Grassroots Sport · Benchmarking & Insight

Helping sport
thrive through insight

Community Sport Insight helps grassroots clubs and governing organisations turn survey data into practical benchmarking, insight and evidence — so decisions are better informed and resources go further.

Get in touch See how it works
For grassroots clubs — practical insight for your committee For governing bodies — aggregated intelligence across your network
Why CSI exists

Data should work harder for the people running clubs

Grassroots sport generates a significant amount of information about participation, facilities, finances and volunteers. However, that information is not always translated into practical insight that helps the people running clubs day to day.

Community Sport Insight was created to help turn grassroots sport data into practical benchmarking and evidence that supports better decisions — both for clubs themselves and for the organisations that support them.

The challenge

Grassroots clubs are under real pressure

Most grassroots sports clubs are run by volunteers who give enormous amounts of time and energy. They manage finances with limited reserves, maintain ageing facilities, recruit players and junior members in an increasingly competitive leisure landscape, and make important strategic decisions — often without clear data to guide them.

The result is that genuine pressures can go unrecognised until they become crises, and opportunities to strengthen clubs are missed because the evidence simply isn't there.

Governing bodies face a parallel challenge: they want to support their clubs, but they often lack a consistent, comparable evidence base to understand what is actually happening across their network.

Volunteers

Recruitment and succession pressures in committee roles and day-to-day operations.

Finances

Managing income, costs and reserves on tight margins with limited commercial support.

Facilities

Ageing infrastructure, ground ownership uncertainty, and the cost of maintenance.

Participation

Attracting new players and growing junior programmes in a competitive leisure market.

Evidence gaps

Making strategic decisions without clear data on what is working and what is not.

Visibility

Governing bodies lack consistent, comparable data to understand their club network.

How it works

A straightforward three-step process

CSI is designed to be low-burden for clubs and high-value for everyone involved. The process is clear, transparent, and built around practical outcomes.

Survey

Clubs complete a structured annual survey covering participation, finances, facilities, volunteers and wider sustainability. It is designed to be straightforward and respectful of your time.

Analysis

CSI analyses the responses to identify patterns, common pressures, and opportunities. Data is handled securely and reported in ways that protect individual club privacy.

Reports

Clubs receive a tailored insight report benchmarked against similar clubs. Governing bodies receive aggregated insight across participating clubs — without exposing individual club data.

What we measure

Structured insight across the areas that matter most

The CSI survey captures a consistent picture of club health across five core dimensions, enabling meaningful benchmarking and comparable insight over time.

Participation

  • Player numbers and trends
  • Junior and women's participation
  • Team sustainability

Club finances

  • Income sources and composition
  • Financial resilience
  • Reserves and pressure points

Facilities

  • Pitches and nets
  • Changing provision
  • Capacity for growth

Volunteers

  • Committee capacity
  • Recruitment and retention
  • Succession risk

Club development

  • Growth plans and priorities
  • Barriers to progress
  • Areas where support would help most
What you get

Practical value for clubs. Strategic insight for governing bodies.

CSI is designed to serve both audiences well. Clubs get something genuinely useful. Governing bodies get the intelligence they need — without compromising club trust.

For clubs

Your club, in context

  • A tailored club insight report, written clearly and without jargon
  • Benchmarking against comparable clubs across key metrics
  • Clear visibility of where your club has strengths and where pressures exist
  • Evidence to support planning conversations and committee decisions
  • Better understanding of your finances, facilities, volunteers and participation
For governing bodies

Your network, understood

  • Aggregated insight across all participating clubs in your network
  • Visibility of common themes, pressures and emerging trends
  • Evidence to design and target support programmes more effectively
  • Stronger evidence base for funding bids and strategic planning
  • Insight at network level, without exposing individual club data
Our Club Data Promise

Five commitments to every club that participates

CSI exists to create practical value for clubs, not simply to extract data. These are the commitments we make to every club that takes part.

Your club's responses are kept confidential

Individual club data is never published publicly

Your data is never shared with governing bodies without permission

Insight shared with governing organisations is aggregated only

We exist to create value for clubs, not just to collect their data

Data & privacy

Your data is yours. We handle it with care.

Trust is central to what CSI does. Clubs need to know that completing a survey is safe. Here is exactly how your data is handled.

Club data stays confidential

Individual club data is never published or shared at club level. What your club tells us stays between you and CSI.

Governing bodies receive aggregates only

Governing bodies see insight at network level — not individual club responses. Individual club data is never shared without your explicit permission.

GDPR-compliant handling

All data is processed in line with UK GDPR requirements. We collect only what is necessary and handle it responsibly throughout.

Independent and trusted

CSI is independent. We are not an arm of any governing body. Our relationship is directly with clubs, and their trust in us matters more than anything else.

Clear privacy policy

Our full privacy and data use policy sets out exactly what we collect, how we use it, and how long we keep it.

Right to withdraw

Clubs can withdraw from the survey and request deletion of their data at any point. Participation is always voluntary.

Frequently asked questions

Questions and answers

If you have a question that is not answered here, please get in touch directly.

Who sees my club's data?

Only CSI sees your individual club responses. Governing bodies receive insight at an aggregated, network level only — never individual club data. Your responses are handled confidentially and will not be shared without your explicit permission.

How long does the survey take to complete?

The survey is designed to be as straightforward as possible. Most clubs can complete it in around 10 to 15 minutes, depending on how readily available your club's information is. We aim to collect only what is genuinely useful and nothing more.

What will I get back as a club?

Participating clubs receive a tailored insight report that benchmarks your club against similar clubs across areas such as finances, participation, facilities and volunteers. The report is designed to be practical and useful for your committee — not a dense document full of numbers that takes an afternoon to read.

Is CSI connected to or run by the ECB?

No. CSI is fully independent. We may work alongside governing organisations such as county cricket boards and the ECB, but we are not part of any governing structure. Our independence is important — it means clubs can engage with us on their own terms, and the insight we provide can be trusted as objective.

How much does it cost?

Participation is free for clubs. Governing bodies commission CSI as a service to understand their club network, and pricing for that service depends on scope and scale. If you represent a governing body and would like to discuss what this looks like in practice, please get in touch directly.

Leo Jefferson, Founder of Community Sport Insight
Leo Jefferson
Founder, Community Sport Insight Grassroots cricket club treasurer
About

Built by someone who understands both sides

CSI was founded by Leo Jefferson, who combines a background in commercial analysis and data with active experience as a treasurer of a grassroots cricket club.

That combination matters. The analytical toolkit comes from a career working with data at scale in a commercial environment. The grassroots perspective comes from sitting in committee meetings, watching the same pressures around volunteers, finances, and facilities that clubs across the country face every week.

CSI exists to help turn grassroots sport data into practical insight that benefits the people running clubs every week — while also supporting governing organisations with better evidence and visibility.

The focus is currently on grassroots cricket, but the approach is built to work across any community sport where clubs and governing bodies need better evidence to make better decisions.

Early work

Building the evidence, one county at a time

CSI is at an early stage. Here is where work is underway.

Devon Cricket Foundation

CSI is working with Devon Cricket Foundation to explore how structured benchmarking and insight can support clubs and inform county-level decision-making. This pilot is helping shape how the CSI approach works in practice, from survey design through to insight reporting.

Pilot underway

Interested in what CSI can do?

Whether you represent a club, a county board, or a national organisation — we would be glad to have a straightforward conversation about what insight could look like for you.

Email leo@communitysportinsight.co.uk
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