Sport and Leisure Provision in the Third Sector (Voluntary)

Abstract

The ‘third sector’ contains a diverse set of sport and leisure providers, including voluntary and charitable organisations and provision for staff in commercial companies. Many providers employ paid managers, although voluntary organisations are typically managed by volunteers. Voluntary organisations are important for sport and leisure provision, with hundreds of thousands across a range of leisure interests. They range from small local clubs with a handful of members to large national organisations with millions of members. They bring benefits to members, but they also have problems, the most important of which appears to be a shortage of volunteers. At the local level in the UK an increasing number of public sector leisure assets, such as museums and sports centres, are managed by charitable trusts, which do not utilise many volunteers. Charitable status brings both advantages and disadvantages.