In May 2023, the Crusaders Rugby Club launched its two-year volunteer support project with funding from a $160,000 grant from the Ontario Trillium Foundation (OTF). The initiative aims to strengthen the club’s volunteer programs and address the ongoing challenge of attracting, supporting, and retaining the volunteers needed to deliver high-quality community rugby programming.
Post-pandemic, the club has focused on rebuilding membership and diversifying its programming and revenue streams. While participants have returned in strong numbers, volunteers—who are essential to coaching, managing, and operating programs—have not returned at the same pace. As a result, a smaller group of long-standing volunteers has been carrying an unsustainable workload, contributing to burnout, lower retention, and difficulties offering the full breadth of programming the community demands. The OTF-supported project is designed to attract new volunteers, retain and support existing ones, and build sustainable systems that reduce reliance on a small number of time-stretched individuals. It also aims to modernize the club’s volunteer management processes and strengthen long-term program delivery.
Progress in Year One
During the first year of the project, the club has successfully introduced several significant volunteer supports, including:
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Hiring a full-time staff member dedicated to supporting volunteer roles and reducing administrative burden on coaches and team managers.
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Rolling out expanded coach-related training programs designed to encourage more individuals to volunteer as coaches or assistant coaches.
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Increasing support and systemizing complex coaching tasks, helping to streamline expectations and reduce pressure on existing volunteers.
Focus for Year Two
In the coming year, the project will shift toward deeper structural improvements in volunteer engagement and support, including:
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Introducing a comprehensive volunteer engagement and management program for the club.
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Improving the overall volunteer experience, with clear pathways, expectations, and recognition.
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Providing enhanced training for volunteers beyond coaching, including onboarding, role-specific how-to guides, event plans, and other supports.
Leadership Reflections
“This grant will be transformational in rebuilding and developing volunteerism within the club,” said Chris Tudor Price, President.
“Community sports clubs—and rugby clubs in particular—are entirely reliant on volunteerism to survive. As our club has grown dramatically since 2019 in membership, programming, and operational complexity, we’ve reached an inflection point. Cru has been blessed with a core, long-term group of volunteers who have operated, sustained, and grown the club. But we now need a more systematic volunteer program that encourages, trains, and sustains a larger base of coaches, managers, directors, and other essential volunteers—reducing the demands on a few and minimizing the risk of burnout.”
“We are enormously grateful for the support of MPP Stephen Crawford and the Ontario Trillium Foundation,” added Tudor Price.
“This funding allows us to address volunteer-capacity challenges in both the short and long term. I also want to thank our board of directors, who have worked tirelessly over several years to grow, diversify, and operationalize the club as a sustainable going concern. It has been a massive team effort to put the Crusaders in a position to be eligible for OTF support.”
The Crusaders Rugby Club remains Canada’s largest community rugby club, serving more than 1,400 participants annually across Oakville, Halton, and the western GTA. Strengthening its volunteer base is essential to supporting this growth and ensuring the club continues to deliver accessible, safe, and high-quality rugby programming for youth and adults of all ages.
About the Ontario Trillium Foundation
The Ontario Trillium Foundation (OTF) is an agency of the Government of Ontario and one of Canada’s leading grantmakers. OTF invests in community-based initiatives that build healthy and vibrant communities across the province. Through its various funding streams, OTF supports projects that strengthen organizations, enhance community well-being, and create lasting impact. In 2023–24, OTF invested more than $115 million into 644 projects and partnerships to help Ontarians thrive.
