£7.8m available from London Marathon Charitable Trust to encourage physical activity
Melanie May | 4 February 2020 | News
The London Marathon Trust is making £7.8m available in grants for 2020 for projects that inspire activity and enable people to become and remain physically active regardless of age, gender, ability, race or background.
The £7.8 million is split across the London Marathon Trust’s two grant programmes:
£5.2 million is available through the Facilities Grants Programme to fund the building, renovation or modernisation of facilities in London and Surrey, where the charity’s trading subsidiary London Marathon Events operates. Small Grants and Major Grants are available from this programme, and the thresholds have recently increased:
- Small Grants are now £5,000-£50,000, increased from £5,000-£20,000
- Major Grants are now £50,001-£250,000, increased from £20,001-£150,000
The next deadline for applications for Facilities Grants is Wednesday 11 March.
The remaining £2.6 million is through Strategic Partnerships Grants, which allows The Trust to work with organisations on projects that challenge inequality of access to physical activity and deliver the greatest possible impact across the UK for children and young people, women and girls, BAME communities, people from lower socio-economic groups, older people, and disabled people. The Trust will announce the recipients of the Strategic Grants in the coming months.
On 26 April 2020, the London Marathon celebrates its 40th Race. The work of The Trust was made possible by the founders of the London Marathon, Chris Brasher and John Disley, who ensured that the surplus from the London Marathon and all future events organised by London Marathon Events could be gifted to The Trust. Since 1981, The Trust has awarded more than £86 million in grants to more than 1,400 projects.
Sir Rodney Walker, Chair of The London Marathon Charitable Trust, said:
“The work of The Trust is continuing to go from strength to strength and we are delighted to announce that we have nearly £8 million in 2020 to deliver our mission of inspiring activity. Over the next year we look forward to funding more inspiring projects that provide even more people with the opportunity to become and remain physically active.”
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Some recent examples of projects supported by The Trust include:
- Southbank Undercroft: a grant of £200,000 supported the restoration of the world-famous skate space with free Skate School activities for children to encourage more children, especially young girls, to give skate sports a go for the first time.
- Off-road cycling trails opened in Surrey Hills: a grant of £19,000 helped open up an extensive 80km network of off-road cycling trails in South West Surrey.
- Access Sport: was awarded a £845,000 Strategic Partnership Grant for a three-year programme that will deliver four new BMX tracks and clubs (two in Bristol and one each in Sheffield and Manchester) and support a network of 50 clubs nationally to engage 6,000 young people in cycling activities.
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About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.