Mary Peters Trust

The Mary Peters Trust champions a sporting legacy by empowering talented young athletes in Northern Ireland to overcome financial barriers and realize their potential in amateur sport. Rooted in values of inclusivity, equal opportunity, personal resilience, and transformative impact, it believes sport fosters physical health, confidence building, social integration, community cohesion, and leadership among youth from diverse backgrounds, including deprived communities and those with disabilities. Its grantmaking philosophy targets catalytic support at pivotal career moments for high-potential individuals, filling funding gaps to spark individual excellence and ripple effects like role modeling and community inspiration.

Priorities center on advancing amateur sport through targeted interventions for young athletes aged 14-25 competing at national or international levels across diverse disciplines like athletics, swimming, hockey, tennis, judo, cycling, boxing, equestrian, and disability sports. It funds essential costs for intensive training camps, specialist coaching, competition travel, performance equipment, and entry fees, alongside workshops in sports nutrition, psychology for mental resilience, media skills, and leadership development. Small grants support coach training to enhance grassroots talent pipelines. Beneficiaries include able-bodied and disabled young people—men, women, and para-athletes—with acute needs unmet by mainstream funding, addressing barriers like equipment shortages, travel costs, and access to elite preparation. Impact seeks to nurture elite pathways, boost youth confidence, prevent talent stagnation, promote inclusive sports participation, and drive community-wide benefits through shared learning and peer inspiration.

Exclusions encompass organisational core costs, capital projects, and athletes already receiving major public or elite funding. Distinctives include province-wide reach nurturing future stars from urban, rural, and deprived areas, explicit embrace of disabled sports and cultural integration, partnerships with governing bodies for endorsed high-potentials, and alumni networks fostering lifelong community role models. It prioritizes ambitious youth committed to local clubs, evidence of need, and reciprocal community contributions via amateur sport excellence.