Buddle

Buddle is run by Sport England and can provide you with many free resources to help your club to develop and become more sustainable for the future. 

These resources will enable you to broaden and develop your skills and understanding of Club Finances, Club Management, Club Marketing and Club People. 

There are 41 courses covering a wide range of topics; a mixture of Online Modules and Toolkits that can be accessed at any time and Workshops that are run virtually during the year.

The Bowls Development Alliance is also working together with Buddle to help deliver our Weeks of Learning. 

County Active Partnership

County Active Partnerships are organisations that work collaboratively with local partners to create an in-depth understanding of the needs of the local community.

Their main aim is to increase participation in sport and other physical activities at a more local level throughout the country.

Each of the 43 Active Partnerships offers a wide range of services focussing on the needs of clubs and their local communities. These include: Funding & Support, Safeguarding, Facility Development, and Workforce Development

Each County Active Partnership will offer slightly different services so please use this link below to find specific details for your local area. 

Local Authority – Local Authorities play an integral role in providing in proving sport and recreational facilities within your local community and will be able to give you details of any funding that is available for projects in your area. 

Bowls England Funding Portal – The Bowls England Funding Portal allows affiliated clubs to access grants, loans, and awards to help with club improvement and development. Here, your club will be able to access a range of information covering Loans and Bursaries to Recruitment Material and Legal Advice.

Bowls England also helps affiliated clubs to find tailored funding information by providing a report that details funding streams that they may be eligible to apply for.

Visit our Club Finder to discover your local club.​

Get in touch with your local council.

Access the Bowls England Funding Portal​

How can we help?

More members


Recruiting and retaining members can sometimes be challenging but it is key to helping your club develop and thrive in the long term. 

Have you tried some of these things:

Our education platform has a course for you – “Running a successful open day”. Click below to visit the e-learning section. 

Short on time? Have a look at our quick guides (you might find some quick wins here for your club).

Reach out to your local community


In your local community there will be many social and activity groups and engaging with just a few of these can help widen your clubs outreach even further. We have helped clubs to create connections with a wide range of local clubs and groups including:

You could also think about running open days targeting specific groups; our Women Can programme can help provide you with hints and tips on running fun and exciting sessions for women. 

Become a well-governed club

What is good governance? There are 5 key principles to good governance below.

Structure


Ensure all key committee positions are filled.

People


Make sure your club promotes equal opportunity for everyone no matter their gender, ethnicity or ability.

Communications


Make sure you have open and transparent communication with your members.

Standards & Conduct


Ensure you have your own standards in place to aid your future development.

Policies & Processes


Make sure that you have all the necessary legal policies in place.

The Bowls Development Alliance can help by providing you with templates to help you update or implement policies such as safeguarding and GDPR.

Your club structure


A well-defined club structure will help your club when it comes to making important decisions. By having a wide range of positions within your club committee it means none of your volunteers will be overwhelmed by a large workload but also helps members know who to direct specific questions to.

We can offer:

Financing and Funding

Maintaining healthy financial reserves is essential to help secure your club’s future and increasing your income streams through sponsorship, funding and social events are among a few of the ways you can do this.

Undertaking regular financial forecasting will also help you to better plan for the future and continually develop your facilities and workforce.

  • We can help you identify any potential funding streams and give you hints and tips to help manage your club finances to improve your long term stability

Look after your volunteers

Club volunteers

Volunteers are an integral part of your club and are key in helping you continue to thrive. Creating a volunteer culture within the club will help you to fill vacant roles and mean you always have someone willing to lend a hand at events!

Having a flexible approach will enable more members to become actively involved in the club; consider offering one-off opportunity to help at events.

Our Club Helpers Workshops can help you to increase your volunteer workforce within the club, please get in touch with one of our Club Development Officers below. 

Coaches

Coaches are key volunteers within your club who are able to offer help and support to members.

Check out the Coach Bowls website for more information on becoming or improving your coaching.   

Be sure to browse the often overlooked aspect of reward and recognition for your hard working coaches.

Safeguarding

The most important aspect of any club is the safeguarding of its members, visitors, and potential members.

You can find all the information you need in our safeguarding section.

Case Studies

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