The Xunta de Galicia promotes, in collaboration with the Amare Terra Foundation, the platform Terra Movea patronage tool aimed at solving one of the main structural problems of Galician sport: the financing. The Councilor of the Presidency and sport, Diego Calvoexplained that this system was created to fill a “gap that was empty”, offering clubs and athletes a new way to obtain resources in the face of increasingly greater needs.
Badminton
Sports patronage without commissions
The main advantage of Terra Move, as highlighted by Diego Calvo, is that it is a tool totally free. Unlike other existing platforms that could charge up to 25% commission, this project ensures that “100% of the donation made reaches the club or the selected campaign.” This opens up a “world of possibilities”, both for sports entities and donors, who will be able to tax deduction an important part of their contributions.
“100% of the donation made reaches the club or the selected campaign”
Councilor of the Presidency
How it works for clubs and donors
In order to use the platform, interested parties must be officially registered clubs in the registry of the Xunta. The councilor has clarified that “it is not enough for three friends to try or form a club and invent a story to raise funds.” Once registered in the application, they must establish a specific campaign with a clear objective, such as financing a trip to a final phase, buying a new van or renewing sports equipment.
Anyone can collaborate in a way that Calvo has described as “the simplest thing you can imagine.” Through the project website Terra Movein the Amare Terra Foundationcitizens can choose a campaign and donate from five euros without limit. After making the payment securely, the donor receives a certificate for their income tax return and the club gets the funds.
Diego Calvo, at COPE
Initial success and focus on grassroots sport
The initiative already shows very positive results. The councilor has been “very happy” and has given the gymnast as an example Melania Rodriguezwith its campaign to try to reach the next Olympics. Currently, there are plus around ninety active campaigns y more than 300 clubs and athletes discharged, with a large mobilization of resources that is expected to grow at the beginning of next year.
Calvo has stressed that, Although sports patronage already existed, it was almost exclusively available to the big clubs. With Terra Move, the objective is different. “What we wanted was to reach the small clubsespecially those that do not normally appear in the sports pages,” he stated, referring to those known as minority sportswho have more difficulty finding sponsors.
“What we wanted was to reach small clubs, especially those that do not normally appear in the sports pages.”
Councilor of the Presidency
the case of melania rodríguez
Melania Rodríguez started almost by chance, after a coach told her mother that she was no good for rhythmic gymnastics, that it was very strong and not very flexible. So remember Rodríguez her beginnings in trampoline gymnastics, the discipline that has taken her to the top of world sport. “Since I started, I knew that I wanted to dedicate myself to gymnastics all my life, because I got hooked very, very, very quickly,” explains the athlete from Ponteareas (Pontevedra). Although he doesn’t have many memories of that time when he was 5 years old, he knows that “I wanted to go to train every day, that I was happy, I wanted to continue learning.”
However, talent and effort are not always enough. Rodríguez has explained that, without financial support, his career would not have been viable. “Without financial support or help, I couldn’t afford right now to have a psychologist, a physical trainer and those things that an athlete really needs.“, he confesses. The dedication that the elite demands, with daily morning and afternoon training, makes it “absolutely unfeasible” to have another job. This lack of resources has left many colleagues behind, “very good people, who had many results and in the end, they have left it either because of their studies, or because they have to get to work.”
To face this situation, Melania Rodríguez has found key support on the platform Terra Moveof the Amare Terra Foundation. “What it does is that everyone can donate and they also have tax benefits, and it is a much simpler way for support to reach us,” details the gymnast.
With an eye on the next olympic citationMelania Rodríguez feels more prepared than ever. Recently, he has achieved his personal and Spanish record in the trampoline mode. “In the previous cycle I was only two tenths to achieve it, and now I consider that I am much better prepared, both mentally and physically, to be able to achieve it,” she says with conviction.
THE WORK OF THE AMARE TERRA FOUNDATION
The Amare Terra Foundation has been launched to “promote, boost and disseminate” those sporting activities with less visibility and resources. As explained Jesus Martinezof the foundation, the project focuses on “minorized” sports. This term, he clarifies, is not synonymous with minority, since it often encompasses disciplines with a large number of practitioners.
The difference, according to Martínez, is that these sports “are not in the focus, they do not have visibility and they have a lack of resources.” The idea, he adds, arose from his own personal experience when seeing the financing difficulties in the artistic gymnasticsthe sport his children played.
The Terra Move platform is based on the Law on patronage incentivesa rule from 2002 that was renewed at the end of 2023. This legal framework, explains Martínez, “promotes private patronage, and what it offers are tax incentives to individuals and companies that want to help different solidarity causes.” The foundation has specialized in applying this law exclusively to the sports field.
Access to the tool is simple. “Any club that is correctly registered and registered in the registry of sports entities in Galicia has access,” explains Martínez. After contacting the foundation and formalizing a collaboration agreement, the entities can launch their campaigns. The success has been immediate: in just over two months, they have joined more than 300 clubs and there is 90 solidarity campaigns active.
Although “all campaigns have their needs,” Jesús Martínez recognizes that some “touch your heart a little more.” Among them stands out that of a family from Pontevedra that obtained financing for buy a special chair to allow his daughter, with a rare disease, to play sports. The chair, he confirms, “is already in Pontevedra and in operation.”
Another success story was that of the club Because Tedencewhich raised funds to purchase an item to help a disabled canoeist maintain balance in the canoe. Both campaigns, which required between 5,000 and 6,000 euros, were completed successfully, demonstrating that “nice things are also happening.”
From the foundation they convey to the clubs that the key is “to work on the resources in their immediate environment, which is where they are going to come.” Jesús Martínez is convinced that support comes from the community close to the entities.
Worth a look
