Obtaining public funds for your chess project

Can we do it?Yes we can!

What’s ‘excellent’?

Whether big, small, middling, projects must be:• Feasible• Well-planned• Value-adding• Fun!

The ambitious Aberdeen Schools Project succeeded because

• It had an excellent prospective teacher/manager with a proven track record

• It had community, academic and local authority support

• It was extremely well-designed / budgeted• It completed all the funding application forms

professionally, including promise of research

The Project established

• The validity of the principle of the ‘visiting chess coach’

• Research singled out for extremely high praise by the Scottish Government

• Rave reviews by Education Inspectors, involved schools, parents and local politicians

• The first international ‘Chess in Schools and Communities’ conference

Yet the funding ran out?

• The local authority seriously over-spent and was required to cut back sharply

• Chess was only one of many casualties• Money always eventually runs out?• But the project was a considerable landmark

nonetheless!

Projects can be all sizes and shapes

• Living chess• Chess days in schools• Teach teachers to play, teach chess and run

school chess clubs• Regional leagues / individual competitions of

various sorts• And so on

What’s key about any project?

• It suits local needs / meets local demands / enthusiasms

• It must not least promote sociability and fun!• It’s ‘your’ move … decide with due care … and

go for it!