdfunder.

Plan for a pledge if you're asking for equipment. Your best bet is to assume a kit or surface project will come back as a pledge. A common mistake is budgeting a resurfacing or equipment project as though the full sum will arrive as a grant. If you can't realistically raise half the cost from members, parents, local businesses or your council in about six weeks, think about the size of the project before you apply.

How Sport England Assesses Your Application

Sport England scores every application on 3 criteria, then applies its priorities when it has to choose. According to its assessment page (opens in a new tab), the criteria are:

1. Need and motivation. Do you understand your community and the barriers stopping people being active, and did the community help shape the project?
2. Impact on physical activity. Will the project increase activity, especially moving people from little or no activity to some each week, and will that last beyond the funding?
3. Delivery and capability. Is there a clear, workable plan, a reasonable budget, and people with the skills or track record to deliver it?

Its priorities. Sport England's priorities page (opens in a new tab) says it'll favour projects for groups who've had fewer chances to be active: people on low incomes, disabled people and those with long-term health conditions, older people, people from culturally diverse communities, pregnant women and parents of very young children, girls aged 5 to 16, LGBTQ+ people, people in the care system, and unpaid carers. It also favours areas with greater need, using its Place Needs Classification, which combines Active Lives survey data with deprivation and health data. It says it does fund projects outside these priorities, but they'll lose out when choices are tight.

Checks on your organisation. The organisation page (opens in a new tab) says Sport England checks your governing document, accounts and contacts, runs media checks, looks at your digital footprint, and reviews your funding history with it and other funders on 360Giving GrantNav. A messy public record or an inactive website can count against you.

How to Apply, Step by Step

The form has 4 written sections with word limits of 100, 500, 500 and 500 words. Here's the order Sport England's pages set out, with what to have ready.

1. Check the basics. Read the who can apply, activities and costs pages first. Sport England's helpline (0345 8508 508, Monday to Friday, 8am to 5pm) can talk through eligibility and will send a copy of the form so you can draft offline, though you still submit online.
2. Gather documents. You'll upload your governing document, your latest accounts, and a bank statement dated within the last 3 months in the organisation's legal name, covering at least 28 days. New organisations without accounts need three months of bank statements and a two-year financial forecast. Names on every document must match your legal name exactly.
3. Name two contacts. One should be involved in the project; the other is a senior person accountable for the money. They can't be related or live at the same address.
4. Write the four sections. A 100-word overview; up to 500 words on why the project should happen; up to 500 on what you'll achieve; and up to 500 on how you'll deliver it. Sport England says it wants "a compelling story", not lots of data.
5. Build a full budget. Include every project cost, even ones Sport England can't fund, and show how you calculated them. You can upload a budget breakdown.
6. Submit and wait. Apply through the application portal (opens in a new tab) at least 12 weeks before you want to start, and don't spend money until you hear. Decisions usually take six to eight weeks.

After a grant. Keep receipts, invoices and a spending record, don't pay for anything in cash, and fill in the end-of-project form Sport England emails you.

What Sport England Doesn't Tell You

The Movement Fund pages are clear on rules. They say less about what a winning bid looks like in practice, and the 360Giving data fills some of that gap.

There's no published success rate. Sport England says it receives more applications than it can fund, but its Movement Fund pages don't give a rate, and the 360Giving file only lists awards. Treat any "success rate" you see on a third-party site with care unless it names its source.

Full-amount bids aren't the norm. Only 11% of 2025-26 grants were for the full £15,000, and the median was £10,000. That's different from National Lottery Awards for All, where most grants in England sit near the £20,000 cap. Ask for what the project costs.

Unregistered clubs get smaller grants. Their median of £7,595 was about £2,500 below registered charities. The data can't say why, but it's consistent with smaller clubs running smaller projects.

Emergency help exists inside the same fund. Sport England lists responding to emergencies, such as storm damage, as one of the five project types it supports. Elton All Saints Cricket Club in Bury, for example, received £1,800 in March 2026 for emergency replacement of storm-damaged covers and a practice cage. Grantsights counted 39 grants in 2025-26 whose titles start with "ER", the label used on that award. It'll prioritise activities that need to restart quickly.

Repeat funding is possible but rare. Of 4,518 organisations funded from May 2024 to March 2026, 259 received two or more awards. The 12-month £15,000 cap is the limit, not a ban on returning.

The checks reach beyond your form. Because Sport England reviews GrantNav records and your online footprint, an unfinished monitoring report from an earlier Sport England grant is a red flag. Close off old grants before applying again.

Real Movement Fund Awards From the Data

These awards are all in Sport England's published 360Giving data for March 2026, and they show the range of what's funded:

• Knebworth Tennis Club (North Hertfordshire) received £15,000 for resurfacing courts 3 and 4.
• Chell Area Family Action Group (Stoke-on-Trent) received £12,699 for its Active for Life community gym project.
• Jubodhol (Bradford), an unregistered club, received £7,840 for Netball for All.
• Beanfield Special Needs Parents' Support Group (North Northamptonshire) received £1,599 for physical activity sessions.

A case in point for the "who" question: two of these four aren't sports organisations at all. A family action group and a parents' support group both fit because their projects get less active people moving.

When the Movement Fund Isn't the Right Fit

Movement Fund awards top out at £15,000 and cover England only, so plenty of projects need another funder:

• Bigger community projects, or projects in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland: our National Lottery Awards for All guide covers grants up to £20,000 in all four nations. Note that Awards for All Northern Ireland won't fund projects focused on sport. Our National Lottery Community Fund guide covers the Fund's larger programmes.
• Football pitches and facilities: go to the Football Foundation first, as Sport England's own page advises.
• CICs: our grants for community interest companies guide lists funders that accept CICs.
• Local and community funding: our community grants UK guide covers councils and community foundations, and our People's Postcode Lottery grants guide covers another funder that supports sport and health projects.
• Charities more broadly: see our charity grants UK overview and our guide to grants for small charities.

Sources Checked

All pages read and files downloaded on October 29, 2026:

• Sport England, Our funding (opens in a new tab) and The Movement Fund (opens in a new tab)
• Sport England, More about the Movement Fund (opens in a new tab), including which projects support increased activity (opens in a new tab), who can apply (opens in a new tab), which activities can be funded (opens in a new tab), which costs can be funded (opens in a new tab), your organisation (opens in a new tab), how we'll assess your project (opens in a new tab) and writing your application (opens in a new tab)
• Sport England, getting a grant (opens in a new tab), getting a crowdfunding pledge (opens in a new tab) and if your application is unsuccessful (opens in a new tab)
• Sport England, Movement Fund priorities (opens in a new tab) and historic funds (opens in a new tab)
• 360Giving Data Registry: Sport England, "Sport England Awards Data" (file dated March 31, 2026; registry modification date May 12, 2026)
• GOV.UK, People with significant control (PSCs) (opens in a new tab)
• GOV.UK, Register as a community amateur sports club (CASC) (opens in a new tab)