ORIENTEERING FOUNDATION

We are the Orienteering Foundation, a charity that promotes and supports orienteering, to bring all the benefits this amazing sport has to offer the people of the UK, and to ensure that our sport is here for the enjoyment of generations to come.

But the future of our sport is at risk. Only 10% of our orienteering community is aged between 20-34 and in 2017 nearly 10,000 school children participated in our grassroots schemes. Worryingly despite this good work we are seeing drop out rates of 70-80% in those crucial skill building years of ages 13-21.

And our volunteers are getting tired. Last year there was a 4% drop in the number of events run, but a 7% increase in competitors. The demands outside events also continue to rise. We know people want to participate in our sport but we are in danger of burning out our volunteers.

Technology in the sport provides massive opportunity but we need to invest. We have all seen major changes over the past twenty years with the emergence of electronic punching and tracking systems, mapping software, and online analysis tools.

With your support the Orienteering Foundation works to tackle emerging issues. We currently fund junior programmes, invest in elites, support adult coaching opportunities, support those developing tools and techniques to alleviate volunteer workloads, and sponsor projects which look to exploit new technologies in our sport. With your help we can do more. 

Racesignup donation matching by clubs

We previously reported that Racesignup would be donating 1p per entry to the Orienteering Foundation.  We are pleased to hear that they can now also handle clubs matching that donation with their own.

Sun 26 Nov 2023Read more…

Freddie Carcas in the European Champs knock out sprint

Freddie Carcas European Champs review

As reported previously we gave a grant to Freddie Carcas towards personal costs for attending the European Championships to compete in the Knock Out Sprint. Here is Freddie's report from the competition.

Sun 26 Nov 2023Read more…

Freddie Carcas at the EOC23 knockout sprint qualifier

Freddie Carcas at European Champs knockout sprint

We are pleased to have awarded a grant to Freddie Carcas to support his attendance at the European Championships in the knockout sprint event.

Sat 4 Nov 2023Read more…

Stirling University Orienteering Club

STUOC club development

We are pleased to award a grant to Stirling University Orienteering Club (STUOC) for using an external coach as the club grows, and organising a planning workshop to help individuals develop and spreads the load of planning training sessions.

Sat 4 Nov 2023Read more…

Juniors at Lagganlia 2023 - need plenty of minibus space to transport them to all the training activities!

JROS minibus driving lessons and test

We are pleased to award a grant for minibus driving lessons and tests to support the Lagganlia training camp in 2024 and beyond.

Sat 4 Nov 2023Read more…

SELOC adult and family projects

We are pleased to award grants to South East Lancashire Orienteering Club (SELOC) for two projects, one focussed on adults and one on families.

Sat 4 Nov 2023Read more…

Keith Marsden with Ralph Street (SLOW) at a Junior Start Programme weekend in 2006

Keith Marsden 1943-2023

We were saddened to learn that Keith Marsden passed away earlier in the year. 

Mon 30 Oct 2023Read more…

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