Partner
City of Salisbury
Northern Adelaide council with more than 150 sports clubs, monthly community grant rounds, and a Sport and Recreation Network that trains the volunteers who run them.
About City of Salisbury
The City of Salisbury covers 158 square kilometres of northern Adelaide, from the shores of Gulf St Vincent to the Para Escarpment, about 25 km north of the city. The council’s quick facts put the estimated resident population at 149,214 (ABS, 2023). Its Sport Awards page counts more than 150 clubs, kept going by volunteers who coach, administer and officiate every week. The sporting clubs list runs from soccer, cricket and netball clubs to calisthenics colleges, BMX, archery, model yachts and Riding for the Disabled SA.
Club support runs through the Salisbury Sport and Recreation Network, set up under the council’s Sports Development Framework. Members get webinars, workshops, forums run with the Northern Sport and Recreation Network, and registered training for club volunteers. The same page holds the paperwork for clubs on council land: an annual Club Profile Form covering contacts and participation, a Ground Usage Form for each pitch and season, a Club Contact Update Form for when the committee changes, a Sub Licensee Profile Form (sub-licences need council approval first), and a Club Initiated Work Form, because no repairs or works happen without written approval. Most leases and licences of community land run for up to five years.
Grant money comes from several places. The Community Grants Program has three streams: Active and Connected, Sustainability, and Economic Growth. The Active and Connected Community Grant offers Mini grants up to $2,000, Small grants of $2,000–$7,000 and Medium grants of $7,000–$12,000 (including GST), with applications due by the 15th of each month for the Community Wellbeing and Sport Committee. Clubrooms and grounds go through the Minor Capital Works Grant Program, worth up to $75,000 for clubs that lease or licence council buildings or land. The Volunteer, Club Coach and Official Education Subsidy pays for accreditation and first-aid courses, and the free Salisbury Grant Hub, run with GrantGuru, finds funding from other sources.
Salisbury clubs already run on TidyHQ. Para Hills Cricket Club, which the council lists with its TidyHQ site among the clubs fielding inclusive teams, manages 176 members across 14 teams in TidyHQ — read the Para Hills case study. The council’s sport team has also talked openly about how it wants to work with clubs. In a post on the TidyHQ blog, Salisbury’s James Catterall put it plainly: “their service to community is an extension of what we’re trying to do in local government. So why not treat them like partners?”
The partnership
The City of Salisbury funds clubs, leases them grounds and trains their volunteers. In return it asks for the same things every year: an updated club profile with participation numbers, new contacts whenever the committee changes, and an acquittal for every grant with a budget, tax invoices and receipts, due within six months of the project ending. Each of those comes out of the club’s own records. TidyHQ is where a club keeps them — financial members, committee and AGM minutes, grant income and spending by category, and the lease and insurance documents — so the annual form and the acquittal become a report you pull, not a weekend of rebuilding. TidyHQ does not assess grants, issue leases or replace the council’s forms; those stay with the City of Salisbury. And a club’s TidyHQ account belongs to the club. The council sees what the club sends it, nothing more.
- TidyHQ is a Local Government Partner of the City of Salisbury, working towards the same goal as the council’s Sport and Recreation Network: committees that do not start from zero every time a volunteer steps down.
- Salisbury clubs use TidyHQ for the records the council asks about: financial members and participation, committee and AGM minutes, grant income and spending tracked by category, and leases, insurance certificates and the constitution in one place the next committee can find.
- Where a council wants a view across the clubs it supports, TidyConnect collects returns from clubs that opt in. Each club decides what it shares, and the council sees only what the club accepts into the project.
Salisbury club admin, start to finish
A Medium grant, acquitted inside six months
A soccer club wins a Medium Active and Connected grant for a multicultural junior gala day. The guidelines are clear: spend the money within six months, then submit an acquittal with every tax invoice and receipt, or return the funds. The treasurer sets up a grant category in TidyHQ finances the day the money lands and tags each payment to it. Receipts go into documents as they arrive. When the acquittal is due, the report is a filtered export — and the club stays eligible to apply again in twelve months.
