General Affiliation:

General affiliation is free to all community clubs and groups. It’s just a case of completing an online form (see bottom of the page).

Once affiliated your club will receive information and support, including:

• Advice and support from your regional development officer on club structure and governance, advice on funding sources and volunteer recruitment and retention, advice on training and NGB awards, guidance on inclusivity (e.g. Insport Accreditation), and much more.
• Free promotion of your club and your events on our website and social media pages.
• Your club will have a single vote in our AGM.
• Access for volunteers to subsidised safeguarding courses that are delivered virtually.

General Affiliation with Coach Education support (Advanced Membership):

Some clubs may need to train volunteers to support the safe and effective running of their activities. We offer an application‑based process that can subsidise the cost of approved training courses for volunteers within your club.

To be considered for this support, your club must take out the Coach Education Support affiliation, which carries an annual fee of £150. Support is not automatic- each request is assessed against regional Equity, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) priorities and the availability of funding at that time.

A club must also be affiliated with the National Governing Body (NGB) for its activity in order to access the advanced affiliation option.

All clubs must follow our formal request process when applying for volunteer training support. This includes completing a Request for Funding form on behalf of the volunteer(s). The form becomes available once the £150 affiliation fee has been paid.

Our funding is generally best suited to individual volunteer development needs. If you have a large number of volunteers requiring the same course at the same time, we recommend contacting your regional Outdoor Activity Development Officer to explore alternative funding routes.

Clubs can opt in or out of this affiliation on an annual basis, depending on their anticipated need for coach education support.

By choosing this option, you will receive all of the benefits of general affiliation, plus access to subsidised courses for volunteers at a rate of £20 a day.

These are the steps to apply and receive Coach Education:

• Volunteers must find and book their own course, checking it is one we can support from the list below.
• They should make a provisional booking first
• If approved, we pay the full course cost directly to the provider, and the volunteer pays their £20-per-day contribution directly to us.
• Each club will nominate one person to submit and manage all requests on behalf of their volunteers.

To apply for general or advanced club affiliation, please follow this link: Club Affiliation Form