Quarry Rovers FC is based in Oxford, dedicated to juniors football from 7 to 18 years old. They have a huge number of players across the local area, providing sporting opportunity for more than 200 young people. We spoke to Cathy from the club’s committee to find out more about the club and how they have raised over £1,500 with easyfundraising in just a year!
Tell us about the club
We are a grassroots football club, established in 1952 and FA accedited. We offer access to football for girls and boys aged 7-18. We prioritise fun and development over winning but we have many successful teams and our club has been responsible for forming future professionals including Chelsea legend Clive Walker.
We are proud to serve the local community and currently have over 220 children on our books! The club is run by over 40 volunteers and committee members. People often wonder where our name comes from, and it’s from the fact that we are based in Headington which is home of Headington Quarry, where limestone was formerly quarried for use in buildings across the UK.
Why do you need to raise funds?
We have a big club with a lot of players, which requires lots of training equipment, maintenance of our pitches, coaching support and more. We are constantly looking for ways to increase funds to give our players the best experience possible.
Why did you join easyfundraising?
Everyone shops online. Everyone loves free money. Easyfundraising combines both of these things into one simple platform and they also provide tons of resources, materials, and incentives to make it all super easy for us to raise. We’re thrilled with how quickly our community have got behind it, we have 79 supporters and they have raised over £1,500 for us in just 13 months which is just fantastic.
What has the funding made possible?
The money we’ve raised so far has allowed us to convince the Football Foundation that we are a viable option for them to invest in us, which is vital for our club’s future.
What are you currently fundraising towards?
We have been fortunate enough to win a Football Foundation Grass Pitch Maintenance Fund which will give us £67,000 directly towards improving the playing surface for our players. However, we still need to raise the remaining £33,000. As local councils are feeling the squeeze, they cannot invest the time and money into grass pitch facilities to keep them playable.
Difficult weather conditions also compound the problem. Therefore, we asked the Football Foundation to help us with this problem. If matches are constantly postponed due to poor conditions, then children will lose interest and our football club will not be sustainable.
Everything we raise at the moment is going towards that £33,000 pot.
How have you spread the word to get your community raising?
We hand out the ready-made flyers at our games, we regularly advertise our easyfundraising page on our social media pages including updates on how much we’ve raised to date. We also include the cause page in our quarterly newsletters.
What would be your top tip to help other clubs raise as well as you have?
Promotion is key but also, don’t forget that businesses as well as individuals shop online. If you have someone connected to the club who works at a business where they do lots of corporate buys like travel and accomodation etc. those buys can really make a big difference.
How you can support grassroots football
Quarry Rovers are doing a great job providing access to football for so many youngsters across Oxford. If you want to support them every time you shop online, sign up to support them here.
Belong to a sports club that isn’t currently raising on easyfundraising? Register your club as a cause.