A new secretary in March
The secretary moves interstate halfway through the season. Salisbury asks clubs to send a Club Contact Update Form whenever the committee changes, through the Sport and Recreation Network page. The form takes five minutes. The handover takes longer, unless the club runs on TidyHQ: the new secretary inherits the role’s tasks and due dates, last year’s minutes and the lease paperwork, instead of a shoebox and a forwarded inbox.
The annual Club Profile Form
Every year, clubs on council grounds send Salisbury a club profile with contacts and participation, plus a ground usage schedule for summer and winter. A football club with juniors, seniors, a women’s side and social members needs a real count, not last year’s guess. In TidyHQ memberships, each level holds its own financial members, so the registrar reads the numbers off the membership report and the committee signs off on figures it can check.
Five coaches, one education subsidy
Salisbury’s education subsidy pays the full cost of a course up to $200 (ex GST), and $200 plus half the rest, to a maximum of $300, above that. The club president endorses each application, and a club can lodge up to five a financial year. A netball club keeps track of who has applied, who is booked in and whose accreditation expires next in TidyHQ contacts, with a custom field for each coach’s level.
New changerooms through Minor Capital Works
A cricket club that licenses its oval wants new changerooms. Under the Minor Capital Works Grant Program, it first sends a Proposal to Undertake Works on Council Land to the sports leasing team, then applies with a project budget. The committee resolution to apply, and to commit the club’s share, is recorded in TidyHQ meeting minutes, so the application, the minutes and the budget tell the same story.
Common questions
The City of Salisbury offers sports clubs Community Grants, the Minor Capital Works Grant Program, and the Volunteer, Club Coach and Official Education Subsidy. Community Grants have three streams — Active and Connected, Sustainability, and Economic Growth. Active and Connected grants range from Mini (up to $2,000) to Medium ($7,000–$12,000, including GST), with applications due by the 15th of each month. Minor Capital Works grants go up to $75,000 for clubs that lease or licence council facilities. The council also runs the Salisbury Grant Hub, a free grant-finding service with GrantGuru.
TidyHQ lets a club tag every payment and expense to the grant it belongs to, so the acquittal is a filtered report rather than a search through bank statements. Salisbury’s Active and Connected guidelines require an acquittal within six months of the project ending, with all tax invoices and receipts, and a separate budget and acquittal for each project in an application. Clubs that do not acquit are ineligible for future funding. TidyHQ keeps the categorised finances and the stored receipts in one place; the club still submits the acquittal to the council on the council’s template.
Clubs that lease or licence City of Salisbury facilities submit a Club Profile Form every year, covering the club profile, contact details and participation, along with a ground usage schedule. They also send a Club Contact Update Form when committee members change, seek approval and file a Sub Licensee Profile Form before any sub-licence, and get written approval through a Club Initiated Work Form before any repairs or works. The forms are on the Salisbury Sport and Recreation Network page.
It depends on the grant. The Minor Capital Works Grant Program requires an incorporated association, a small or medium registered charity, or a formal auspice by one. Active and Connected Small and Medium grants are open to incorporated community groups, not-for-profits and sporting groups, while unincorporated community groups can apply for up to $500. Check the current guidelines on the council’s website before applying.
The Salisbury Sport and Recreation Network is the City of Salisbury’s network for local sport and recreation clubs, set up under the council’s Sports Development Framework. Members get webinars, workshops, forums run with the Northern Sport and Recreation Network, registered training for volunteers, and news from the council. Clubs join through a subscription form on the council’s website, and the sport team can be reached at sport@salisbury.sa.gov.au.
Yes. Para Hills Cricket Club, the largest cricket club in the City of Salisbury, runs on TidyHQ and manages 176 members across 14 teams there. The council’s own sporting clubs list links to the club’s TidyHQ site. TidyHQ is also a Local Government Partner of the City of Salisbury.
No. A TidyHQ account belongs to the club, not the council. The City of Salisbury sees the forms, profiles and acquittals your club sends it, but it cannot see your members, finances, emails or documents in TidyHQ. If a council uses TidyConnect to collect returns from clubs, it sees only what each club explicitly accepts into that project.
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