Dunbeg 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 Dunbeg Community Benefit Fund is available to local community projects within 6 miles of the Dunbeg Wind Farm site which is located between Limavady and Coleraine.

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

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

The Fund welcomes applications from community and voluntary groups that address the following areas:

• Community cohesion and engagement;
• Energy efficiency and sustainability;
• Social, cultural or sporting benefit for the local community;
• Training and education;
• Environmental benefit;
• Economic benefit.

Should the fund be oversubscribed consideration will be given to prioritising projects closest to Dunbeg Wind Farm.

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 Dunbeg 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;
• Individuals;
• Funding for retrospective project costs;
• Organisations which adopt a partisan political stance or activities which are party political. We will not support organisations that advocate the use of violence to campaign or influence public opinion;
• General appeals, individual and group sponsorship, marketing appeals, proposals for bursaries from individuals or proposals from individuals for the funding of study or attainment of qualifications;
• The provision of services that are the primary and legal responsibility of the state;
• Input VAT reclaimable from HMRC;
• Payments reimbursed or to be reimbursed by other public or private sector funding;
• Contributions in kind (i.e. a contribution in goods or services, as opposed to money);
• Depreciation, amortisation or impairment of fixed Assets owned by the group;
• Interest payments (including service charge payments for finance leases);
• Gifts to individuals other than promotional items with a value of no more than £25 a year to any one individual;
• Entertaining (entertaining for this purpose means anything that would be a taxable benefit to the person being entertained, according to current UK tax regulations);
• Statutory fines, criminal fines or penalties;
• Liabilities incurred before the issue of an award ;
• Use in respect of costs reimbursed or to be reimbursed by funding from any other source;
• Use of funding to top up reserves of your group;
• Applications from statutory organisations;
• Salaried posts;
• Trips abroad;
• Vehicles;
• Activities that duplicate existing services.

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 Dunbeg Community Benefit Fund is available for local community projects within a 6 mile radius of the wind farm. Applicant organisations must be located in this area, (*straight-line measurement) from the windfarm site entrance (Co-ordinates: 55.0791, -6.8088).

In 2025 the success rate for applications to this fund was 56%.

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.

For further information and to find out if your group or project is eligible, please contact the grants team on 028 9024 5927 or email applications@communityfoundationni.org.