Sponsor-funded websites & builds

Your club doesn't have to be the one paying for its ClubHelix subscription or done-for-you build. Plenty of organisations have a budget and a good reason to fund a club's online presence — a local sponsor who'd rather have year-round placement on your website than a season of signage, a council running a club-development program, a Community Bank branch, or a registered club distributing community funding. This page explains how funded builds work and how to ask.

Who can use this

Anyone on your committee. There's nothing to configure in the admin — a funded build is arranged with the ClubHelix team, and the payer is invoiced directly. Your club stays in full control of its site, member data and payment account throughout.

What's on offer

• Season Setup — a fast, fixed-scope setup: one member list import, one registration form, one fixtures page, plus a year on the Standard plan. Delivered within five business days.
• Launch and Growth builds — the done-for-you packages: a branded site built for you, content migrated, members and registration set up, with a year on the Standard plan included.
• Council programs — councils can fund a batch of builds for local clubs as a Club Digital Capability Program, on a single invoice. If your council might be interested, point them at that page.

Whoever pays, the deal shape is the same: one fixed amount, invoiced to the payer, covering the build and your club's first year. After the included year, your subscription renews at the normal rate unless the funder renews — we contact everyone at month nine, well before anything falls due.

Step by step

1. Work out who benefits from your club being online. Your current sponsors are the natural first ask — a new website gives them something visible all year: their logo in your footer and on your sponsor page, a banner on the fixtures pages families check weekly, and a mention in the launch email to every member.
2. Ask your sponsor. Something as simple as: "We're rebuilding our website — would you fund it as this year's sponsorship? You'd be on every page, all year." If they're open to it, contact us and we'll send the one-page offer with the exact figure for your club's size — you forward it, and we invoice the sponsor directly.
3. Or ask a community funder. Community Bank branches sponsor local clubs through their volunteer boards (and displaying their logo on your website is exactly the kind of community recognition they ask for). Registered clubs in NSW distribute ClubGRANTS community funding. Councils often run community grant rounds. For any of these, we can supply an itemised quote to attach to your application — the build is a one-off project cost, which is what most funding programs want to see.
4. Approve the placement. You decide what the funder's recognition looks like on your site, using the built-in sponsor management. Placement never includes member contact details, and there's never third-party advertising on member surfaces.

Tips & FAQ

Does the sponsor get access to our member list? No, never. They get placement on your public site and a mention in club communications you send. Member data stays yours.

Is a grant likely to cover our subscription? Usually not — most Australian grant programs exclude ongoing subscriptions. A one-off build is a much stronger fit for project-based funding, and we'll say so honestly rather than have you write a doomed application. See the grants guide for what the major programs actually fund.

Is sponsorship tax-deductible for the sponsor? Sponsorship is ordinarily a business marketing expense, but that's a question for the sponsor's accountant — we don't give tax advice, and sponsorship is not a donation.

What happens if the funder doesn't renew next year? Nothing dramatic: your site stays up, and your club simply takes over the subscription at the normal rate (or finds a new sponsor — we can help with the ask). We start that conversation at month nine so there are no surprises.