We are fundraising for skill development via 3 main avenues. Our current needs are coaching certifications, honorariums for guest instructors, and funding for competition expenses. We are a student led group of athletes of a variety of skill levels and Martial Arts disciplines. Our Mentor Team is composed entirely of volunteer black-belt students that attend UofA from around the world. They each dedicate over a hundred hours each semester to teaching students of a variety of skill levels. We have been lucky enough to have a very supportive club culture, however, because we are all students, and are roughly the same age, our skill levels cap out at roughly the same place. Each member of our Mentor Team has different strengths, so we've been able to nurture each other to the best of our ability, however, we have the desire to access more advanced training than our Mentor Team is currently supported to provide. Guest instructors have high level, specialized training, and accessing their time and expertise is a critical means of nurturing the skills of our Mentor Team to increase their instructional effectiveness and confidence, as well as the skills of our members, whether they are beginners or more advanced. This keeps the club enriching for all skill levels, while also encouraging volunteer participation for the benefits of personal and club growth. Guest Instructors also give our members unique, low-cost opportunities to explore Martial Arts other than Taekwondo, which is key for a well rounded and curiosity-driven experience of fitness. Our members have continually demonstrated strong interest in having Guest Instructors, but our only barrier at the moment is funding.

Furthermore, coaching certifications would support our Mentor Team to further pursue professional development in the sport scene, as well as enabling them to further nurture our students. Many of our beginner and intermediate members have aspirations to compete and to advance further in skill level within the sport for personal enrichment reasons, but Mentors lack access to funding for coaching certifications to be able to support our members in that regard, and the certifications are necessary to access sanctioned Taekwondo events. These events are key for accessing the Taekwondo community for networking, sport development, professional development, and is an avenue to participating at the Olympic level. This lack of access prevents us from uplifting our members into achieving a level of skill that would allow them to give back to their campus community via becoming Mentors in turn, or to advance further in the sport. It is key to note that we want to get our own members certified. If we had to pay for the services of an external coach for one competition, it would cost half of what a certification would cost. After two competitions, we would have paid enough in service fees that we could have had our own members certified instead, which provides far more value to our members directly, and far more return on our investment. Furthermore, competition registration and travel can be very expensive, pricing out most of our members. We have already assured our members' access to equipment, regular training space, the skills of our mentor team, and safe sport processes, but without funding for coaching certifications, guest instructors, and competition expenses, we cannot access higher levels of training opportunities for our members. We comprise the only University Taekwondo Club in Alberta, and we are the only dojang entity in the Taekwondo community in Alberta entirely comprised of adults. We supply the vast majority of all adult competitors at Taekwondo competitions in Alberta, and we have aspirations of one day setting up a collegiate Taekwondo circuit in Canada, which will benefit other post-secondary Taekwondo Clubs. None of these future goals are possible until we've assured consistent access to skill development opportunities. We have the interest, the dedication, the demographic, and the willingness to put in the work. Our only barrier is funding.

All eligible gifts made during the Giving Day period of 08:00 AM MT, March 26 to 08:00 AM MT, March 27 will be matched, dollar for dollar, up to $1,000 per gift, per fund, until the institutional match pool of $100,000 is fully exhausted.

Taekwondo (TKD) Club

Ends On: March 27, 2026 at 8:00 AM MDT