Over the last eight years, the OpenActive data standard has allowed physical activity providers to publish information about time-based events, such as instructor-led classes or facility time slots. This has led to over 10 million activities being published monthly.
However, as the focus was strictly on time-based activities, organisations like community groups or clubs – who are interested in general visibility rather than driving traffic to specific slots – could not previously align with the standard. Our latest release addresses this by allowing organisations to publish an OpenActive feed using just four properties:
- Entity type: Whether it is an organisation or a person
- Name: The organisation’s or club’s name
- Activities: The names of the physical activities offered
- Address: The organisation’s main physical address
The primary benefits of publishing this open data for an organisation or club include:
- Increased visibility: Greater exposure across platforms, directories, and search engines without the need to provide data to the individual services
- Healthcare signposting: the option for healthcare professionals at NHS GP practices and neighborhood health centers to signpost patients to your clubs.
- Brand accuracy: ensuring contact details and branding are consistent and accurate wherever they appear.
For groups representing organisations and clubs like NGBs or Active Partnerships who already have a list of the grassroots clubs, publishing an OpenActive-compliant feed should be fairly straightforward.
More details on the required properties and guidance on how to publish can be found in this document.
Get involved
We will be running a showcase campaign in April to feature early adopter NGBs. If you’d like to be considered for this, and be seen to lead the way in increasing visibility for grassroots clubs and organisations, please email [email protected] by 31 March 2026.
