Carn Hill Community Benefit Fund

Purpose of the fund:

This local community benefit fund was set up by Gaelectric in 2016 and is now managed by CGN Europe – a wind energy and energy storage company that believes in a sustainable future. GCN is committed to ensuring that their wind farms, whilst having obvious environmental benefits, also provide significant economic benefits to the local community.

The Carn Hill Community Benefit Fund is available to local community projects within the 6km radius of the windfarm, which includes the areas of Monkstown, Grange, Woodburn, Greenisland, Ballynure and Carnmoney.

Applicant organisations must be located within the 6 km radius (*straight-line measurement).

The Carn Hill Community Benefit Fund is administered by the Community Foundation for Northern Ireland.

The fund aims to encourage:

• Stronger more inclusive communities by ensuring that local people have ownership and involvement in the design and delivery of the project.
• Partnership working with community, voluntary and statutory agencies to ensure a coordinated approach.
• Sustainable solutions that address local issues.

The fund will support projects addressing issues within the following theme areas:

• Older people
• Families with young children
• Young people
• Environment and living spaces

Priority will be given to:

• Projects aimed at providing skills development for young adults
• Intergenerational projects
• Projects tackling rural isolation
• Projects based around community arts
• Projects which improve the utilisation of community space

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, the Carn Hill Community Benefit Fund 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;
• Applications from individuals;
• Applications from statutory organisations;
• Salaried posts;
• Trips abroad;
• Vehicles;
• Activities that duplicate existing services;
• Retrospective Funding;
• Substitution for statutory funding.

Applicants that currently hold a live grant are not eligible to re-apply in any new round until all outstanding information is provided for the current grant held. This includes details of spend and any monitoring.

The Carn Hill Community Benefit Fund is available for local community projects within a 6 km radius of the wind farm. Applicant organisations must be located in this area, (*straight-line measurement) from the windfarm site entrance (Co-ordinates: 54.7237, -5.9057).

In 2025 the success rate for applications to this fund was 83%.

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. If you are submitting a bank statement that is overdrawn, please provide an explanation.​
• You have up to date annual accounts
• You have complied with the conditions of previous grants including submission of monitoring returns.

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.