Future planning starts with identity

Grassroots clubs often plan around immediate needs: pitch bookings, affiliation deadlines, kit orders, volunteer rotas and the next round of repairs. Those tasks matter, but a club’s future is also influenced by how clearly it understands its own identity. What does the club want to protect? Which relationships have sustained it? What should a new player, family or volunteer understand when they first arrive?

Heritage gives a club a practical way to answer those questions. It is not a replacement for budgeting, governance or plans. It is a way to make the club’s story visible and to connect current activity with the people and decisions that came before.

Turn history into a resource

A historic photograph in a cupboard has value, but its meaning may be lost if nobody knows who is pictured or why it matters. A trophy without a date or context can become just another object on a shelf. By gathering the information around these items, a club creates a resource that can be used during welcome events, anniversaries, volunteer recruitment, community visits and conversations with former members.

The process can also reveal practical gaps. A club may discover that it has no consistent record of its junior section, that several versions of an important story exist or that photographs are held by one person without a backup. Identifying those gaps is useful in itself. It gives volunteers a clear, manageable task rather than an abstract instruction to “preserve the history”.

Use physical prompts and digital depth

Kohd provides Heritage through a combination of discreet physical elements and digital storytelling. Slim horizontal Heritage Tiles can be positioned near a display, entrance or meaningful location, with QR access to a fuller story. The physical tile offers a visible prompt without requiring a club to fill its walls with long blocks of text.

Discreet Markers can be used with artefacts such as shirts, photographs, equipment or trophies, linking the object to information that may include names, dates, interviews and related memories. The Timeline acts as a living archive, so the club can continue adding stories as new material is found and checked.

These concepts are particularly useful for clubs with limited space. A small clubhouse does not need to become a museum. One well-chosen tile and a carefully researched story can be enough to begin a wider conversation.

Keep the opportunity realistic

Heritage may also form part of a club’s local or community thinking, but the boundaries should remain clear. The the Heritage framework is the agreed product terms. Clubs control their own local local decisions and promotion, which means they decide how to present the opportunity, whether it suits their supporters and how local activity is handled.

Kohd coordinates tile research by email, helping gather and organise the information required for a story. That support should not be confused with a guaranteed return, guaranteed or guaranteed participation. A club’s response will depend on its own community, communication and choices. The strongest reason to begin is therefore not an assumed result, but the long-term value of preserving something the club considers important.

Connect heritage with the next generation

Young members often experience a club through current training sessions and fixtures. Heritage can help them see the wider picture. A story about a former volunteer can show that clubs depend on service as well as performance. An account of an old ground can explain how facilities changed. A timeline of teams and people can make continuity visible without suggesting that the past was perfect or that the future is predetermined.

Invite young players to help with questions, interviews or display ideas, while allowing older members to provide context. This creates a practical exchange: the archive gains new energy, and younger members gain a stronger connection to the badge they wear.

Choose one decision for this season

A future-facing heritage project needs a clear first decision. Choose whether the club will document one artefact, one place or one person. Agree who will gather the information and how the club will check it. Then decide where the story should be encountered by members and visitors.

To explore whether Heritage fits your club’s future plans, email Kohd with the first story or object you would like to develop and the people who can help verify it.

Why this matters for your club

Protect heritage: A club that understands its past can make more informed choices about what it wants to carry forward.

Fundraising revenue stream: Heritage can provide a structured route for a club to explore a fundraising revenue stream under its own local decisions, without presenting results as guaranteed.

Enhance membership experience: The display becomes part of welcome events, community conversations and everyday club life.

Reduce volunteer burden: Clear roles between Kohd and the club keep the work bounded and prevent a Heritage project becoming an undefined volunteer task.