FINHANCE - Enhancing the financial sustainability of sport clubs

Sport, like all other institutions in society, can only sustain itself if it has the resources to support its activities, programs, and events. The majority of sport organizations are non-profit and run on shoestring budgets; a combination of membership fees, public funding, and sheer volunteer love for the sport is what keeps sport clubs afloat. Increasing dependence on public funds in the capital structure of clubs can often lead to existential threats – as evident during the most recent health crisis – when all public funds were diverted to more ‘essential’ needs and club financing dried up. The aim of the project FINHANCE is to strengthen the post-pandemic recovery and the crisis resilience of sport clubs by enhancing their financial sustainability and reducing their overreliance on public funding. Four partner organisations from Croatia, Turkey, and Italy will train 9 members of the managerial, administrative, and coaching staff at their clubs in the upskilling of financial competencies and entrepreneurial mindset. The skills and mindset acquired in training will be applied by each club to deliver tangible and concrete results in the form of a) two annual Financial Sustainability Plans, and b) creating a new pilot event (summer/winter camp, team building event) for at least 20 participants for each club, respectively. The goal is to expand the clubs’ offers of programmes and services which demonstrate the potential to become commercially viable in the future and identify new sources of self-generated, positive cash flows. Finally, FINHANCE will contribute to the implementation of key policy documents such as the New Skills Agenda and Pact for Skills, and, most importantly, the EU Work Plan for Sport 2021-2024.