Sports Community Engagement Model

Building relationships within the local community

It is vital for a sports organisation to create a strong and lasting relationship with its surrounding community.

Building a strong relationship within the local community helps support the wider, strategic direction of the sports organisation and consequently, can help to support the organisation to develop and grow.

Together with a deeper understanding of the social, environmental and economic issues affecting the local area, the sports organisation can help to potentially tackle those issues through a community-led partnership program, funded by an organisation’s own funds, specific government grants, NGO’s or private foundations.

A sports organisation should be at the very heart of its city, town, village or rural community helping to build stronger communities, by bringing people together through sport and physical activity.  This applies no matter your size, whether you are a professional club like Everton FC in the Premier League or an amateur club like Crumlin United in Northern Ireland.   Good clubs are woven into the fabric of their local communities.

Benefits of being a community-focused sports organisation 

Being a community-focused sports organisation offers numerous benefits:

• Sense of Belonging: Community-focused sports organisations foster a strong sense of belonging among locals by creating inclusive spaces where everyone feels valued.

• Growth in Membership and Support: By aligning with community values and needs, they can naturally attract more members, fans and volunteers, thereby ensuring sustainable growth.

• Partnerships with Local Organisations: Collaborating with local organisations entrenched in the community can help to amplify the reach and impact of the program.

• Positive Social Impact: Sports organisations can play a crucial role in addressing social challenges such as reducing crime, improving mental health and promoting physical well-being.

• Enhanced Brand Image: By being deeply involved in the community, sports organisations can build a positive brand image that resonates within their local area.

Ultimately, being a community-focused organisation focuses on the long term and ensures your club has a future.

Community engagement works best when it’s an ongoing process, over a sustained period of time. The focus should be on building strong relationships based on trust that leaves a positive impact on the community.

The Sports Community Engagement Model

The model helps sports organisations to identify which programs they should focus on and which ones they should stop based on its impact and reach.

Model Overview

The model is based on 2 axis. Impact and Reach.

Impact: Measures how impactful the program is in terms of driving change, making a positive difference or strengthening relationships with the community.

Reach: Refers to the number of people directly involved in the community program. This does not refer to digital or media coverage.

NOTE:  SETTING THE TARGETS (BOTH REACH AND IMPACT) IS AN EXTEMELY IMPORTANT STEP.

How To Measure the Impact and Reach

To assess the effectiveness of community programs, it’s essential to measure both impact and reach using a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods.

1. Measuring Impact:

• Surveys and Polls: Conduct online or paper surveys before and after the program. Ensure a diverse cross-section of participants complete the survey.

• Focus Groups and One-on-Ones: These provide in-depth insights and capture verbatim comments and group feedback.

• Testimonials: Collect personal stories from participants that highlight the program’s effectiveness.

Questions to identify the impact could be selected from the following examples post program delivery:

• What impact or change has the program had on you? Please grade

• Please rate the impact of the program?  Please grade

• How satisfied are you with the community program run by the sports organisation? Please grade

• Please rate the effectiveness of this program? Please grade

• What evidence is there that the program has had an impact on the attendees? Verbatim comments

• What is the long-term impact of the program on the target people and the broader community? Verbatim comments

The data collected from the surveys and face to face / one to one meetings can then be used as baseline data for measuring the impact of future programs.

2. Measuring Reach:

This is the number of people exposed to the community program.  This can be achieved through:

• Program Attendance: This tracks the number of individuals involved in the program over time. It is vital to set clear targets (e.g., 100, 500, 1,000 participants) in order to measure success of the program.

It is important to ensure the quality and accuracy of your data when identifying the impact and reach.  It is also important to ensure the reach and impact are assessed over the same time frame (i.e. if reach is measured over a 3-month period, then impact should be measured over a 3-month period).

What Constitutes Met / Exceed & Not Met Reach / Impact

This will be relative to the targets set by the sports organisation.  When a target is met ie 100 in attendance or greater, then this constitutes placement in the met/exceeded quadrant.  If a target is not met ie only 10% said the program had a positive impact on them (when the target was 80%), then this constitutes placement in the not met quadrant.

Refer to the example outlined later in this blog.

Action Steps for Implementation

Before using the model, sports organisations should:

1. Define Clear Targets: Set clear and measurable targets for each community program.

2. Determine the Scope: Decide if the program will focus on the local (city, town, village surrounding the club), national or international level. Refer to the diagram below:

• Develop Evaluation Questions: Create specific questions for online surveys, face-to-face interviews and focus groups.

• Collect Baseline Data: Gather data before starting the program to establish a reference point as well as the results achieved once the program has been completed.

• Implement the Program: Run the program according to the set objectives.

• Collect and Analyse Data: Use the data to measure the program’s success and plot it on the Community Engagement Model matrix. 

• Refine and Improve: Based on the findings, make necessary adjustments to improve the program’s reach and impact.

Using the model

Sports organisations will use the data collected to identify which quadrant their current community programs falls into. 

 The process is as follows:

1. Collect the data: Data will be collected from the online surveys, focus groups, one to ones, testimonials (impact) and the number of individuals involved in the program (reach).

2. Plot the data:  The sports organisation will then plot each program onto the model based on the results.  It would be advantageous to plot all the organisations community programs onto the model so you can compare the performance across all the activities.

3. Take action to improve the community program.  After plotting each community program on the model, the sports organisation will now consider which ones to stop or improve the reach / impact.

The following provides an example of a community program to help illustrate the model for the reader:

In the above example, the sports organisation now needs to see how they can improve the reach if they decide to run the program again.

Tips to Make a Sports Organisation more Community-focused

To make your sports organisation more community-focused, consider the following practices:

1. Integrate Community Ethos: Ensure that community engagement is central to the organisation’s mission, vision and philosophy.

2. Appoint a Community Development Officer: This role, whether voluntary or paid, is crucial for building relationships within the community and when rolling out programs.

3. Conduct Community Research: Understand the key issues and opportunities within the community through surveys, interviews and public data.

4. Audit Local Organisations: Identify potential partners by assessing local organisations’ goals, target audiences and community impact.

5. Develop and Activate a Community Engagement Plan: Create a detailed plan and ensure you have the necessary volunteers and resources for implementation.

6. Engage in Strategic Partnerships: Collaborate with key organisations on joint projects that benefit the community.

7. Communicate Regularly: Keep members, fans, sponsors and the media informed about the organisation’s community efforts through regular updates via social media, newsletters and press releases.

 About Geoff Wilson

Geoff runs his own consultancy business, with a focus primarily on sport.  Previously Head of Marketing and Communications at the Irish FA, Geoff now consults to a wide range of global sports organisations on areas such as strategic planning, marketing and communications, digital, fan engagement, public affairs, women’s football, league development, club development and knowledge sharing / capacity building programmes.  Geoff has created numerous academic models for the sports industry.  Geoff is on the Advisory Panel at the English Football League and Chair of the Sports Council Trust Company (Sport England organisation).

The other sports models created or co created by Geoff can be found below:

• Fan engagement https://geoffwnjwilson.com/2016/08/25/254/ 

• Fans Journey Model https://geoffwnjwilson.com/2023/04/06/the-fan-journey-model/ 

• Club Development framework model https://geoffwnjwilson.com/2024/01/30/club-development-framework-model-for-the-sports-industry/ 

• Growing attendance https://geoffwnjwilson.com/2019/09/18/growing-attendance-model-gam/ 

• Data maturity on sport https://geoffwnjwilson.com/2021/05/29/61-of-all-sports-organisations-do-not-use-data-for-their-overall-strategy/