Deadline: 10-Jul-2020
The National Lottery Community Fund is currently accepting applications to the COVID-19 Charities Fund for provide access funding for charities who have exhausted other avenues of support and are facing imminent closure.
The aim of the fund is to ensure that a balanced charitable sector, representative of the diverse interests and needs of Northern Ireland citizens, and of geographic spread, remains in place after the COVID-19 crisis has passed.
This funding programme will support this aim by providing financial support to charities who:
- have lost income due to the impact of COVID-19
- will not be able to cover unavoidable costs until September 30 2020.
Funding Information
- This funding will be distributed as a one-off payment of up to £75,000 and is intended to cover a shortfall of unavoidable costs from 1 April 2020 to 30 September 2020.
Eligibility Criteria
Charities applying must meet all of the following eligibility criteria:
- Have been formed prior to 31st March 2020 and be a lawfully operating charity as defined by the Charities Act (NI) 2008;
- Have at least two unrelated people on its board or committee;
- Have a UK bank or building society account in the legal name of the charity with at least two unrelated people who can manage the account;
- Have been financially stable prior to the impact of COVID-19 and where The National Lottery Community Fund have no concerns regarding fraud or financial mismanagement
- Be able to demonstrate that their fundraising or trading income has reduced due to the impact of COVID-19 and they have unavoidable costs to cover up to 30th September 2020;
- Have unavoidable costs that cannot be covered by existing grants or public funding and are therefore at imminent risk;
- Have not received other COVID-19 financial support from NI Executive departments:
- Department for the Economy Small Business Support;
- Retail, Hospitality, Tourism and Leisure Grant;
- Microbusiness Hardship Fund.
- £6.5m fund for charities released by the Department of Finance for Hospices and charities.
Ineligibility Criteria
Your charity is not eligible if it is a:
- Community Amateur Sports Club
- Community Interest Company
- Non charitable social enterprise
- Non charitable trading arm Your charity is not eligible if it:
- Was formed after 31 March 2020
- Submitted an Expression of Interest (EOI) after 31 March 2020
- Was called forward by Commission for registration but failed to apply
- Was called forward by Commission for registration but your application was withdrawn and you never reapplied when invited to do so
- Was called forward by Commission for registration but your application was rejected and you never reapplied when invited to do so
- Has informed the Commission for Northern Ireland that you have or are about to close.
- Has never informed the Commission of its existence.
For more information, visit https://www.tnlcommunityfund.org.uk/funding/programmes/covid-19-charities-fund