Member Article

Oaks Consultancy and Yorkshire Cricket Foundation pair up to change lives

Yorkshire Cricket Foundation, the official charity and community arm of Yorkshire County Cricket Club, has chosen Oaks Consultancy to deliver an ambitious income generation plan to support its 2021-2024 strategy. Oaks Consultancy, which is based in Birmingham, has been commissioned by Yorkshire Cricket Foundation to deliver a four-season fundraising strategy, which will feed into the organisation’s ambitious plans to increase its impact and outreach.

Yorkshire Cricket Foundation, a registered charity, delivers community projects across the county and is run by over 150 volunteers annually. Using the power of cricket, the team aims to make a lasting, positive impact on communities living in Yorkshire, working closely with Yorkshire County Cricket Club, the Yorkshire Cricket Board, Pro Coach and other key partners to deliver a variety of resources and wellbeing programmes. This includes online training courses, fitness challenges and classes and Crick-EAT, which provides school children in Leeds with free meals during the summer to prevent holiday hunger.

Now in a bid to up its game, the Foundation has tasked Oaks Consultancy to help develop a new fundraising strategy, with supporting annual fundraising action plans. This comprehensive exploration of income potential through to 2024 will support the priorities of the Foundation’s 2024 Game Plan.

A seasoned professional at diversifying income for sports foundations, Oaks Consultancy has worked with international sport-for-development charities through to Premier League football clubs and National Governing Bodies of sport. The consultancy firm has supported the likes of UEFA, Sport England, London Sport and The Money Charity and since its inception in 2008, helping them to explore their income generation potential, identify fundraising opportunities, put the structures in place to capitalise on these opportunities and ultimately bring in new and diverse funding.

Luke Southall, Managing Director at Oaks Consultancy, commented:

“Yorkshire Cricket Foundation have long been at the forefront of cricket-for-development and have changed the lives of thousands of people across Yorkshire. This is, in part, a consequence of their commitment to continually innovate, improve and deliver more for their communities. That’s what this project is all about and I’m delighted that Oaks will be working with Will and the team to make it happen”.

Oaks Consultancy and Yorkshire Cricket Foundation’s partnership will support the charity’s vision to create a community without boundaries by securing funding for their core project themes: Health and Wellbeing, Education, Heritage and Participation.

With bold ambitions for using the power of cricket to change the lives of Yorkshire’s communities, the Foundation recognises this will require substantial investment from a diverse range of sources and remains determined to develop attractive, impactful community projects.

Will Saville, Managing Director at Yorkshire Cricket Foundation, added:

“We went through a very thorough tender process and we were hugely impressed with Oaks’ bid alongside their extensive skills and experience in this sector. Since appointing Oaks to carry out this piece of work, the team has been fantastic, and we are excited to see the final fundraising strategy that will support the Foundation to sustainably grow and deliver more work in our communities”. Oaks has been operating in the sector for over 12 years and have over a century of combined years’ fundraising experience, bringing a wealth of expertise and a track record of supporting sport for development organisations to maximise their income potential to grow their reach and impact. Yorkshire Cricket Foundation will gain a critical analysis of their fundraising performance to date, and sector leading knowledge of unexplored income areas, and Oaks’s assessment of the suitability and viability of each fundraising opportunity available to the charity.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Lucy West .