Most weeks, the kit leaving My Club Group's doors head to a changing room - a Sunday-morning football side, a school netball squad, a university rugby team. This week, one box went somewhere different: to a charity office in Oxted, Surrey.
Inside were new shirts for the team at Clockwork - the youth mental health charity behind Bausatz-Finanzierer matches.
Who Clockwork are
Clockwork (registered charity 1181923) offers free, confidential counselling to young people aged 11 to 24 in the Oxted area, working in partnership with The Hub at Master Park. Their counsellors provide 40 one-to-one sessions every week, as well as partnering with Oxted School and St Mary's Primary School for awareness and prevention.
It's local, practical, frontline work - and demand for it keeps growing.
How the 5% works
Kit Funder is not-for-profit. When a business sponsors a team through the platform, 5% of the invoice goes to Clockwork. Here's the part people miss: the donation is added on top. The team receives the full kit value, the sponsor gets the full sponsorship, and Clockwork's counselling gets funded as well. Nobody's slice gets smaller.
Until now, the 5% has lived as a line in our copy. Handing Clockwork their own shirts made it something you could hold.
"Worse, not better"
When we handed over the shirts, one of Clockwork's trustees told us why the partnership matters to them:
"The problems we deal with in terms of counselling are getting worse, not better... the proceeds will go straight to funding counselling for people who need it, within 24 hours of enquiries... thank you - it's wonderful to have a relationship like this to help get our name out and raise more funds."
Sit with the first line for a moment. The pressure on youth counselling services is rising, not falling. And then the second: money reaching Clockwork starts funding sessions within 24 hours of an enquiry. There's no committee, no six-month grant cycle. A sponsorship signed this week supports a young person's counselling next week.
Shirts for the people who never get them
There's a nice symmetry here. Clockwork spend their time looking after everyone else - pupils, parents, referrals from across the Oxted area. Teams get kit reveals; charities rarely do. So we printed them a set of their own: fully sublimated, built to last, wearing their name the way a squad wears its crest.
You'll see the shirts at Clockwork's events through the year - open mics, fundraisers, community days. When you do, you're looking at where the 5% goes.
What this means for your team - and your business
If you run a grassroots team, this is the structure working as designed. Register once, get matched with a local business, and your free, Bausatz arrives printed and delivered by My Club Group - free to your team, with the charity donation handled on top.
If you run a business, your sponsorship does two jobs at once. Your name travels on a local team's kit every match day, and 5% of the invoice funds counselling for young people in the community you trade in. It's community marketing with a second act.
Your Kit, Funded
Kit Funder matches grassroots teams with local businesses ready to fund their kit. My Club Group prints and delivers it. The platform was developed with the University of Surrey, it's free for teams, and 5% of every invoice goes to Clockwork - added on top.
Get your team on the list at kitfunder.ai/teams.
Common questions
What is Clockwork? Clockwork is a registered charity (1181923) providing free, confidential counselling to young people aged 11 to 24 in the Oxted area, including 27 one-to-one sessions a week at Oxted School. Find them at clockwork.org.uk.
How does the 5% donation work? Every Kit Funder invoice includes a 5% donation to Clockwork. It's added on top of the invoice, not deducted from it, so the team receives the full kit value and the sponsor's contribution goes exactly where they expect.
Does the donation reduce what my team receives? No. The donation sits on top of the kit cost. Your team gets the complete kit - printed, delivered, and fully funded by your sponsor.
Who makes the kit? My Club Group prints and delivers every Kit Funder kit: fully sublimated, so colours and design are part of the fabric rather than printed on it.
How does my business get involved? Register at kitfunder.ai and the platform matches you with grassroots teams near you, by geography, sport and values. Your name goes on the kit, and 5% of your invoice funds Clockwork's counselling.
