ISSF Development Fund
Programme Rules 2023
Introduction
Following his election, the ISSF President, Mr. Luciano Rossi, proposed to renew the ISSF Development Fund, to which the ISSF would contribute parts of its generated revenues for development projects with an initial amount of EUR 2 million.
The ISSF Executive Committee approved the creation of the Development Fund and the implementation of a system that can guarantee full transparency in the decision-making process and in financial operations of the ISSF Development Fund in accordance with the following Programme Rules.
The ISSF is going to encourage other parties to contribute to this Development Fund for the good of the shooting sport.
The broad objective of the ISSF Development Fund is to contribute to the promotion of the shooting sport worldwide. Support shall be granted to the ISSF Member Federations from those nations, where the shooting sport is not developed enough, or certain disciplines of the shooting sport lack development.
The allocation of any means of the ISSF Development Fund, their proportion and distribution shall be assessed and decided by the Board of Trustees of the Development Fund (hereinafter the “BoT”). Any requested support of a value above EUR 20,000 in addition needs the approval of the ISSF Executive Board. The same approval shall be necessary if the added values of requested support by one ISSF Member Federation within a four year period exceeds EUR 20,000. In case the requested support exceeds the value of EUR 20,000, the BoT shall submit to the ISSF Executive Committee for its final approval a recommendation of a list of applications to be accepted or rejected including reasons for the acceptance or rejection, respectively.
The members of the BoT are appointed by the ISSF Executive Committee. The term of the BoT members shall end at the same time as the term of the respective Executive Committee members who appointed them ends, i.e. the following ISSF electoral Congress.
The BoT shall also oversee the proper use of the granted support. The BoT shall be comprised of five members representing each ISSF Confederation appointed by the ISSF Executive Committee assisted by the ISSF legal advisor. The BoT may take decisions if at least three of its members are present in the respective meeting. The BoT members shall be invited to BoT meetings at least one month before the meeting shall be conducted. The BoT may also pass decisions by skype conference or by postal vote. Decisions of the BoT require a simple majority of the votes cast.
The following Programme Rules shall apply for the ISSF Development Fund:
Support for ISSF Member Federations
1.1. Purpose
The grant of support to ISSF Member Federations serves to better develop the shooting sport in their territory in order to increase the number and performance level of practising athletes and thereby promote the development of the shooting sport worldwide.
1.2. Potential beneficiaries
ISSF Member Federations wishing to benefit from the Development Fund must correspond to the following prerequisites:
• To demonstrate activity within the shooting sport, i.e. by regularly organizing national shooting sport competitions;
• To have existing shooting facilities or facilities under construction.
1.3. Specification of support
1.3.1. The support of the Member Federations may range from equipment (targets, scoring systems, shooting equipment, ammunition, etc.) for shooting facilities of the Member Federations. Subsidies in form of payments are excluded.
1.3.2. Support for shooting facilities shall in principle be granted only once the facilities to be equipped are completed.
1.3.3. In case the Member Federation is planning (or already started) the construction of new shooting facilities the BoT may grant support if it feels comfortably satisfied that based on the information and evidence provided that the facilities will be ready for use in due course.
1.3.4. Further details are provided in the Support Agreement, which shall be concluded at the end of the application procedure between the ISSF and the respective Member Federation.
1.4. Application Procedure
1.4.1. The applying Member Federation must send a signed Application to the ISSF Secretariat (ISSF headquarters) and provide information about the development of shooting sport in its territory. Applications shall be submitted until 30 June or 31 December of each year, respectively for evaluation by the BoT and the ISSF Executive Committee. Such information shall in particular include:
• A presentation of existing shooting facilities including information on its equipment;
• Information on the number of athletes, coaches and judges engaged in the shooting sport under the supervision of the Member Federation;
• Information on shooting sport competitions organised by the Member Federation and/or in which its athletes participated in the past five years.
1.4.2. The Application shall contain detailed information about the proposed project(s) for which support is requested. In case the project presumes the construction of the shooting facility/facilities the Application shall include:
• Project schedule;
• Budget;
• Location, size and owner of the premises;
• Type(s) of shooting sport to be practised;
• Planned completion date.
1.4.3. The documents submitted shall be reviewed and evaluated by the BoT upon expiry of the submission deadlines set out in Article 1.4.1 of these Programme Rules. The BoT shall evaluate each individual Application based on the documents submitted by the Member Federation under consideration of objective, fair and reasonable criteria on the basis of which the BoT shall make a recommendation to the ISSF Executive Committee or make its own decision for each Application whether it supports or rejects the requested or any other support for the applicant. The BoT shall determine and set out the objective, fair and reasonable criteria based on which it shall assess and evaluate the applications.
1.4.4. The BoT shall evaluate each individual application based on its own set-out criteria (see above Article 1.4.3 of these Programme Rules) and upon such evaluation shall make a recommendation to the ISSF Executive Committee for its final approval to grant or reject the support of the applying Member Federation. The BoT shall prepare to the ISSF Executive Committee a list of the Applications to be approved or rejcted, respectively, including a determination of the details of the support granted to the Member Federation as well as the reasons for the recommendation to approve or reject the respective Application.. Unless exceptional grounds exist, the ISSF Executive Committee shall follow the recommendation submitted by the BoT. For Applications that do not exceed the value of EUR 20,000, the BoT shall be the final body approving the individual application and determining the details of the support granted to the Member Federation.
1.4.5. The Application Procedure closes with the conclusion of the Support Agreement between the Member Federation and the ISSF.
1.5. Monitoring and reporting
1.5.1. The Member Federation shall provide the BoT with periodic reports of the use of the granted support as set out in the Support Agreement. In addition, the BoT may, at any time, request information about such use in order to observe and ensure that it is in line with these Programme Rules and the Support Agreement.
1.5.2. The Member Federation shall present a final report to the BoT once the project has been fully completed.
2. Obligations of beneficiaries
The beneficiaries of the support granted on basis of these Programme Rules shall have the following obligations:
• acknowledge and observe at any time these Programme Rules;
• provide the BoT with all the necessary information and supporting documentary evidence related to the implementation and use of the support;
• secure the authorisation of the competent government authorities to import any equipment and materials and facilitate all the administrative steps involved;
• ensure that the shooting facility and its equipment is used in accordance with the ISSF Rules and Regulations once it is ready for use.
3. General Rules
3.1 Taxes and duties
3.1.1 The beneficiaries are responsible for paying any type of taxes, duties and other charges that are due by local laws because of receiving any type of asset under the ISSF Development Fund Programme.
3.1.2 Expenses related to the transfer of any kind of equipment (e.g. shipping costs, insurance) shall be borne by the ISSF.
3.2 Violation of the Programme Rules
In the event of any suspicion of misuse of granted support or any other violation of these Programme Rules, the BoT may transfer the case to the ISSF Secretary General in order to summon the ISSF Ethics Committee.
3.3 Exhaustion of the financial means of the ISSF Development Fund
3.3.1 The BoT shall inform the ISSF as early as possible about the exhaustion of the financial means of the Development Fund.
3.3.2 The ISSF shall then give information that until further financial means are donated to the Development Fund no support may be granted. This information may be shared via the ISSF website.
3.3.3 In this case, pending applications will be rejected.
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Approved by the ISSF Executive Committee on 19 February 2024
Fuente: http://www.issf-sports.org
