Albion in the Community’s £28million annual impact
Research has shown Albion in the Community’s (AITC) work across Sussex is having a positive impact on the local community worth more than £28million a year.
As part of a recent social and economic impact report commissioned by Brighton & Hove Albion, experts at Marshal Regen Ltd and the University of Chichester also investigated the financial benefits of AITC’s work.
And it found the charity was delivering tens of millions of pounds of positive benefit to people in Brighton and Hove and the wider Sussex region every year.
The research focused on the 2017/18 season – the club’s first in the Premier League – meaning since the Albion secured promotion to the top flight of English football, the impact of AITC’s work will have likely exceeded almost £60million of benefits to the local community.
AITC invests around £3million a year delivering its 60 local projects, meaning the charity is creating an astonishing £8.84 of social value for every £1 it receives in grants or donations.
The charity uses the popularity of football and Brighton & Hove Albion to engage more than 43,000 people in its work each year, focusing largely on getting people active, helping people lead healthier lives, and raising aspirations and academic achievement.
Estimates of its impact are based on calculating the knock-on effect of AITC’s work, and the £28million annual figure represents the minimum impact, given that many of the benefits created by AITC are long-term and may only become fully apparent many years later.
Nevertheless, the annual figure of almost £30million confirms AITC’s reputation as one of the leading local charities and most-impactful football community schemes in the UK.
Matt Dorn, the charity’s chief executive, was understandably proud of the findings. He said: “Everyone at the charity is absolutely determined to have a positive influence on the local community and to make sure our work has the maximum impact possible, so it is brilliant to see exactly how much that impact is worth.
“So much of our work is only possible as a result of the generosity of our funders and supporters, so it is great for them to see that for every £1 they donate to us, we can generate almost £9 worth of social benefit.
“I’d like to personally thank all our staff and volunteers, the people we work with, and everyone has been so generous in their support of the charity; I hope they are all as proud of this research as I am.”
To read the entire report, CLICK HERE.