Deadline: 7-Feb-25
The Causeway Coast & Glens Borough Council is seeking applications for the Community Festival Fund designed to best support, promote and develop the capacity of communities to host community festival events across the Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council area.
A community festival is a series of events (or a single event with several elements) with a common theme and delivered within a defined time period. A community festival is a festival which has developed from within a community and should celebrate and positively promote what the community represents.
The Community Festivals Fund was established in recognition of the positive contribution that festivals can make to communities and to the local economy. The main purpose of Causeway Coast & Glens Borough Council’s Community Festivals Fund is ‘to enable communities to enhance their quality of life through participation/engagement in culture, arts and leisure activities.’ (Department for Communities Community Festivals Fund Revised Policy and Guidance Framework October 2015). The fund will enable organisations to celebrate their unique cultural and community identity, to promote diversity and to strengthen good community relations within and between communities.
Funding Information
- There are 3 levels of grants available within the Community Festival Fund
- One day community fun day type events. Events must be programmed to be of at least 4 hours consecutive duration and include a range of at least 3 types of activities to suit all sections of the community. (Up to £750)
- Festival events lasting 2 consecutive days or more. Each of the days of the festival must include a range of activities to suit all sections of the community and be programmed to be at least 4 hours duration. It is not enough to simply duplicate the same event on 2 days – the festival must have different activities on each day that it takes place. (Up to £1,500)
- Festivals lasting 3 consecutive days or more. Each of the days of the festival must include a range of activities to suit all sections of the community and be programmed to be at least 4 hours duration. The festival must have different activities on each day that it takes place. (Up to £3,000)
What can be funded?
- Event insurance
- Venue hire
- Performance fees
- Transport within the community/ area that the festival is taking place in
- Equipment hire
- Signage
- Advertising, marketing and media costs
- Printing
- Administration (stationery, postage etc.)
- The assessment panel may consider other costs not listed above that the applicant can show are essential to the running of the festival, however there is no guarantee that these will be funded.
Who can apply?
- Applications can be made by non-profit taking community and voluntary organisations that are based in the Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council area or have their main activities based in the Causeway Coast and Glens Council area.
- Festivals developed by public bodies or private sector companies cannot apply to the Community Festival Fund.
- To be eligible for grant-aid, you will have to show that your organisation is a bona fide organisation that is well run and that it has a properly adopted “Governing Document” such as a constitution or memorandum and articles of association which clearly show that it is non-profit making and taking. Evidence that a constitution has been formally adopted must be supplied.
- If an organisation is satisfied that it is an eligible formally constituted organisation as outlined, it
- MUST be in a position to meet the following criteria:
- Be committed to Equal Opportunities in terms of organisational policies and the delivery of services to those being served or represented.
- Be non-party political and open to the full range of local opinion.
- Have a constitution/governing document that has been adopted at a public meeting showing clearly defined purposes that are for the public benefit in line with the Charities Act (Northern Ireland) 2008.
- Be able to demonstrate a fair and equitable ethos through established aims and objectives in accordance with Section 75 of the Northern Ireland Act (1998).
- Be able without prejudice to the obligations of Section 75 of the Northern Ireland Act (1998), to demonstrate regard to the desirability of promoting Good Relations between persons of different religious belief, political belief, political opinion or racial group.
- Be accountable to local people through an established constitution, open membership, committee elections, accounting procedures and Annual General Meetings. The Office Bearing positions of Chairman, Secretary and Treasurer should be held as a minimum.
- Have appropriate and adequate insurance cover for all activities and all actions proceeding such as costs, claims, demands and liabilities whatsoever, arising from all or any of the group activities. To also ensure that any individuals or organisations worked with are properly insured.
- Ensure that all group activities abide by the law and that the necessary permissions are obtained for activities from the appropriate body/authority.
- Ensure that Child Protection Policy/Vulnerable Adults Policy and Procedures are in place and adhered to as and where appropriate.
- Have a bank/building society account and keep a proper record of group accounts.
- Be able to produce an annual statement of independently audited or certified accounts or be able to present a bank statement in the case of newly established groups.
- Have arrangements in place for dispersing the group’s funds if they dissolve/end.
- Agree to Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council’s promotion, monitoring, evaluation, and training procedures as required.
- Be prepared to take part in any peer supported workshops that the Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council deems necessary.
Exclusions
- In general, the following will not normally be eligible to apply for funding from the Community Festival Fund:
- Individuals
- Groups operating outside the Causeway Coast and Glens Council area
- Organisations with charitable fundraising as their main focus
- Organisations who have substantial, demonstrable reserves
- Political Organisations
For more information, visit Causeway Coast & Glens Borough Council.