With the calendar flipping from 2025 to 2026, there are new opportunities for sports leagues to apply for and potentially receive funding through grants. Grants are a funding source that you have to apply for, they don’t just hand them out at your local sporting goods store. After fundraising efforts, car wash events, and registration fees are collected, your league may still fall short financially. You may have been aiming to put in a new press box or upgrade your batting cages or secure funding for a thousand other sports league reasons, but alas you fell short of your financial goals. Enter the world of grants.

So, within the grant proposal format which includes introducing your league, its board and volunteers, and what you are hoping to gain by applying for a grant, there is a section for the community’s need for your business, your services, your sports league. This is a critical component in the decision making process because it establishes your league’s importance to your community members. For example:

“Baseball has always been a unifying force in our town.  When we struggled to find common ground in politics, civil rights issues, and national headlines – baseball was always a safe place for (insert your league’s city/town) residents to be together peacefully.  The fact that our complex was destroyed during Hurricane Helene may have dampened the spirits of our community members.  But, it did the opposite.  It charged us all up emotionally, thinking about when we were younger, when we hit our first home run at (insert your home field) Park, when our kids first trotted out to their positions on Opening Day for their first games.  The (insert your city/town) community is stronger with baseball being played on our cherished fields.  And our community will continue to heal the wounds of what Hurricane Helene did and be smarter this time with better facilities, services, and systems in place for future ballplayers signing up to join the (insert your league name) community.“

A grant writer teacher of mine once said something like “grants are about hope and promise.” The hope of the league is written in the community need statement of the grant proposal. Your league hopes to get a new press box because the one currently is not safe to hold more than 2 adults’ weight and is a safety hazard. Your league hopes to add a batting cage that will help you compete against the larger, more affluent sports leagues in your city/town. Your league hopes to send a group of 12 year olds to Cooperstown Dream Park this summer to create memories for a lifetime. That hope and your league’s commitment to bringing hope to your league’s members needs to be conveyed to a panel of funding professionals reading your grant and the grants of hundreds of other deserving leagues. Make your statements here stand out.

Cite a quote or two from a national source that creates a powerful link to your community need. For example, “According to beliveperform.com, a leading UK psychology website, the psychological benefits of playing youth sports include, but are not limited to “increases confidence, improves focus, teaches teamwork, improves quality of life.” What community wouldn’t benefit from its youngest members gaining confidence, improving their focus for life’s challenges, embodying teamwork principles, and ultimately enjoying a better quality of life. Sports leagues do all of these things, if they have the financial resources to draw in participants year after year. A healthy sport league is one with memberships that run a decade or longer. Why, because the player and the family have bought into the league, its values, its board members, and its place in their community.

Finish with a statement that will resonate with the funding group. For example, “Our baseball complex was mostly destroyed by Hurricane Helene.  Our dugouts were crushed by trees.  Our fields were flooded by the unimaginable amounts of rain that fell from the sky.  Our parking lots, our concession stands, our press boxes all sustained major damage.  One of our church leaders, Mr. Grayson, upon seeing our fields for the first day after Hurricane Helene, asked us to pause for a moment while he recited, “reset, refocus, readjust, restart.” Your sports league sustained damages and you are intent on getting fixing what Mother Nature destroyed. Here you can list some of your goals, some of the items the grant money will be used for, and finish with a powerful statement. Get their attention and keep their attention with a strong close in this section.

For more information grant writing for sports leagues, stay tuned to this blog for more grant writing advice. And for questions, send me a message and I will do my best to answer your request.