Goodbye club affairs. Hello Paddle!

Phase 2: Understanding users and non-users

One thing that really stood out at this point was that, regardless of the type of organisation, motivation, focus or activity offered, most community organizations wanted to help in the same areas – financial, volunteers and participants.

For both Club Matters users and non-users, signaling resources and support from a trusted organization was key, so we realized how important it was to continue promoting the new site in this way.

Phase Three: Branding and Placement

Our conversations made us realize that not all community organizations see themselves as a 'club' or 'sport provider', for many, providing sport and physical activity is just part of what they do, which made the name 'Club Matters' inappropriate. too many.

This led us to know that we needed three things:

• Better emotional connection with volunteers and community organizers rather than just jumping straight into tasks and solutions
• Focus on the organizer (not the organization) in order to have broader appeal
• To focus on what all volunteers and community organizations have in common – the joy of being active and connecting with others, and the joy of giving something back to their community.

So how is Buddle different?

Buddle as a brand name is a declaration of intent: a A fusion of 'friending' – the role that Sport England seeks to play for the organizations we support – and 'coming together' – a reference to embracing each other, coming together and co-operating required to run a club or community group.

It's short, memorable, bold and intentionally different, and it comes with… An exciting new website that has a clean, fresh look, feels more fun, and is easier to navigate.

And while it has a lot of the same great content as Club Matters, we've added a new section like Your Stories.

This is the A space to celebrate the great things organizers/volunteers do – from small wins to big projects in order to highlight clubs and groups, no matter what activity they provide.

We now also have a dedicated Inclusion section, plus we're incorporating messaging around inclusion, diversity and equality into all resources.

In addition, we created more content around culture and values, linking it to other topics such as decision making, volunteer recruitment and income generation.​

​We have also added a section on environmental sustainability.

As well as it being a big problem for us, we know that many community organizations want to help with this issue.​

​We hope you like the new site, so please take a look at it and let us know what you think.

And please join us in promoting this resource to the volunteers and community organizers you work with and support.

It's very important to us to keep the conversation going, so if you would like to discuss any topics or issues for inclusion on the site, or if you would like to share stories of the wonderful volunteers you work with, please contact us.