Sporting Chance has announced a new commercial partnership with Fintech Collection Pot, which becomes the charity's official fundraising partner.
Fintech Collection Pot is a group collecting platform used by workplaces and individuals, with digital Pots set up to raise money for every kind of occasion but is also increasingly used by charities for fundraising.
This partnership will be a key element of Sporting Chance's strategic development as it looks to expand the services available to its stakeholders and work towards its goal of establishing parity of provision between physical and mental health across the professional sporting landscape.
Colin Bland, CEO of Sporting Chance said the coronavirus pandemic has contributed to an increase in demand for Sporting Chance’s services:
“For over 20 years now we have been working with professional athletes and former professional athletes struggling with their emotional and mental health and even in ‘normal’ times, the need for our services has always been there. The pandemic will only add to that, I think the repercussions are yet to fully materialise. It’s had an impact on people’s mental health across the length and breadth of the country and sportspeople aren’t exempt from mental health issues, whatever level they are performing at. Both our treatment and education services are as relevant as ever, and perhaps more crucial. Our partnership with Collection Pot will help us to achieve what we need to achieve to help more sportspeople develop a sense of emotional literacy and feel more comfortable in engaging in support in the same way they would if something wasn’t quite right physically.”
The partnership will also see Sporting Chance announced as Collection Pot’s charity of the month for January 2021. Collection Pot will donate a percentage of their profits on all Pots set up in January to Sporting Chance.
Mark Brown, board advisor for Collection Pot, who has also worked as global head of the personal development programme for athletes at KPMG, said the competitive environment can be particularly tough for sportspeople:
“There is the perception that life as a sportsperson is all glamour. Only a small percentage make it through to play sport professionally, and if they do, the pressures are immense. Having had personal experience of working with sportspeople, it is essential they have access to excellent support networks, wellbeing and education. Sporting Chance provides this in abundance and much more. It’s about making a difference in difficult times and we hope through this partnership it will provide additional support to Sporting Chance.”
Sporting Chance’s work with the Heads Up campaign from The FA and Heads Together, led by The Duke of Cambridge, has shown just how vital talking about mental health is, making mental health as normal to talk about as football.
Former Manchester United professional footballer Eddie Johnson is the athlete engagement manager and northern education facilitator at Sporting Chance. Eddie, who started his career in the academy system, says the charity’s grassroots work is vital:
“As much as we work with people further on in their careers or who’ve moved on from active competition, working with athletes at the beginning of their journey is just as important. In our education sessions we’re more often than not working with younger sportspeople, starting conversations, opening up minds where we can, offering support where it’s probably most impactful. The need is certainly there for us to expand in this area to make sure these young athletes don’t go through any more pain than they need to in terms of their mental health, and we’re pleased to have Collection Pot with us as our fundraising partner to help us with this.”
Collection Pot is used by a number of charities to fundraise. The group collecting platform doesn’t charge charities for gift aid processing, and there is no monthly fee for charities to appear on Collection Pot.
Fintech also announced its expansion into the Irish market from its UK base in November 2020, allowing users to select either the UK or Ireland when they create a Pot, enabling donations and check out in either sterling or euros. In September, the Collection Pot app was introduced to the Microsoft Teams store as the only group collecting app in the Teams Marketplace.
Commercial director of Collection Pot Adam Stevens said their work with Sporting Chance will form the foundations of more proactive relationships with charities in the future:
“Collection Pot is a fintech for good. We’re a relatively new player in the sector but the only way we can develop and get better is by working in collaboration with charities. It’s not for us to decide what charities need from their fundraising, but for them to tell us. With Sporting Chance, we have a real opportunity to do something new, working alongside a charity that is doing so much good in the mental health arena.
“At Collection Pot, donors can opt to pay ‘a little extra’ to cover the cost of processing fees and platform costs, for example £1 on a £10 donation, meaning every bit of a donation goes to the charity. Demands on charities in the covid era are higher than ever, they need every pound they can get. As our charity of the month, we’ll be donating a percentage of our profits in January to Sporting Chance and we look forward to furthering this partnership over the coming months and years.”
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