Peter Harrison Foundation

Peter Harrison Foundation - Active Lives Projects

Opportunities through sport and physical activity

Enabling life-enhancing opportunities for individuals living in the most disadvantaged areas in the UK who encounter physical, mental, social, or economic barriers.  

Using participation in grassroots sport/physical activity as a catalyst to develop personal and life skills, assisting individuals in discovering and fulfilling their potential.

Through Active Lives we make grants totalling about £700,000 per year. Due to a high volume of applications we were only able to provide a contribution towards 12% of the applications received in the last funding round. Therefore, the Trustees have decided to focus our limited resources. To avoid wasting your time, please ensure you meet our eligibility and funding criteria before starting an application.

We fund applications for physical activity initiatives that:  

• Offer high-impact, life-enhancing opportunities for those who live in the top 10% of areas of deprivation  

• Remove barriers to participation for disabled or disadvantaged people   

• Focus on grassroots involvement rather than elite participation in physical activity  

• Focus on skills development and confidence building for individuals  

• Incorporate effective strategies for wider impact, perhaps through training, partnerships and/or dissemination activities  

• Demonstrate a high degree of involvement across the organisation from beneficiaries and those with lived experience  

• Have a well-developed plan for sustainability and seek to deliver a legacy  

• Reflect our values:   Excellence, Entrepreneurship, Integrity, Sustainability

Eligibility criteria

Your project / activity must:

• take place in the UK

• provide opportunities for personal or skills development through participation in physical activity

• meet the needs of people who face physical, mental, economic or social disadvantage

Your organisation must:

• be either a registered charity or a registered CASC (Community Amateur Sports Club) 

• have been registered with the charity regulator for two years or more (charity applicants) 

• have been registered as a CASC for two years or more (CASC applicants) 

• have produced independently examined or audited accounts for at least one full year of operation 

Previous grants and applications:

• If you have received a grant from PHF before, it must be at least two years since you submitted your final grant report. 

• If you have applied to PHF before, it must be at least 1 year since you were notified your last application was unsuccessful. 

For more information, including application & eligibility checker, please click here