Each fund through the Foundation has specific guidelines, and to ensure that your project and application is relevant to a particular fund, you should read these before starting your application.

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 ie those linked to the promotion of armaments, alcohol, human rights abuses, tobacco or pornography.

In addition the Community Foundation will not support the following:

• 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;
• 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;

We also generally do not fund:

Party political activity
Trips abroad
Individuals (unless an individual bursary programme)
Replacement of statutory funding
Projects that have already started
Groups who have not complied with previous monitoring requirements
Groups with more than four live grants at any one time
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​If you are unsure, or have any queries about a particular fund, please contact our Grants team.

Grants FAQs

The majority of our funding will require the following supporting documentation:

• Signed governing document such as your Constitution (in the name of the applicant organisation) NOTE: Umbrella governing documents are not eligible for funding, unless otherwise specified in our guidance. These include Sports Club and Cultural organisations who use umbrella governing documents.
• Signed accounts or Income and Expenditure Statement
• Full name and address of management committee/trustees and Officer positions
• Any, relevant to project, policies such as Child Protection, Adult Safeguarding Policies
• Equality Policy / Equal Opportunities Policy

Please note that some funds may require additional documentation such as quotations, while others, such as our Micro Grant Programme, may not require a governing document or other items of supporting documentation. Please check the guidance notes for all programmes.

In the event of the fund being heavily oversubscribed the Foundation may shortlist for full assessment only those projects that have submitted all requested supporting documentation.

Funds currently open for applications are detailed here.

Available Grants