Fundraising

This Giving Back page is about what you can do to help your Club – we are a private members club owned by each and every one of the Members: if you’re a Member…you’re a part owner.

Did you know that whenever you buy anything online – from your weekly shop to your annual holiday – you could be raising free donations for The Avenue Lawn Tennis Squash & Fitness Club with easyfundraising?

There are over 7,000 brands on board ready to make a donation – including eBay, Argos, John Lewis, ASOS, Booking.com and M&S – and it won’t cost you a penny extra to help us raise funds.

All you need to do is:

1. Go to our Easyfundraising page and join for free.
2. Every time you shop online, go to easyfundraising first to find the site you want and start shopping.
3. After you’ve checked out, the brand will make a donation to The Avenue Lawn Tennis Squash & Fitness Club at no extra cost to you whatsoever!

There are no catches or hidden charges and The Avenue Lawn Tennis Squash & Fitness Club will be really grateful for your donations.

The Club is happy to receive donations at any time either for specific projects that the donor may have in mind or for general funds.

The Club can increase your gift by 25% if you are a standard rate taxpayer. If you are a higher rate tax payer, you can claim an additional relief against your top rate of tax.

So, for example a £100 gift translates to £125 for the Club when it is accompanied by a signed Gift Aid Form.

A recent generous donation from a long-standing member helped fund a balcony extension at the Club. Donor Marcus Blake, who joined The Avenue in the early 1960s, cut the ceremonial ribbon to officially open the new balcony.
Down the years, tennis greats including Virginia Wade have competed on the club’s grass courts, which are rated among the best in the south of England.
In a short speech, Marcus recalled seeing the former Wimbledon champion play Holland’s Betty Stove in a pre-Wimbledon tournament, held at The Avenue during the 1970s.
Around 60 members past and present joined the celebrations on the new mahogany decked balcony, on Sunday 26th June. The work was carried out by specialist contractors Waterlooville-based Turvey Construction Ltd and took only six weeks.

Mike Colbourne, a member of the Avenue’s development committee, said:

“The balcony extension will help us generate more income through private functions and increased bar revenue but most importantly it will also enhance the view of our 10 grass courts. It also means that spectators will now have a great view of the 7 all-weather courts.”

Download Avenue Gift Aid Form

Next time you update your Will, why don’t you consider making a charitable donation to The Avenue from your estate – we know this is important to some members that have enjoyed a long association with the Club.

Is there is a specific sport or area that you have particularly enjoyed over the years? Or, you might prefer to make just a general bequest.

As charitable donations under a Will, these donations would be free of any form of Inheritance Tax and your solicitor can advise on the correct form of words.

You would be contributing to an institution that has provided sporting facilities for over one hundred years.

If you are interested in helping out on any of the Committees or one of the many events during the year please contact the office.

Committees:

Management Committee – overarching responsibility for Club management including property, finance, HR and staff, legal, IT/Comms, club rules, statutory compliances.
Tennis and Grounds Committee – tennis, courts and grounds
Squash Committee – squash & racketball
Social Committee – clubhouse events, bar and table tennis
Gym & Fitness Committee – gym and fitness classes

Events:

Club Open Day usually in May
Quiz nights and other social events
County Week and Seniors Tournament

Occasionally, the Club needs to engage specialist services and this usually involves extra cost.

Case study:

The Club faced a large bill for repairing underground drainage channels beneath the car park and attending to the collapsed drain at the entrance driveway.
A club member with insurance loss adjusting expertise stepped forward and successfully negotiated that the Club had a valid property insurance claim, saving £10,000+

Please register your trade or professional expertise with the office this will be held on the member database so the Club might request your help if a sticky situation arises. Anything from bricklaying to telecoms… from legal to engineering… from property to marketing… Whatever your profession, trade, skill or hobby please list it.

You can register your details office@avenueltsc.co.uk