Non-profit

Background

The founder of our club Grandmaster Pan always intended the club to make money and supplement his income. When our current Head Instructor joined the club in 1986, it was a dark time for him and Taekwondo really helped him. The club was run as intentionally a profit-making enterprise (with varying levels of success) until our current Head Instructor took over in 2012. At that point the decision was made that we would operate as a non-profit ethos club, because he wanted to give back to the Taekwondo, for what it did for him. Our committee is fully committed to this vision.

Volunteer Instructors

All of Stevenage Taekwondo's regular instructors (including all masters and the Head Instructor) are entirely unpaid volunteer instructors when teaching at Stevenage Taekwondo. We all give our time freely in order to pass on the art that we love to others and to help them. We don't receive any salary, monthly payments or one-off fees for our teaching efforts.

Community Amateur Sports Club

The club officially became a Community Amateur Sports Club (CASC) on 11th of January 2023. This solidifies our official status as a non-profit. CASCs are officially defined by the government as:

A CASC is an organisation which has been granted a special tax status by HMRC in recognition of the fact that that it meets certain criteria. Broadly speaking, CASCs are local or regional sports clubs that are non-profit making and open to the whole community.

What this means for you

The advantage of us being a well-run and non-profit club is that any profits made are reinvested back in to the club for your benefit.

1. This means that we can keep our fees one of the lowest in the area. For example:
   • 
     If you're an adult, another local Taekwondo club would charge you £50 per month for training twice per week at £6 per session, whereas our fees are just £30/month (and as little as an equivalent to £25/month with free gradings if you want to pay up front for a longer period).
   • 
     For children, that same club would charge you £41.67 per month for training twice per week at £5 per session, whereas our fees are just £20/month (and as little as an equivalent to £15/month with free gradings if you want to pay up front for a longer period).
   • 
     The same club charges over £20 for a coloured belt grading, compared to our £10 (which includes a new belt and certificate if you pass - and even that is free if you go for one of our longer packages).
   • 
     For a normal year these differences mean an adult training with us can save from £288 (if you pay monthly) and up to £476 (if you pay yearly) in extra charges!
   • 
     For children it's not much different, choosing Stevenage Taekwondo would save you from £308 (if you pay monthly) and up to £408 (if you pay yearly) in extra charges!
2. We've fully funded the purchase of a lot of equipment over the past ten years for the club - such as a fully matted training area (130m² of mats), "Iranian pads", 25+ kicking targets (paddles), SpoBand® elastic sport bands and a set of Zemita electronic body protectors from Korea.
3. We've hosted many seminars at Stevenage Taekwondo, which are subsidised by the club to give a reduced cost for our members compared to external attendees, such as:
   

   Sarah Stevenson MBE

   2008 Olympic Bronze
   2001 World Champion

   

   Bianca Walkden

   2016, 2020 Olympic Bronze
   2015, 2017, 2019 World Champion

   

   Master Jeong, In-choul

   Real-world Taekwondo self-defence expert from South Korea

   

   Master Kim, Kwang-soo

   Former world demonstration team member (Kukkiwon) from South Korea

   

   Paul Green

   2003 World Championship Silver
   Former Team GB National Coach
   Current USA National Coach

   

   Andrew Deer

   2014 Commonwealth Champion
   Team GB Paralymic Coach

   

   Grandmaster Pan, Sim-woon

   2013 World Poomsae Championship 5th Place
   Kukkiwon 10th Dan (posthumous)

   

   Martin Stamper

   2008 European Championship Silver
   Team GB National Coach