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Funders propose post-Olympics endowment for community sport

Finance | Kirsty Weakley | 24 Jul 2012

Five grantmaking charities are calling on the government to invest £60m in an endowment fund to support grassroots community sport, as part of the legacy of the Olympic Games.

London Funders, Comic Relief, Community Development Foundation, City Bridge Trust and Trust for London together form the Legacy 2013 partnership. It launched the campaign yesterday with the publication of a feasibility study by London Funders.

The study highlighted that many initiatives for community sport, that were started in the lead up to the Olympic Games, will run out of funding in 2016 or 2017, and suggested that an endowment fund would be one way to provide ongoing funding.

In the original bid for the Olympic Games London 2012 promised that 60 per cent of any operating surplus would be used for grassroots sport. The Legacy 2013 partners will lobby government to use £60m of this surplus to match donations from the private and charity sector which will provide the start up funding for a long-term source of funding for projects. 

Gaynor Humphreys, director of London Funders, said: “Our vision is of donors of all kinds – individuals, companies, trusts, public bodies – pooling large and small contributions in this fund in a collaborative venture that can contribute ‘for good, for ever.’”

A Legacy 2013 Fund would not make grants directly to organisations but fund existing grantmakers and focus on areas not already covered by Sport England. Once it is established in London it hopes to roll out across the UK.

It is inspired by a similar fund that was set up after the LA Games in 1984, the LA84 fund has so far distributed more $200m to grassroots sport in Los Angeles and benefited more than 2.5 million young people.

Patrick Escobar, vice president grants at the LA84 Foundation said: “The work of the LA84 Foundation, the legacy of the 1984 Los Angeles Games, is a great example of how a community can benefit from such a legacy. Beginning with an endowment from the Games of $93m, in the last 28 years we have spent back into the community more than $200m.”

He added: “London has the potential to exceed our work. You have transformed a section of the city. But, more is needed than bricks and mortar to create a healthy community.”