The Inspiring Growth Fund

Aim of the Fund

The community sector has faced many challenges in recent years with a global pandemic and more recently a cost-of-living crisis. The sector has continued to support communities, and demand is increasing for their services, yet their costs are rising, and many community sector organisations are constantly firefighting to meet the demand of their services, and source funding to deliver.

The pandemic showed us the importance of digital inclusion and connectivity. The pace of change and progress in digital technology, and the opportunities (and challenges) that digital brings, is vast. However, lack of digital skills, together with access, confidence, trust and motivation issues present barriers for many, not least the community and voluntary sector.

Unless organisations in the sector become more digitally able, they risk being left behind.

The aim of the Inspiring Growth Fund is to help organisations in the community sector to take that time and space and increase their digital capacity, with a particular focus on building on and availing of the opportunities that AI (Artificial Intelligence) may bring to better support communities, as well as to ensure that the sector is not left behind.

What we hope to achieve

We want to fund activity or projects that will enable significant change to occur in the digital capability of the voluntary or community sector. This change must result in demonstrated benefits being delivered by organisations (directly or indirectly) to the individuals or communities they support.

What is digital capability?

Digital capability refers to an individual or organisation’s ability to effectively leverage digital technologies and processes to achieve their goals and objectives. It encompasses a range of skills, knowledge, and behaviours that enable individuals and organisations to use digital technologies effectively and efficiently.

Digital capability includes areas such as digital literacy, digital skills and competencies, technology infrastructure, data analytics, digital marketing, and customer experience. It is not just about having the right tools and technologies in place, but also about having the right people with the right skills to use them effectively.

Organisations with strong digital capability are better equipped to compete in today’s digital economy. They are able to leverage data insights to make better business decisions, deliver more personalised customer experiences, and operate more efficiently and effectively.

Overall, digital capability is an essential component of success in the digital age. Individuals and organisations that invest in developing and strengthening their digital capabilities are better positioned to succeed in today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape.

Building digital capability in the sector could therefore mean:

• Enhancement in skills or knowledge within organisations
• Supporting diversification of services and Income
• Strengthening impact measurement and reporting
• Delivering efficiency and strengthening structures and processes

The outcomes of this could lead to:

• Strengthening an organisation’s reputation
• Developing the capacity and leadership of staff and/or volunteers
• Increased reach, scaling up or across
• Better strategic planning
• Building collaborative approaches
• Strengthening networks

Fund criteria

Grants will be offered between £5,000 to £10,000 for up to two years.

Who can apply?

Constituted community organisations with charitable purposes supporting communities in Northern Ireland.

Whilst the following is not an exhaustive list, we would expect to see some clear impact in at least one of these areas:

• A better understanding of the opportunities that digital may bring;
• An expanded and/or more efficient and effective service offer;
• Stronger and more digitally capable leadership and governance;
• Improved management systems;
• Improved impact measurement systems;

Essentially, we want to ‘unlock’ potential in organisations to build sustainability, develop ideas and deploy innovative digital solutions to better tackling the issues facing communities at this time.

What we can’t fund:

The Community Foundation will not fund organisations or activities which promote causes that are contrary to our purposes. Causes and activities that are contrary to our purposes include, but may not be limited to, those outlined in our investment policy. We will not therefore fund organisations or activities which we determine are linked to the promotion of armaments, alcohol, human rights abuses, tobacco or pornography.

In addition, we will not support:

• The advancement of religion. This includes organisations whose purposes include the 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;
• Promotion of religious or political activity, including any flags and emblems that may deem to be associated with such;
• CIC Companies 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 unrelated;
• Organisations which have significant financial reserves;
• Trips outside of Northern Ireland;
• Applications from individuals;
• Applications from statutory organisations;
• Purchase of vehicles;
• Holiday schemes;
• Activities that duplicate existing services;
• Retrospective funding;
• Substitution for statutory funding;
• Groups who have not complied with previous monitoring requirements.

Demonstrating change

We expect grant applicants to have systems in place to be able to effectively monitor the outcomes of the work funded by this grant. We will ask successful applicants to complete an end of grant monitoring report after the end of their project.

Successful applicants to the Fund will need to be able to demonstrate at the application stage the thinking behind their application, the changes they are seeking to make, how the changes will be delivered, and how their organisation will be different as a result of the grant. They will also need to articulate what results these changes will have for the individuals or communities they support – directly or indirectly, as well as how their business will operate – and, ideally, be able to show how they will measure the anticipated results at the end of the grant period.

Please read the following text before beginning your application. 

• 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.

Please note: 

• This is a rolling fund and it is expected that applications received by Thursday 15th January 2026 will be assessed in February 2026.
• We do, however, expect a high level of interest in this fund. Depending on funding available, we therefore may decide to close for applications within a relatively short space of time, if we do not have enough funds to meet the demand for support. 

Please note: The Community Foundation now uses a new Fundseeker Portal for all applications and monitoring. If this is your first time applying, or your first time accessing the portal, we recommend reading the ‘How to Apply’ guide before starting your application.

If you are unsure about any of the above text or have any other queries then please contact the Grants Team on 028 9024 5927 or via e-mail: applications@communityfoundationni.org.