Micro Community Investment Fund

Fund Aims

The fund will provide valuable investment for community initiatives making a difference in towns and villages across Northern Ireland.

The fund will enable those organisations who are making the lives of others in their communities better, by improving their financial, physical, and mental wellbeing.

Criteria

You do not have to have a constitution to apply to this fund.  We will discuss your project with you in advance of application if you do not have certain governance requirements for funding in place.

We want to support smaller, grassroots organisations delivering great work.  For this reason, whilst groups with an income of up to £30,000 per annum are eligible to apply preference will be given to groups with an income of up to £10,000.

Community Investments available: Up to £1,500

Applications are sought to support both new and existing activities and projects that enhance the financial, physical and/or mental wellbeing of people in communities. We will support new or existing community initiatives that have a particular focus on addressing the challenges people are facing around the rising cost of living.

The Micro fund aims to support Community projects should focus on improving at least one of the following:

• Financial wellbeing
• Physical wellbeing
• Mental wellbeing

Applications for funding must target one of the themes below:

• Projects promoting inclusion and belonging, particularly to enhance the physical and mental well being of the local community
• Projects that strengthen the capacity of individuals to engage with a range of available digital services in order to help manage their money in a digital age
• Projects that enhance people’s financial knowledge through financial education programmes
• Projects promoting physical activity which uses the assets located within the area
• Projects that improve the ability of individuals to access mental health and wellbeing services either i) directly, through the provision of support or ii) indirectly, through education/awareness raising programmes
• Projects that encourage the active participation of individuals in their own mental wellbeing. Projects should aim to promote increased independence/resilience in relation to an individual’s mental health

We want to prioritise projects that:

• Focus on the positive contribution of people within the community and support the challenges that people face in light of the rising cost of living
• Enable active participation of a community in decision-making and involvement in making their community a better place to live in
• Focus on the assets within the community which the project will use to make the community a better place to live in
• Help get people engaged in taking community action where it hasn’t happened before to make the community a better place to live in.
• Projects that address more than one particular strand of wellbeing

Please note that the 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 are unable to fund 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
• Trips outside of Northern Ireland
• Individual applications
• Purchase of vehicles
• Running costs of large organisations
• Holiday schemes
• Parties and shopping trips
• Promotion of religious or political activity, including any flags and emblems associated
• Applications from statutory organisations

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:

1.     This is a rolling fund and it is expected that the first round of funding will be allocated in January 2025.

2.    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.

3.    If you are applying as a non-constituted organisation, please contact the Grants Team in advance of starting your application.

****Funding allocated in January will need to be fully spent by October 2025 so please bear this in mind before applying****

In 2023 the success rate for applications to this fund was 40%.

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.