Ghana Rugby (http://GhanaRugby.org/) has issued a “Club Fundraising Template” to its Regional Associations and their Members, the Clubs, as one of the outcomes of the “Ghana Rugby Stakeholder Congress” that was held in Accra on 22 February 2020 .

The Ghana Stakeholder Congress was held to update stakeholders on the achievements since June 2014 but to also highlight the major challenge of Ghana Rugby, namely funding of its activities.

According to the President and Board Chairman of Ghana Rugby, Mr Herbert Mensah, the Union has the potential to surprise the rugby community in terms of its performance in Rugby Africa tournaments and hopefully beyond that on the global stage if it can overcome the funding challenge.

“Sport is big business and rugby is no exception. The current funding model of Ghana Rugby is not sustainable and the Union must reverse the situation in 2020 whereby its expenses exceeds its income. Since 2014 we have made great strides in attracting sponsors and the support by the government this year helps a lot, but it still falls well short of what we need,” Mensah said.

According to Mensah the Regional Associations and Clubs have been tasked with the responsibility to take charge of the Ghana Rugby Club Championship (GRCC) in all ways including the funding of the Championship since 2015.

Mensah said, “The ‘Ghana Rugby Club Fundraising Plan Template’ is a project that emanated from the Stakeholder Congress and it is meant to stimulate our Regional Associations and Clubs to take that first important step of dedicating resources or people to this critical management function.” 

Newly appointed Board Member with the portfolio of Corporate Affairs and Sponsorships, Ms Erica Amoako, said that the willingness by Clubs to sit up and be counted as expressed at the Stakeholder Congress must now translate into action.

“Fundraising is never easy and there is no magic formula but if that critical first step to appoint a committee or task force to dedicate itself to this task is not taken, it will be a mission impossible. Fundraising is about creating and building relationships with the right people and to manage the process of how that is done. Willingness must now translate into action,” Amoako said.

The  ‘Ghana Rugby Club Fundraising Plan Template’ outlines a process that includes: Step  1 - Appoint a Fundraising Committee Step, 2 - Calculate how much money you need, Step 3 - Identify prospective sponsors or donors,  Step 4 - Cultivate the prospect, Step 5 - Solicit the prospect and Step 6 - Stewardship.

The toolkit also contains templates for Club budgets as well as event budgets and a worksheet to record detail of target audiences.

In addition it contains valuable references to articles on the issue of Club Management and fundraising.

The ‘Ghana Rugby Club Fundraising Plan Template’ is available to Regional Associations and Clubs and can be downloaded from the Ghana Rugby website (https://ghanarugby.org/club-fundraising-plan-template/).