London Youth Games — Participation Portal

The brief

London Youth Games runs competition for young people across all 33 London boroughs. The site has to serve four audiences at once — a young person looking for their borough's sport, a teacher entering a school, a volunteer, and a funder deciding whether to give — and it has to survive the registration peaks that arrive with each season rather than averaging them.

What we built

Competition is split into two streams that stay separate the whole way down. Open Games is community sport by borough, covering 27 sports, with results and standings of its own. School Games runs through School Games Organisers and carries its own results. Inclusive events for young disabled participants sit inside both streams rather than in a third one off to the side, which is the decision that took the longest and matters the most.

Giving is four routes, not one button

A charity's supporters arrive with different amounts of money and time. Direct donation runs through Zeffy and GiveNGain; there is a charity-run programme for people who would rather raise than give; a seasonal Christmas appeal; and a corporate partnership route for organisations. Each one is a real page with its own argument, because a single Donate button converts one of those four.

The rest of the programme

GamesForce handles volunteer recruitment, LYG33 covers youth leadership, and Inclusive Coaches covers coach development. Funder and partner recognition — Sport England, City Bridge Foundation, Garfield Weston Foundation — is built into the site rather than bolted on as a logo strip, because for a charity that acknowledgement is contractual.

Where it landed

Entries, results, volunteering and donations run from one portal, through the seasonal spikes, with the inclusive events inside the main competition rather than beside it.