Grants
We partner with brilliant people and organisations to improve lives through tennis and our ambition is to support partners - who are making a real difference to people through tennis.
The funding we provide is solely for the grassroots of the game and, as the LTA’s charity, we’re committed to working in all parts of Great Britain with a particular focus on diverse and underserved communities where the game is less well established.
With your help and donations, we’ll work alongside the LTA to ensure projects we fund compliment and enhance their existing work and help tennis reach more people and more parts of the country.
We believe tennis should be for everyone and we want to work with anyone who can help open up the sport.
We want to partner with other tennis charities and a wide range of organisations across the ‘sport for development’ and third sectors more broadly.
We can accept applications from any organisation, if it's properly constituted. Being properly constituted normally means having a Constitution, Articles of Association or rules in place.
Examples of the types of organisations we can fund could be:
- A registered charity
- A charitable incorporated organisation
- Company limited by guarantee
- Community interest company limited by guarantee
- A school, college or university
- A Local Authority
Whilst we can support tennis clubs through this framework, this will generally be through exceptional circumstances, and is not the primary focus of the grant framework.
Unfortunately, we cannot directly fund individuals.
If you’re unsure whether you fall within our eligibility to fund, or not, please get in touch and we’d be happy to help.
We fund projects across Great Britain – i.e. England, Scotland and Wales. We’re unable to fund projects in Northern Ireland.
At certain times, we may focus our grant-making towards particular geographic areas, but this will be made clear in the specific guidance at the time.
We’re not able to fund international projects or organisations not registered in Great Britain.
The next funding round will follow the below timeline:
- Monday 11th November 2024: Application window opens
- Sunday 16th March 2025: Application window closes
- Wednesday 30th April 2025: Outcome of application communicated
Any project we support must align with our vision of ‘tennis opened up’ and our mission of ‘improving lives through tennis’.
Any application must robustly focus on specific groups or societal outcomes, where the project can genuinely improve lives.
Innovate |
We want to partner with organisations who challenge the status quo and develop creative solutions to open tennis up and improve lives through doing so. We're open to some risk and are interested in the reasons why activities work, or don't work, and in capturing and sharing this learning. |
Scale |
Have you got a project that improves lives through tennis and a concept that is proven to work? It could be so much bigger and better, but limited resources are holding you back? We want to partner with you to demonstrably scale it up. |
Recover |
We hope this theme is rarely accessed. We operate it to provide reassurance, so organisations know we’ll be there if they experience short term financial hardship, or operations ceasing, due to an economic, environmental, or other societal crisis. |
'Innovate' theme detail:
Overview: |
We want to partner with organisations who challenge the status quo and develop creative solutions to open tennis up and improve lives through doing so. We’re open to some risk, this is about test and learn – pilots don’t, and shouldn’t, always work. |
Suitable for: |
Any organisation, if it is properly constituted (see ‘Who’ guidance) |
Min/max grant available: |
£5,000-£50,000 total award. As a responsible grant making charity, our assessment process looks at the financial records of applicants. As a general rule, we would not make an award that was more than 20% of your previously reported annual income. |
Max duration of funding: |
Ideally a one-year project, although a maximum of two years is allowable, to include all project set up, delivery and the completion of all monitoring and evaluation work. |
Typical projects might focus on: |
The project should focus on one or more of the following groups and/or outcomes, from both a participant and workforce perspective: Groups who are more likely to experience inequalities of access, which could include:
Outcomes:
If your project covers a group or outcome not listed above, please get in touch to discuss. |
Other points to be aware of: |
We’re unable to award unrestricted (core) funding via this theme. Whilst this programme is opening with a broad and flexible approach, we reserve the right in future quarterly windows to focus on particular groups and/or outcomes. This theme has been developed is to support revenue, rather than capital projects. Capital project applications will not be considered. . Please refer to the our Tennis & Padel Facility Funding programmes for capital support options. We encourage applicants to demonstrate an element of partnership funding within your application, which can be in-kind, however, we don’t stipulate a specific percentage. Any partnership funding must be from a legitimate and legal source. Consortium applications from two or more organisations are welcomed in this theme – please make this clear in the application form. |
'Scale' theme detail:
Overview: |
Have you got a project that improves lives through tennis and a concept that is proven to work? It could be so much bigger and better, but limited resources are holding you back? We want to partner with you to demonstrably scale it up. |
Suitable for: |
Any organisation, if it is properly constituted (see ‘Who’ guidance) |
Min/max grant available: |
£10,000-£100,000 per annum. As a responsible grant making charity, our assessment process looks at the financial records of applicants. As a general rule, we would not make an award that was more than 20% of your previous reported annual income. |
Max duration of funding: |
Three years |
Typical projects might focus on: |
The project should focus on one or more of the following groups and/or outcomes, from both a participant and workforce perspective: Groups who are more likely to experience inequalities of access, which could include:
Outcomes:
If your project covers a group or outcome not listed above, please get in touch to discuss. |
Other points to be aware of: |
Within this theme, we can award unrestricted (core) funding, as long as the application, and subsequent monitoring and evaluation, demonstrates the impact of our investment. Whilst this programme is opening with a broad and flexible approach, we reserve the right in future quarterly windows to focus on particular groups and/or outcomes. This theme has been developed to support revenue, rather than capital projects. Capital project applications will not be considered. Please refer to our Tennis & Padel Facility Funding programmes for capital support options. We encourage applicants to demonstrate an element of partnership funding within your application, which can be in-kind, however, we don’t stipulate a specific percentage. Any partnership funding must be from a legitimate and legal source. Consortium applications from two or more organisations are welcomed in this theme – please make this clear in the application form. |
'Recover' theme detail:
Overview: |
We hope this theme is rarely accessed. We operate it to provide reassurance, so organisations know we’ll be there if they experience short term financial hardship, or the operations ceasing, due to an economic, environmental or other societal crisis. |
Suitable for: |
Tennis charities only |
Min/max grant available: |
£5,000-£25,000 total award |
Max duration of funding: |
One year |
Typical projects might focus on: |
N/a |
Other points to be aware of: |
This theme is not operational via our online application form. Please get in touch if your circumstances align and we will open up a conversation. Whilst we can support organisations who have faced significant financial hardship due to a genuine societal crisis, we are unable to provide support where the hardship is, in the main, due to prior poor management – financial, or otherwise. |
We know how time-consuming it is submitting grant applications and the significant amount of funds charities spend doing so. We’re also aware of the research which shows how inefficient and disproportionate many grant application processes often are.
That’s why we support and are working towards The Institute of Voluntary Action Research’s (IVAR) eight commitments around open and trusting grant making.
Explore IVAR's eight commitments
- Our guidance is as simple as possible, structured around the ‘what’, ‘who’, ‘where’, ‘when’ and, importantly, ‘how’
- Our application process is entirely online
- You can save your progress as you go and return to it at a time that suits you
- You can view an example, blank application form at the start of the application form, so you can see all questions in advance
If you have any queries at any stage in the process, require the application form in a different format, or indeed if you think we could do anything better in relation to IVAR’s eight commitments, please don’t hesitate to get in touch and we’d be happy to help - we can normally respond to queries within 72 hours.
Applications are initially assessed by colleagues at the LTA, who make recommendations to the Foundation’s Board of Trustees. These Trustees make the ultimate decision. You can view a copy of the Assessment Checklist which guides the assessment process below:
We look forward to receiving your application soon and hope that we can support your project to improve lives through tennis.
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