FrontRunners (Auspiced by Australian Sports Foundation)

Taking Sport from Sideline to Centre Court on Climate

Taking Sport from Sideline to Centre Court on Climate

At FrontRunners, we’ve worked hard to mobilise sport to act on climate. And now the tide is turning. This has never been more important – we know sport can help break the cultural climate gridlock, connecting climate with people’s lived experience and the things they truly care about. But as this story heats up, we ...

GOAL

$100,000

Australia > National / Multi-state > Metro and Regional
03/07/2024 > 04/07/2024

Field of Interest

  • Environment conservation and climate change

Target Population

  • General population
  • Flora / fauna
FrontRunners (Auspiced by Australian Sports Foundation) FrontRunners (Auspiced by Australian Sports Foundation)

FrontRunners’ vision is to transform the future of Australia by turning athletes and sporting organisations into climate leaders, activating Australian sporting fans to respond to the climate and environmental challenges facing all of us.

Project Summary

At FrontRunners, we’ve worked hard to mobilise sport to act on climate. And now the tide is turning. This has never been more important – we know sport can help break the cultural climate gridlock, connecting climate with people’s lived experience and the things they truly care about. But as this story heats up, we need a dedicated media and communications guru in our team as well as expanded social media firepower to harness and direct the momentum, and to support the incredible work of Cricket for Climate, Footy for Climate and Surfers for Climate.

Expanding our team to include a Media and Communications Director and beefing up our social media engagement will help us to amplify and accelerate the incredible work already being done by athletes and athlete led groups, shift the story on sport and climate and ultimately unlock access to new audiences with a climate story they’re more likely to respond to.


The incredible work being done on the Climate Compass shows us that, because of its demographic reach – age, gender, politics, location – if we nail the message about climate impacts on sport we can ensure climate action remains front of mind for a huge number of Australians. We have a unique opportunity to connect climate with people’s lived experience given sports place as an ‘object of care’ for so many Australians.


Recent work by sports marketing agency No Second Place showed that sport is the sleeping giant of social change in Australia. We want to harness that potential through the media with a steady drumbeat of climate and sport news from powerful messengers equipped with facts and confidence who can deliver into a media landscape primed for their message.


We want to see sport playing a leadership role on climate, but they won’t do this without both pressure and support. That’s the role of FrontRunners, and a dedicated Media and Communications Director would amplify and accelerate this important work. They will:
– Keep up the drumbeat on sport and climate news
– Support the work of both athletes and sporting organisations tackling climate
– Build a network of sports journalists and commentators hot on climate

With your support, FrontRunners can ensure sport and climate is part of the Australian media narrative, that athletes and administrators are effective messengers and that we’re seeing climate coverage at the back of the paper as well as the front.

Project Outcomes

Key outcomes of the Media and Communications Director include the below.

Increase coverage of the impact of climate change on support:
- Increase the number of stories across print, digital, radio, television and social media on the impact of climate change on sport.

Support existing, and create new climate action advocates amongst athletes and administrators:
- Increase the number of athletes and clubs speaking publicly about climate and environment issues
- Increase the number of athletes and administrators trained and equipped in best practice climate communications

Build a network of sports journalists and commentators who understand climate impacts on sport and include it in their coverage:
- Increase the number of journalists and commentators who understand climate risk and its impact on sport
- Increase the number of journalists reporting about and commenting on the intersection between sport and climate change

Budget Breakdown

TOTAL BUDGET: $269,750
FUNDING
Funding source Amount
Other philanthropic funding (unconfirmed) $169,750
Funding gap (unconfirmed) $100,000
EXPENSES
Expense item Amount
Salary + Super $138,750
Media monitoring $17,000
Travel $10,000
Events $15,000
Admin $5,000
Social media support $70,000
10% buffer $14,000

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Level 6, 126 Wellington Parade, East Melbourne VIC 3002

We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the first inhabitants and Traditional Custodians of the lands on which we live, learn and work. We pay our respects to Elders past and present.

Australian Communities Foundation is a proudly inclusive organisation and an ally of LGBTQIA+ communities and the movement toward equality.