Apply for Sports Equipment | DC Sports Charity

Thank you for your interest in applying for a Leveling the Playing Field Equipment Grant!

Leveling the Playing Field furnishes schools and community organizations with free sports equipment enabling those groups to provide affordable and accessible youth sports activities for their children who otherwise would not have such opportunities. LPF has saved 750 programs+ over $5M since we began our work in 2013.

For any questions regarding the application, please send an email to info@levelingtheplayingfield.org.

Before Applying

Review your organization’s eligibility (see Qualifications below)
Confirm availability of necessary funds to have the equipment shipped or delivered (if applicable)

Qualifications

Your program must serve economically disadvantaged children, or children or adults with disabilities
Your organization must operate (or wishes to operate) an organized sport, recreational activity or fitness program that offers consistent and structured opportunities for play to large groups of children
The program is intended to provide free or low cost enrichment programs for its participants
Your athletic activities must provide a youth development component. We DO NOT support organizations whose sole focus is “on the field performance.”

The Process

There are three simple steps that are required before receiving equipment from LPF:

1. Fill out our Grant Application

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2. We Will Schedule a Site Visit or Call

Once our staff has reviewed your application, we will schedule a site visit during which we will meet in person and take a tour of your facility. Due to COVID restrictions, we may choose to schedule a site call via video.

If you do not have a site for us to visit, we will schedule an interview with you at one of our warehouses. Please allow LPF staff 1-2 weeks to process and review your application before scheduling a site visit/warehouse interview.

3. Schedule Equipment Pick-Up/Delivery

Once your application has been approved, an LPF staff member will set up a time for you to come pick up equipment from our warehouse. For programs outside of the area, we will ship equipment to your location, but you are responsible for the cost of shipping.

All appointments to pick up equipment must be made with at least 24 hours notice.

Types of Support

In most cases, LPF offers beneficiaries access to our warehouse space. This service is primarily provided for programs within the Greater Washington, Baltimore, or Philadelphia areas, however, any program awarded an equipment grant can take advantage of a warehouse’s resources if they choose to send a representative.

Each program only needs to apply for an equipment grant once.

After they are in the system, they do not need to apply again. After the initial meeting, programs can email LPF staff with a date and time to coordinate pickups.

Feel free to utilize our resources as often as you need us!

Grant Recipients Benefits:

Access to our warehouse space to take equipment on a continuous basis
A monthly newsletter that lists services that could enhance beneficiary programs and large items that can not be housed in our warehouses, but could be useful. These items will need to be picked up directly by the beneficiary wherever they are located. (i.e. ping pong tables, basketball hoops, lacrosse goals)

Miscellaneous:

Programs have one month from date of site visit to make their initial equipment pick-up
A program representative will be required to sign a release form/waiver before the initial visit to the warehouse
LPF staff will inquire about pictures and letters of support from your program to include on our website and on social media, grant applications, and reports
You will receive a survey seven days and thirty days after the initial donation to assess the impact that the donation has made on the program as well as provide a testimonial

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Make sure you share information about LPF with programs you think would be eligible and benefit from our services. It’s a great way to communicate our mission to other programs in need!

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