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2025 The Hartford Adaptive Sports Equipment Grant Opportunity for Move United Member Organizations

2025 The Hartford Adaptive Sports Equipment Grant Opportunity for Move United Member Organizations

Move United, in partnership with The Hartford, is striving to get more people off the sidelines and increase participation in adaptive sports. The program’s goal is to make adaptive sports and equipment more accessible to youth and adults with disabilities and reach 60,000 people to participate. After providing 58 Move United member organizations with grants in 2018-2024, The Hartford and Move United are excited to invite the next round of member organizations to apply and help advance the goal to grow adaptive sports.

ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA:  Grant opportunity is open to eligible Move United member organizations that have not received The Harford Equipment Grant in the last 5 years. Priority will be given to new applicants. If a member organization has received this grant 5 or more years ago, the grant application must be for sport equipment not previously funded by this grant.

Partners are eligible to receive $20,000 to $50,000 with the primary purpose of supplying new inventory of adaptive equipment to your community and introducing new youth and adults with disabilities to adaptive sports.

GRANT REQUIREMENTS

Grants Up to $50,000

  • Serve at least 200 unique individuals with a disability (of which at least 100 should be youth) between January 2025 and December 2025, also including identifying at least 50 new youth (<25 years) with disabilities to your program
  • Impact at least 800 individuals in total in your community, including participants, staff, volunteers, coaches, families, friends, etc.

Grants Up to $30,000

  • Serve at least 100 unique individuals with a disability (of which at least 50 should be youth) between January 2025 and December 2025, also including identifying at least 25 new youth (<25 years) with disabilities to your program
  • Impact at least 400 individuals in total in your community, including participants, staff, volunteers, coaches, families, friends, etc.

Grants Up to $20,000

  • Serve at up to 50 unique individuals with a disability between January 2025 and December 2025, also including identifying at least 15 new youth (<25 years) with disabilities to your program
  • Aim to impact up to 100 individuals in total in your community, including participants, staff, volunteers, coaches, families, friends, etc.

In addition, grantees will need to:

  • Spend a minimum of 50% of your program budget toward the purchase of new, large scale adaptive sports equipment*, identifying in your application how this equipment will help increase participation in your community.  Large equipment will need to be branded with The Hartford logo (decals provided). An additional 20% should be used toward the purchase of other sports supplies. Please be as detailed as possible in the application regarding what equipment will be purchased, include cost, quantities, links, pictures, vendor quotes, etc.  Most equipment items should be purchased and delivered by January 2025.
    • Host an activation event and/or share the exciting grant news via a media advisory and release (template provided by Move United and The Hartford), allow athletes and community to see/use the program equipment; plus select and award a deserving local athlete to receive their own custom adaptive equipment (additional grant money will be awarded if athlete application is selected).
      • Activation events can include a school sports program, camp, tournament, clinic, and/or may be an existing event between February to September 2025
      • The goal of the activation event is to prominently feature your organization’s program, local athletes and The Hartford during an unveiling ceremony to help to garner news coverage to elevate and increase the reach of the member organization’s future programming. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday mid-day (10am-2pm) events are preferred but not mandatory.
      • Program equipment will not need to be new at the time of activation
  • Complete evaluating  metrics as outlined in report form template; plus final grant report (at the end of the grant period) to include: contact & demographic information for athletes with disabilities, including at least youth served per grant requirement; expense report and participant surveys.

 

 

*Large scale adaptive sports equipment should primarily include items modified for accessibility and use by persons with a disability i.e., sit-skis, skis and snowboards, court chairs, racing chairs, throwing chairs, hockey sleds, power-soccer chairs, handcycles, other types of adapted cycles, adapted kayaks and paddleboards.  An additional 20% should be used toward the purchase of other sports equipment and supplies such as bows, arrows, balls, tethers, goals, ropes, cones, bibs etc. Aside from equipment purchases, the remaining budget items can include direct programmatic expenses and programmatic salaries (no overhead)

Questions? Contact: Huayra Gomez Garcia, hgomezgarcia@moveunitedsport.org

Application Deadline: Close of business Friday, May 31, 2024, Midnight ET (no extensions).