Deadline: 6-Jun-25
The Community Foundation Northern Ireland is accepting applications for Micro Community Investment Fund to support smaller, grassroots organisations delivering great work.
Aims
- The fund will provide valuable investment for community initiatives making a difference in towns and villages across Northern Ireland.
- The fund will enable those organisations who are making the lives of others in their communities better, by improving their financial, physical, and mental wellbeing.
Focus Areas
- The Micro fund aims to support Community projects should focus on improving at least one of the following:
- Financial wellbeing
- Physical wellbeing
- Mental wellbeing
Priorities
- They want to prioritise projects that:
- Focus on the positive contribution of people within the community and support the challenges that people face in light of the rising cost of living
- Enable active participation of a community in decision-making and involvement in making their community a better place to live in
- Focus on the assets within the community which the project will use to make the community a better place to live in
- Help get people engaged in taking community action where it hasn’t happened before to make the community a better place to live in.
- Projects that address more than one particular strand of wellbeing
Themes
- Applications for funding must target one of the themes below:
- Projects promoting inclusion and belonging, particularly to enhance the physical and mental wellbeing of the local community
- Projects that strengthen the capacity of individuals to engage with a range of available digital services in order to help manage their money in a digital age
- Projects that enhance people’s financial knowledge through financial education programmes
- Projects promoting physical activity which uses the assets located within the area
- Projects that improve the ability of individuals to access mental health and wellbeing services either i) directly, through the provision of support or ii) indirectly, through education/awareness raising programmes
- Projects that encourage the active participation of individuals in their own mental wellbeing. Projects should aim to promote increased independence/resilience in relation to an individual’s mental health
Funding Information
- Community Investments available: Up to £1,500
Eligibility Criteria
- You are a locally based not-for-profit, voluntary or community group working in Northern Ireland to improve the quality of life for local people
- You have an active management committee, with no two related cheque signatories
- You have a governing document, i.e. Constitution in the name of the applicant organisation
- You have a current bank account in the name of your organisation
- You have up to date annual accounts
- You have complied with the conditions of previous grants including submission of monitoring returns.
Ineligibility Criteria
- In addition, they are unable to fund the following:
- The advancement of religion. This includes organisations whose purposes include advancement of religion;
- The establishment of endowment of any school or institution providing further education within the meaning of the education and libraries (Northern Ireland) order 1972;
- The provision of assistance to any Housing Association within the meaning of the housing (Northern Ireland) order 1976
- Trips outside of Northern Ireland
- Individual applications
- Purchase of vehicles
- Running costs of large organisations
- Holiday schemes
- Parties and shopping trips
- Promotion of religious or political activity, including any flags and emblems associated
- Applications from statutory organisations
For more information, visit Community Foundation Northern Ireland.