Rathsherry Community Benefit Fund

Purpose of the Fund:

This local community fund has been set up by Energia Renewables, working in close partnership with local groups from the areas surrounding Rathsherry Windfarm.

Energia Renewables has pledged to deliver a Community Benefit Fund for a 21.15 MW Wind Farm located at 115 Longmore Road, Broughshane, Ballymena, BT43 7HR. Grants will be delivered annually for the benefit of community initiatives within the area of benefit.

Energia has set up the fund to ensure that the wind farm, whilst having obvious environmental benefits, will also provide significant social and economic benefits to the local community.

Funding will be available to local community projects that are planned and run for the benefit of the local population and are within 6 miles of the centre of the windfarm.

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

This fund will close for applications on Thursday 3rd December at 1pm.

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

• Energy efficiency and sustainability
• Social, cultural or sporting benefit for the local community
• Educational issues with a sustainability angle
• Environmental benefit or economic benefit

Fund Priorities:

• Projects that improve the utilisation of existing community space in areas within the fund boundary.
• Contributions towards running/administration costs and for purchasing additional equipment to expand and support new and existing services/activities in each of the areas.
• Particular emphasis will be placed on funding activities/services that are specifically aimed at older people, youth, children and people with disabilities; environmental improvements; bringing the wider community together; health improvements and culture and history.
• Applicants are encouraged to network, share best practice and co-operate more between the areas. Projects which demonstrate the ability to collaborate, network and share best practice will be encouraged and supported.

Examples of who can apply:

• Constituted voluntary organisations and community groups
• Local youth groups

Examples of projects that the fund might support:

General running costs, running costs for centres, community events, training costs, transport costs, small capital purchases, promotion, refurbishment, energy audits, purchasing and installation of energy efficiency equipment.

Amount of funding available:

Grants of £1,000 to £3,000

Partnership applications – up to £9,000 (each partner will receive a maximum of £3,000 to support project)

What we can’t fund:

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.

The Fund will also not support:

• Individuals
• Funding for retrospective project costs
• Projects or activity that promote or advance religion
• Promotion of religious or political activity, including any flags and emblems that may deem to be associated with such
• 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
• 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 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

In addition Rathsherry Community Benefit Fund will not support:

• Applications from statutory organisations
• Salaried posts unless directly related to new project
• Trips abroad
• Vehicles
• Activities that duplicate existing services

Applicants that currently hold a live grant under this programme: Monitoring and spend information for your grant will need to be submitted prior to payment of any new award, if your application is successful. 

The Rathsherry 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: 54.94135019, -6.198727134).

In 2025, the success rate for applications to this fund was 79%. 

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.