The Australian Sports Foundation Ltd (ASF) was established in 1986 to raise funds from philanthropic and corporate sources, and the community at large, for the development of sport in Australia.
As the ASF is a deductible gift recipient, donations of $2 or more are tax deductible.
The ASF works with organisations at grassroots and community sporting levels through to elite and national levels, to help raise funds for vital sporting projects. These projects fund the improvement of facilities and purchase of equipment, as well as team travel, training and other initiatives designed to increase sporting participation and enhance performance. Through these initiatives, the ASF helps improve the health of our nation, build our communities and strengthen our national sporting identity.
The ASF invested in several initiatives in the past year to increase donations to sport. These initiatives included implementation of a new digital platform and constituent relationship management (CRM) system to enhance engagement with donors and the sporting community. The ASF also invested in enhanced fundraising expertise to provide guidance and best-practice advice to the sporting community. These investments were aligned with a concerted marketing campaign to grow awareness in the sporting community of the opportunity to raise funds through donations and to promote the health, social and community benefits of participating in sport to the philanthropic community.
These initiatives led to an increase of more than 20 per cent (to 779) in the number of sporting organisations and projects registered with the ASF. The growth in donations received was even greater, increasing from $17,451,000 in 2013-14 to $24,517,000 in 2014-15 (over 40 per cent growth). These results mean that an additional $7 million is available to be granted to sports organisations compared with the previous year. It is estimated that the ASF has now raised more than $300 million for sport since its inception in 1986.
The ASF ‘s small grants program, Giving4Grassroots™, aims to provide financial assistance to grassroots and community organisations for projects that are designed to grow participation. In 2015, this program awarded grants to 26 organisations which collectively are targeting an increase in participation of around 6,500 new participants.