Register Now for Trade Up Programme (United Kingdom)

The aim of Match. Trade. Grow is to challenge your organisation to grow its trading base, so you can invest in youth sports and physical activity now and for the future.

Funding Information

• Learning & Support Worth Over £11,000: You’ll get 12 months of hands-on support, including 8 days of group learning, Action Learning Sets, and study visits. Gain the knowledge, skills, and confidence you need to grow your trading, develop your leadership, and collaborate with others on the same journey.
• Match Trading™ Grant of Up to £25,000: Choose the level that suits you—Trade Up (up to £15,000) or Scale Up (up to £25,000). You’ll receive 20% of the grant upfront to kickstart your growth, with the rest paid as your trading income increases. It’s a powerful incentive to help your organisation grow and make an even greater impact.

Eligibility Criteria

• Your organisation must be currently active, and have a constitution, set of rules, or legal structure. Sole traders cannot apply.
• It may be a registered charity, a Community Benefit Society (CBS), a Community Amateur Sports Club (CASC), or a Community Interest Company (CIC) OR another form of company, co-operative society, or unincorporated association, if it has the following clauses in its governing document:
  • A clause which sets out social purpose or objects.
  • A full restriction on distribution of profits, meaning that any surplus is reinvested into the project or for other social purposes.
  • An asset lock or winding up clause which ensures that if the organisation is wound up, its remaining assets go to a charity, CIC, or other asset-locked body.
• Your social enterprise must have been established for more than 18 months and must have an income of at least £20,000 per year (in the last or current financial year) for their Trade Up programme or £150,000 a year for their Scale Up programme. This can be any income, not necessarily trading income. It might be trading, grants, donations, or other income.
• You must have clear plans to grow trading income by at least the amount of the grant within twelve months of the start of the learning programme.
• They expect most applicants will have some track record of trading (as opposed to generating income through grants and donations); however, they will consider each applicant on a case-by-case basis, and if you can demonstrate strong plans to hit the increased trading targets, they will consider awarding a place on the programme.
• Your social enterprise must be currently actively working to increase young people’s access to physical activity or sport in London, or have clear and workable plans to expand into this area during the next 12 months. The majority of its activities and beneficiaries must be in London.
• Your trading may directly impact young people, for example, by providing more paid classes for sports or selling services to schools.
• Your trading may be indirectly related to working with young people, e.g. developing rental income, events, merchandise, catering, etc. If this is the case, tell them how your profits will benefit young people’s access to sports and physical activity. They will require you to monitor this.
• Tell them about this and how you will ensure that you are also reaching young people who are disadvantaged.
• You must have strategic control over the trading growth in your organisation. You will usually be the CEO, a board member, or part of the senior team. You must be over 18 years old, resident, and with the right to work in the UK. You must agree to attend the full learning programme, as the peer networking and group dynamic is key to the programme’s success. There may be opportunities to involve other members of your team in study days addressing key topics relevant to them.
• Your social enterprise must have a UK bank account, or will have one before the grant is awarded, which must be either solely controlled by you or require the signatures of at least two people who are unrelated and do not live at the same address to release payments from the account.
• Policies
  • You must demonstrate a commitment to diversity and inclusion.
  • You must have a current safeguarding policy in place.
  • You must have appropriate health and safety policies and assessments in place.
  • You must have appropriate insurance in place.

For more information, visit SSE.