The Crusaders Rugby Club has been awarded a $160,000 grant from the Ontario Trillium Foundation (OTF) to support and strengthen the club’s volunteer programs. This funding will help address one of the most significant and lasting impacts of COVID-19 on the club: the challenge of attracting, supporting, and retaining the volunteers needed to deliver high-quality community rugby programming.
Post-pandemic, the club has focused heavily on rebuilding membership levels and diversifying programming and revenue streams. While participants have returned in strong numbers, the volunteers required to coach, manage, and operate programs have not returned at the same pace. As a result, a smaller group of dedicated volunteers has been carrying an unsustainable workload—leading to burnout, reduced retention, and barriers to offering the full breadth of programming the community demands.
This OTF-funded project will directly address these challenges through targeted investments in rebuilding volunteer capacity. The initiative will focus on attracting new volunteers, supporting and retaining existing volunteers, and implementing sustainable systems and structures that reduce reliance on a small number of time-stretched individuals. The project will also help modernize volunteer management processes and build long-term resilience in program delivery.
“This grant will be transformational in rebuilding and developing volunteerism within the club,” said Chris Tudor Price, President of the Crusaders Rugby Club. “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. We need immediate supports for the volunteers we have, and a more systematic volunteer program that encourages, trains, and sustains a larger base of coaches, managers, directors, and other essential volunteers.”
“We are enormously grateful for the support of MPP Stephen Crawford and the Ontario Trillium Foundation,” added Tudor Price. “This funding will allow us to address volunteer-capacity challenges both in 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 place the Crusaders in a position to be eligible for OTF support.”
The Crusaders Rugby Club remains Canada’s largest community rugby club, providing programming for 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 provide accessible, safe, and high-quality rugby opportunities 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 wellbeing, and create lasting impact. In 2023–24, OTF invested more than $115 million into 644 projects and partnerships to help Ontarians thrive.
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