Fundraising News

New or Updated Funding Initiatives

Nominet Trust: Social Tech Seed Fund

Social Tech Seed is an open grant-funding programme that offers entrepreneurial organisations early-stage investment to develop innovative projects using digital technology to create significant social change, from environment and sustainability to education and employment. Grant funding, typically between £15,000 and £50,000 for a project of 9-12 months’ duration is available to help you demonstrate the social, user and financial value of an existing digital prototype.

New or Updated Funding Initiatives

The Law Society

The Law Society Charity supports organisations whose work is related to the law and the legal profession, and whose activities would be likely to benefit from funds made available on behalf of solicitors. It provides grants for projects that promote Human rights, Access to justice and/or Legal education. Grants are normally in the range £5,000 - £15,000 and provided on a one-off basis, although they can occasionally be spread over two or three years.

New or Updated Funding Initiatives

Hope for Youth NI

Hope for Youth (formerly the Women Caring Trust) was founded in 1972 and helps young people in Northern Ireland, particularly those from disadvantaged areas. It supports cross-community projects, where young people aged 11-18 can learn to work together to learn new skills, build friendships and develop their confidence in a safe environment. Its approach is non-sectarian and non-political. The maximum amount of grant available is usually £5000.

Funding Flash

Under the Social Investment Fund the Community Premises Support Project offers the Community and Voluntary Sector within the four legacy councils areas of Fermanagh, Omagh, Strabane and Limavady an opportunity to make improvements by developing and improving the infrastructure of community buildings.

Groups from within the four legacy councils areas, Fermanagh, Omagh, Strabane and Limavady, can apply for up to £20,000 for small scale capital improvements to existing community owned facilities.

Fundraising Training Flash!!!

Free Digital Marketing & Online Fundraising Training (13th October 10am – 1pm)

Do you want to start generating new income whilst really engaging your local community and increasing your supporter base?

This free half day training session will give you the skills, confidence and ideas needed to start to maximise fundraising through digital marketing and online fundraising in the way that is most appropriate for you.

Topics covered include:

NICVA is extremely happy to be partnering with Aviva to help promote the Aviva Community Fund. We also hope to work with all of you to ensure that Northern Ireland has the best possible opportunity to be represented amongst the Aviva Community Fund winners!

Together we can do more for the causes you care about

Do you have an idea for a project that would make a real difference in your community? Or is there already something in your community that would benefit from extra funding?

New or Updated Funding Initiatives

Heritage Lottery Fund: Heritage Endowments

The Heritage Endowments programme offers grants of £250,000, £500,000 or £1 million to support organisations to create or develop an endowment fund that will provide a long-term annual income. Grants are available to organisations in the UK who HLF are currently funding or have funded in the past. This is a match funding scheme – where the HLF grant matches every pound raised by grant recipients.

New or Updated Funding Initiatives

Inter Faith Week Grant Programme

A Small Grants Programme for events organised by and for young people focused around Inter Faith Week each year. Grants of up to £500 are awarded for proposals for inter-faith activities by children and young people from Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Sikh and other faiths and those of no formal faith in understanding and co-operation. The age range for young people is 11-25 years.

New or Updated Funding Initiatives

The Theatres Trust: Theatres Protection Fund - Small Grants Scheme

The UK Small Grants Scheme targets theatres across the UK run by charities and not-for-profit groups that are in need and at risk. The scheme awards capital grants of up to £5000 to support small theatre building projects which address urgent building repairs, improve operational viability, introduce environmental improvements, and which enhance physical accessibility.

New or Updated Funding Initiatives

Halifax Foundation for Northern Ireland: Community Grant Programme

Supports underfunded charities which enable those who are disadvantaged or disabled to play a fuller role in their community. Open to registered charities with an income of less than £1 million. Grants are for one year only and the average grant is currently between £3,000 - £4,000. (Formerly known as Lloyds Bank Foundation for NI).

New or Updated Funding Initiatives

Public Health Authority/NIAMH/Comic Relief: Change Your Mind Small Grants Scheme

Change Your Mind is Northern Ireland’s regional campaign to tackle stigma and discrimination around mental health. The Small Grants Scheme is a joint programme run by Niamh (Northern Ireland Association for Mental Health) and Public Health Agency. it is funded by Comic Relief and works in partnership with a range of organisations and community networks across Northern Ireland.

New or Updated Funding Initiatives

The Ouseley Trust

The Ouseley Trust is a registered charity set up to promote and maintain to a high standard the choral services of the Church of England, the Church in Wales and the Church of Ireland. It does this by making grants to cathedrals, choral foundations, parish churches, choir schools and other relevant institutions.

New or Updated Funding Initiatives

The Discovery Project

In 2016, The Santander Foundation became The Discovery Foundation to reflect its important role in Santander UK's new flagship community programme called The Discovery Project. The aim of The Discovery Project is to help people have the confidence to make the most of their future. In this fast-paced world they know some find it hard to navigate the change and want to help everyone have equal access to the best society has to offer.

Fundraising Regulation for Northern Ireland

Fundraising self-regulation IS coming to both Northern Ireland and Scotland, having already firmly arrived in England and Wales. The only question still up for debate is as to what FORM it should take. NICVA will be running an event around this issue on 9th September – details to be determined.

In the meantime, for information on the background to this key issue and an overview of the options see NICVA’s latest article here.

Shedding some initial light on the current s​tate of EU funding uncertainty.

It is fair to say that Brexit may have brought with it "the absolute certainty of uncertainty", particularly with regard to these first few weeks. For some NI charities, one of the most worrisome issues is just how EU funding will be affected. Access Europe NI, set up in 2013 to build the capacity of Irish organisations to access EU funding today issued the following statement, which goes some way to clarifying the current state of play.

New or Updated Funding Initiatives

Comic Relief: Small and Diaspora UK NGO Fund

Comic Relief believes that small and diaspora-led NGOs play a crucial role in development, but often struggle to access funding. For that reason, Comic Relief have a designated Small and Diaspora UK NGO Fund to specifically support work by small and diaspora-led NGOs. The fund total is approximately £3 million. There’s no minimum grant size, but the maximum grant size available is £350,000.

New or Updated Funding Initiatives

NEWSFLASH! Comic Relief: Core Funding for Small Organisations

Comic Relief have just launched an exciting new pilot core funding and support scheme for small organisations delivering work in the UK with an annual income of £100,000 - £500,000.

New or Updated Funding Initiatives

PHA Small Grants: Emotional Wellbeing & Suicide Prevention

The Public Health Agency (PHA) has identified funding for a small grants scheme to address the themes of Mental Health & Emotional Well-Being, Suicide Prevention and Self- Harm, and have commissioned CLEAR to facilitate this process. The Public Health Agency are keen to fund programmes founded on evidence based practice with a particular focus on those using one or more of the ‘Take 5’ Steps to Wellbeing.

OneFamily Foundation: Community Awards

The OneFamily Foundation helps fund community projects chosen by their customers. OneFamily customers simply nominate their favourite local community project for a Community Award of up to £5,000 or up to £25,000. Approved projects are then entered into a public online vote, which determines the winners. Projects will therefore need to campaign and raise awareness of their nomination in the Community Awards to gain the most votes!

Comic Relief: Maternal Mental Health

This scheme funds services which ensure that more women experiencing maternal mental health issues will have access to high quality community based support in their local area. It aims to address the fact that more than 1 in 10 women develop a mental illness during pregnancy, or in the first year of their baby’s life, with depression affecting 10-14% of women. Partly funded by HM Treasury’s “Tampon Tax” to support women’s and girls’ issues, proposals are welcome for up to £120,000 for between two and three years of activity.