Funding News – 27 March 2023

Your weekly funding news and deadlines update from GrantTracker.

NEW EVENT – Meet the Funder

The Pilgrim Trust’s Young Women’s Mental Health programme is opening for its third year!

The Young Women’s Mental Health programme aims to help improve the mental health of women aged 16-25 in the UK and the Trust have committed £5 million in funding over five years (2021-2026). Their grants go to organisations that increase young women’s access to high quality, age and gender specific mental health services. Grants of £60,000 to £90,000 spread across three years are available. To be eligible, charities need to be working in Northern Ireland, North East or North West of England or Yorkshire and Humber, have an annual turnover between £100k to 1 million and be a registered charity that has been operating for at least 3 years. NICVA is hosting a Meet the Funder event with their Grants Manager, Sonja where you can learn more about the Trust’s work and the Young Women’s Mental Health programme. Find out more here.

Funding News

The Tudor Trust announce they will not be reopening in April 2023

The Tudor Trust is an independent grant-making trust which supports voluntary and community groups working in any part of the UK. On 21st March 2023, they announced that they will not be reopening to new applications in April. They had planned to reopen in April 2023 with revised guidelines after announcing a temporary closure last year to reimagine the future of the trust and learn more about racial justice and build aspects of diversity, equity and inclusion into their work. However, they want to reopen as a trust that can say we are truly striving to be an anti-racist organisation and feel they cannot say yet and still need to do more work. Their grants managers will still provide support to the 700+ organisations who have grants with them and will continue to accept requests for continuation funding. They will give an update in June.

Social Entrepreneurs Ireland: Impact Programme opening 18 April

Their Impact Programme is a nine-month accelerator programme that will provide you with specialised support to help you to bring your project or organisation to the next level, with a view to becoming a highly impactful, effective, scalable, and sustainable organisation. Five social entrepreneurs led organisations will be selected to participate in the Impact Programme. As an Impact Programme Awardee your organisation will receive support in key business areas and direct funding worth over €20,000. You will join Ireland’s largest network of social entrepreneurs working across the country to solve Ireland’s social problems quickly and effectively.

Buttle UK: Chances for Children Grants

Chances for Children grants are individually tailored grants of up to £2,200 for children and young people who have experienced a crisis that has recently had a significant and enduring impact on their social and emotional wellbeing and educational engagement. They fund items and activities to help improve children and young people’s wellbeing and increase their capacity to engage in education and learning. They only accept applications from frontline professionals (from a registered charity, housing association or public sector organisation). Applications can be made at any time.

Austin and Hope Pilkington Trust – Round 2 opens 1 April

The Austin and Hope Trust gives grants to UK registered charities and focus on different priorities every year. In 2023, Grant Rounds 1 and 2 focus on Rehabilitation of prisoners, ex-prisoners and those at risk of offending while Grant rounds 3 and 4 focus on Children and young people in care and care leavers. Round 2 offers grants up to £5000 where your minimum operating income and expenditure is £1M. In 2024, they are prioritising projects that focus on disability and will publish more details later this year.

Upcoming Deadlines

Ministry of Defence: Armed Forces Day Events Funding

The Ministry of Defence offers a grant for Armed Forces Day events up to the value of £10,000, depending on the size and format of the event. This grant is match-funded and can cover up to half the total cost of the event. For example, If the total cost of the event is £10,000 and you raise £5,000, the grant could cover up to £5,000. Deadline 31 March 2023.

Arts Council NI: Small Grants Programme

The Arts Council has designed this programme to encourage you to develop and deliver your ideas, linked to your artistic needs and to your future plans. The programme aims to assist organisations to deliver arts projects which contribute to the growth of arts in the community for new and existing audiences reflecting the diversity of Northern Ireland’s society and culture. Deadline 31 March 2023 (noon).

National Churches Trust: Large Grants

The Large Grants Programme (formerly Cornerstone Grant Programme) offers grants of between £10,000 and £50,000 towards the cost of major urgent structural repair projects costed at more than £100,000 including VAT (*grants of £40,000 to £50,000 are extremely limited and reserved for cases which demonstrate a very high case for investment). They will also consider projects that introduce kitchens and accessible toilets to enable increased community use, costed at more than £30,000 including VAT. Grants will never exceed 50% of the project cost. Next Stage 1 deadline 30 March 2023 (midnight).

Culture Ireland: Regular Grants programme

Culture Ireland’s Regular grants programme offers support to Irish professional artists, arts organisations and international presenters to present work by Irish artists at significant international venues and festivals. Culture Ireland is now also accepting applications from Irish artists and Irish or International arts organisations for the presentation of work online to international audiences. Next deadline is 1 April 2023 (midnight) for work internationally from 15th June 2023 onwards.

James Brown & Sons Community Fund supporting Greater Belfast

After a successful first year helping 19 organisations in and around Belfast, the James Brown & Sons Community Fund is returning to provide charities and not-for-profit organisations with valuable support at a crucial time. Local Funeral Directors James Brown & Sons have been serving the people of Greater Belfast since 1904 and have increased the money available this year to £25,000 for projects which benefit local communities in the city and the surrounding areas. Next deadline 3 April 2023 (noon).

Fundraising Training

Getting the most out of GrantTracker - Online

Six events throughout April; dates and times vary.  

This 45 minute session covers using the Home keys to keep in touch and get support, maximising your searches, tracking schemes, funders and email notifications, and using “My Tracker” and “My Notes” to make GrantTracker work for you and in managing your funding applications.

Preparing to tender - Online

26 April 2023 - 10:00am to 12:30pm

The session will include how the income from contracts fits into your wider funding strategy and how to find contract opportunities, how to prepare effectively for writing a proposal so you are able to respond to opportunities quickly and efficiently, what makes a successful application or tender, and how bids are assessed and scored.

Fundraising Hub

NICVA Fundraising Advice has a range of articles from contributors supporting fundraising alongside a range of topics. See a few below:

Guest Blogs

Guest Blog: Fundraising Regulator - Volunteer fundraising: understanding the difference between ‘in aid of’ and ‘on behalf of’ | NICVA

Celia Currie, Stakeholder and Policy Manager for Northern Ireland, reflects on the importance of volunteers in fundraising and why it's important for charities to understand what type of fundraising is being carried out.

Guest Blog: The Chartered Institute of Fundraising in Northern Ireland | NICVA

Paul Montgomery, Chair of the Chartered Institute of Fundraising Northern Ireland gives an overview of the work they do and how you can get involved. Plus, Paul details of their spring Fundraising Forum in Lisburn.

Guest Blog: The National Lottery Community Fund - remember to consider your environmental impact when applying for funding

Mark Creaney, from The National Lottery Community Fund (NLCF), talks about how the largest community funder across the UK is supporting communities who are seeking to minimise their impact on the environment.

Topics

Funder News: Benefact Trust making a lasting impact on communities with new-look grants programme | NICVA

Earlier this year, Benefact Trust announced changes to their grant funding including the permanent closure of their General Grants programme. The new grant framework aims to make a lasting impact on communities facing social challenges.

Making a Sustainable Difference in your Organisation

The environment affects all aspects of our lives and there are numerous benefits for organisations to address environmental issues such as improved finances and greater appeal for employees, supporters, and funders. Find out more here including potential funders.

Charities and the cost-of-living crisis | NICVA

Being concerned about rising costs is something that many charities and voluntary organisations are potentially facing as inflation has climbed to historic levels.  But what can you do to address this?

 

Get ahead with GrantTracker and access over 1000 funding schemes in NI's leading database.  Just £100 a year for NICVA members and £145 for non-members here.