Deadline: 20-Jan-23
The Community Foundation Northern Ireland is currently accepting applications for the Micro Community Investment Fund.
Fund 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.
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 well being
Themes
Applications for funding within one or other of these themes could be to support:
- Projects promoting inclusion and belonging, particularly to enhance the physical and mental well being 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 £2,000
Eligibility Criteria
- You do not have to have a constitution to apply to this fund. They will discuss your project with you in advance of application if you do not have certain governance requirements for funding in place.
- They want to support smaller, grassroots organisations delivering great work. For this reason whilst groups with an income of up to £30,000 per annum are eligible to apply preference will be given to groups with an income of up to £10,000.
- Applications are sought to support both new and existing activities and projects that enhance the financial, physical and/or mental well being of people in communities. They will support new or existing community initiatives that have a particular focus on addressing the challenges people are facing around the rising cost of living.
- Community projects should focus on improving at least one of the following:
- Financial wellbeing
- Physical wellbeing
- Mental wellbeing
Ineligible
- The Foundation will not fund organisations or activities which promote causes that are contrary to their purposes. Causes and activities that are contrary to their purposes include, but may not be limited to, those outlined in their investment policy. They will not therefore fund organisations or activities which they determine are linked to the promotion of armaments, alcohol, human rights abuses, tobacco or pornography.
- 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
- Community Interest Companies (CICs) Limited by Shares, or CICs without an asset lock clause. Eligible CICs must have at least three unrelated committee members, and/or the majority of the committee must be unrelated
- 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.