Through a growing network of 36 fitness and community programmes, Club Doncaster Foundation is changing lives in a town that has historically faced some of the most persistent health inequalities in the country.
From tackling physical inactivity to addressing social isolation and mental health, the Foundation demonstrates what a football club’s infrastructure can achieve when it is fully turned towards its community.
Here’s what we discuss in this article:
A town shaped by its past
Watch the video above to see a showcase of the trust’s work and how they manage it at scale, reaching thousands of people across the borough at every stage of life.
Doncaster’s industrial heritage runs deep but has also left a legacy of health challenges that the town is still working through.
High levels of inactivity and limited access to affordable wellbeing support have created a landscape where improving public health requires more than a standard gym membership.
There are barriers, whether that’s people accessing gyms or rates going up… But with us, it’s about sustaining free health and wellbeing projects to get more local people accessing sport.
Ben Howe, Health & Wellbeing Officer at Club Doncaster Foundation
Cost is a genuine obstacle for many residents, but so is confidence. For people who haven’t exercised in years, or who have never felt that fitness was ‘for them’, walking through the door of a conventional gym can feel impossibly daunting.
Club Doncaster Foundation saw this as an opportunity to do things differently.
How Fit Rovers does things differently
Fit Rovers launched in 2017 and sits at the heart of Club Doncaster Foundation’s health work.
Originally designed to tackle low activity levels among men in the borough, it has since grown into a wide-ranging initiative that engages participants of all ages and backgrounds. It now reaches thousands of people across Doncaster.
What makes Fit Rovers distinctive is the way it combines physical activity with education and community-building. Every session pairs exercise with practical learning covering nutrition, mental health, and sustainable healthy habits. The goal is long-term behaviour change, not a temporary fitness boost.
Mustafa, a programme participant, knows exactly how that feels. He still remembers the anxiety of arriving at his first Fit Rovers session: “The first 20 minutes, I was so scared… But then I looked around and everyone’s in the same boat.”
That realisation that nobody is being judged and that everyone is starting somewhere is what keeps people coming back. Mustafa rebuilt his fitness, regained his confidence, and reignited an active life with his family.
“It created that spark,” says Mustafa. “Now I’m doing more activity with my family and even coaching my son’s football team.”
Moving beyond exercise
The Foundation’s reach goes well beyond physical fitness. For some of its most loyal participants, the programme has been a lifeline for mental health and social connection.
John is 71, and he joined Fit Rovers after a period of inactivity that had left him struggling with anxiety and depression. What he found was more than a fitness class: “I’d lost my levels of fitness… I thought this would be a good opportunity not just for exercise, but to learn about healthy living.”
Eight years later, he is still attending sessions alongside a group of friends he met through the programme—a tight-knit group dubbed the Fab Four. For John, the greatest benefit isn’t the improved stamina. “It’s the social side, the camaraderie,” he continues, and the fact that “everyone is treated the same.”
The consistency ripples outward. From pregnancy groups to sessions for those in their nineties, from workplace wellbeing to bereavement support, Club Doncaster Foundation has built a genuinely inclusive network of provision that sits alongside its core sport and fitness work.
“Through the lifetime you’re going to have, we can hit every single spot,” says Jess Hayes, one of the Foundation’s Health & Wellbeing coordinators. “And that’s what we’re about.”
In a town where isolation can be as damaging as inactivity, that kind of consistency matters enormously. The Foundation has become, for many of its participants, one of the most reliable things in their week.
The challenge of funding
Delivering that breadth of provision is no small feat. Behind the community impact lies a complex operational reality: multiple programmes, each with its own funding stream, reporting requirements, and outcomes to demonstrate.
“We’ve got 36 different programmes,” says CEO John Davis. “That’s around 33 different funders, each with 33 different financial reports, activity reports, forecast recovery and spend.”
Every grant comes with conditions. Every pound needs accounting for. And every decision directly affects the services the community depends on.
This is where Sage earns its place. As the single financial system spanning both the club and the Foundation, it connects budgets, reporting and transactions in one place, replacing static reports with live management accounts and giving the team real-time visibility at programme level. When funding shifts or costs rise, they can respond quickly rather than scrambling to catch up.
Granular cost tracking means the Foundation can calculate the true cost of delivering each programme, supporting full cost recovery, sharpening funding bids, and ensuring money flows where it’ll have the greatest impact.
“With Sage it’s a five-second job,” says John. “We know to the penny what we’ve spent and that helps with projections, cashflow forecasting, and bids. Which is really important when costs are constantly going up.”
Leadership walks into board meetings with accurate, live data. Trustees have clear oversight. And when a funding opportunity arises, the team is ready to make a compelling case.
Final thoughts
For Club Doncaster Foundation, the challenges ahead are real. Funding pressures are not easing, and the needs of the community it serves are not shrinking. But the mission is clear: reach more people, remove more barriers, and keep building the kind of community where nobody has to struggle alone.
If I didn’t have Fit Rovers… It would leave a massive hole in my life.
John Wells, Fit Rovers participant
With partners like Sage helping to manage the complexity behind the scenes, the Foundation can focus on what it does best: being a consistent, trusted presence in the lives of the people of Doncaster who need it most.
And they’re not alone, Sage also powers Doncaster Rovers FC, keeping another Doncaster institution running smoothly behind the scenes.
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