The Supporters Club AGM will be taking place on Thursday 22nd January in the Rook Inn, from 7:30pm. All are welcome to attend. Ahead of that meeting, here is our annual report on what the Supporters Club has been up to for the past 12 months – and how we’ve spent the money you’ve helped us raise.
Message from the chair
2025 was another stellar year for the Supporters Club. We raised more money than any year since the Supporters Club was revamped in 2020, we stuck in thousands of volunteer hours, and we organised a wider range of social events than ever before. And we’ve got more members than we’ve ever had.
Obviously, none of this is possible without a dedicated core of volunteers. So I want to thank everyone who has contributed to the Supporters Club over the past year. Whether you came to one of our fantastic curry nights, spent hours slapping paint on fences, threw a couple of quid into the Golden Goal bucket at a game, or contributed in one of a hundred different ways, you made a difference. A difference that you’ll see reflected in the Where Did The Money Go? section below.
It’s not just about the money, though. Perhaps even more important than the tens of thousands raised for the club is what the Supporters Club provides in terms of community. Whether that’s the camaraderie of the Thursday Maintenance Crew (well oiled with tea and Tunnock’s Tea Cakes), the packed Friday night quizzes that have raised thousands for local charities, or the regular Saturday morning food bank collections, I’m ridiclously proud to chair this Supporters Club. It’s a gaggle of good people doing good things, and I’d love you to be part of it (click the link to join for free, if you haven’t already).
Read on for the full detail on what we’ve achieved in 2025 and what we’re planning to do in the year ahead.
Barry Collins – Chair, Lewes FC Supporters Club
Supporters Club membership numbers
In last year’s annual report, we said we hadn’t “done nearly enough to increase Supporters Club membership over the past year”, having ended 2024 with 318 members. Well, we ended 2025 with 396 registered members, an increase of 25%.
That was partly due to recruitment drives at both women’s and men’s games, and we’ve got more of those coming up in 2025, so keep an eye out for us at the top of the Philcox.
You’ll find full details of our social media numbers on our Data Dashboard, where we provide full transparency every quarter on membership numbers, income/expenditure and volunteers hours. But here are some highlights:
Facebook Group followers: 2,274 (up 329 on 2024)
Bluesky followers: 206 (up 206)
(Note: The Supporters Club has abandoned its X (formerly Twitter) account, because we don’t believe in supporting a platform that continues to spew hate, racism and misogyny into people’s timelines.)
Website visitors: 14,071 (up 2,200)
Website views: 22,710 (up 1,257)
Our Membership Secretary has written his own annual report which expands into even more detail about the Supporters Club activity.
Fundraising
In 2025, we raised a total for £25,424 for the Supporters Club (this doesn’t include charity collections, more on which below), which is a 4% increase on the total amount raised in 2024. The main income streams were:
Raffle – £5,658 (down £2,094 on 2024)
Golden Goal – £4,322 (down £319)
Pan For Gold – £3,962 (up £58)
So, as you can see, our staple forms of matchday income were down significantly in 2025, especially the raffle. This is largely due to the way fixtures have fallen (no big home games at Christmas, for example) and a lack of cup runs compared to previous seasons, although we will renew our efforts with the raffle in particular.
However, as the club put out a call for financial help in the summer, the Supporters Club organised a series of fundraising events, which helped fill the fundraising coffers. These included:
Sponsored walk from Worthing to Lewes – £1,308
Curry nights – £819
Quiz nights – £775
Golf Day – £669
In summary, a stellar summer effort and our ongoing match day fundraising pushed us to a record amount raised for the Supporters Club coffers, most of which went straight back to the club, as you’ll see below.
Community fundraising
As important as raising money for the club is, the Supporters Club also helps raise funds for the local community and supports charities.
The monthly Friday night quizzes at The Elephant & Castle have raised thousands for charities in 2025. These were:
Jan – Lewes food bank (£533)
Feb – Royal British Legion Cliffe Branch (£437 )
March – Sussex Search & Rescue (£360)
April – Firle School (£502)
May – East Sussex WRAS (£208)
June – Pells Pool (£440)
Oct – Chasing Connor’s Cure (£374)
Nov – Royal Alexandra Children’s Hospital (£401)
Dec – St Peter St James Hospice (£473)
During the summer months, the quizzes also raised more than £1,000 for the Supporters Club fund.
Every quarter, a team from the Supporters Club help with the Lewes food bank collection organised by Lewes FC supporter, Mark Perryman. The Christmas 2025 collection alone received more than 12,000 items, which were distributed to food banks in the area.
Among other charity collections we organised on match days in 2025, we collected £170 for the family of Billy Vigar, the Chichester City player who sadly died after an accident during a game at Wingate & Finchley.
Where did the money go?
In total, we donated just over £18,000 to the football club this year. Aside from one major outlay (£10,000), we spent the rest on lots of little purchases, none of which are particularly glamorous, but are often essential for either safety or supporter convenience.
As a reminder, the Supporters Club ethos is to only spend money that improves facilities at The Dripping Pan. None of our money goes on wages or general expenditure. We work with the club to identify the projects where our money can do the most good.
In 2025 our money was spent on, among other things:
£10,000 – Improving the club’s food and drink outlets around the ground, including the new burger bar in the corner between the Terry Parris Stand and the main stand.
£2,261 – Installation of new, secure doors/windows on the coffee shop/club shop.
£1,617 – Installation of a new water supply at the 3G pitch.
£1,022 – Purchase of merchandise to restock the club shop for Christmas.
£800 – Improvements to access path for unisex toilets, particularly for wheelchair users.
£505 – Purchase of water heaters and air fryers for catering facilities.
£500 – Drain repairs at the food hatch.
£275 – Provision of hand towels and free sanitary products for women’s/unisex toilets.
£185 – Purchase of roof spikes to deter birds perching in the main stand (bloody Rooks!).
£161 – Purchase of splashbacks for basins in the unisex toilet block.
£133 – Purchase of paint for men’s toilets and entrance doors.
You can see a full monthly breakdown of income and expenditure for 2025 here.
Ground maintenance
The contribution of our Thursday Maintenance Crew is worth just as much as the money we donate to the club each year, arguably more. Their tireless work saves the club from spending on repairs that would otherwise have to be done by paid professionals.
Even calling them the Thursday Maintenance Crew is underselling their contribution, because members are often there multiple days of the week, making repairs, improving facilities or tidying up the ground in preparation for matches.
Among the maintenance team are construction professionals, who are able to help advise the club when paid work needs to be done, potentially saving the club from expensive mistakes.
The impact of the Thursday Club goes far beyond the money they save the club each year in repairs. It also gives volunteers a real sense of purpose and somewhere they belong, with clear benefits for mental health and wellbeing. On the negative side of the ledger, the tea and biscuit bills are considerable…
If you want to get involved with ground maintenance, drop us an email here.
Representing the fans
The Supporters Club is an independent voice for the club’s fans, both women’s and men’s. We poll our near 400 members on big issues, such as the planned sale of the women’s team, and make supporters’ views known in regular meetings with the club.
There’s a crucial distinction between Supporters Club members and club owners: there’s no charge to be a Supporters Club member, and so we represent the entire fan base – not only those who want or can afford to pay for club ownership.
We hold regular meetings (roughly every six weeks) that are open to any supporters, and we regularly have members of the club’s board/management in attendance to answer fans’ questions. Attendance at these meetings has grown steadily during 2025 and it’s clear they provide the most popular channel for fan engagement at the club. A summer meeting to discuss the potential sale of the women’s team had almost double the attendance of the club’s own in-person consultation, for example.
The Supporters Club will continue to engage with board the Community board and any new owners of the women’s team to ensure the voice of the fans is heard.
What else have we done?
Other things we’ve achieved in 2025 include:
- Repairing a vandalised bench in memory of the late Derrick Parris and giving it a new home at The Dripping Pan
- Helping to organise and referee the returning Bonfire Cup in the summer
- Continuing to provide in-stadium commentary for visually impaired supporters, as well as audio commentary on social media channels
- Continuing to build our online museum of club history, which in 2025 saw the arrival of club legends and tales from the Rooks’ history books
- Our not-to-be-taken-too-seriously, mention-anything-but-the-football match reports
- Organising and funding a Christmas party for all of the club’s volunteers
What are you planning for 2026?
We’ve already got a deep stack of things we want to get done this year, including:
- A new volunteers reward scheme that provides little treats for people who give their time
- Replacement of the dilapidated and dangerous fixtures board in the corner of the ground
- The digitisation of hundreds of old club photos and documents we’ve found in storage
And plenty more. Come along to our AGM, come and get involved. We’d love to have you on board.