RTÉ Toy Show Appeal 2025 – Addressing Essential Needs Grants

About the RTÉ Toy Show Appeal

The RTÉ Toy Show Appeal was established in 2020 to raise funds for Irish children’s charities through the televised Late Late Toy Show. Since then, more than €26 million has been raised to support these charities.

The RTÉ Toy Show Appeal mission is: Inspired by children, we work to bring the magic of the Late Late Toy Show to every child in Ireland. By funding essential support, health, wellbeing, play and creativity we aim to change children’s lives for good.

Last year €3.8 million was raised and distributed in 127 grants to support more than 1.1 million children and their family members all across Ireland. Thanks to the continued generosity of the Irish public, this year the Appeal raised over €4,800,000 which will be distributed through the RTÉ Toy Show Appeal Grant Rounds in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Each grant round will centre around three themes:

• Addressing Essential Needs
• Improving Wellbeing
• Creativity and Play

The RTÉ Toy Show Appeal grant round will open on Monday 17th February. Children and young people charities will be able to apply for funding until 1pm on Friday 21st March. Applicants should ensure that their organisation’s governance information is up to date before submitting their application.

CFNI is hosting a how-to webinar on Tuesday 25th February at 11 am to support charities in their application. This covers information relevant to both the Impact and the Community awards including the criteria, the application form and how to write a strong application. Sign up to the webinar here.

We recommend that applicants attend this webinar to find out more about the criteria and how to apply. The webinar will be recorded and published if you cannot make it on the day.

Addressing Essential Needs Strand

All children and young people should thrive in their environment, no matter their circumstances. The Addressing Essential Needs Strand will ensure that children and young people have access to the essential items they need, and high quality social and educational supports to help them thrive.

Children and young people in Ireland can be marginalised in a number of ways. Applications in this strand should focus on supporting the children and young people who are most marginalised in society, including:

• Children and young people at risk of poverty and facing consistent poverty.
• Children and young people facing discrimination.
• Children and young people with disabilities, life-limiting conditions and additional needs.
• Children and young people facing and/or recovering from trauma, abuse or exploitation.

There are three main aims of the Addressing Essential Needs strand. Applicants applying to this strand should choose one of the six objectives below that their project or programme will meet:

Tackling Poverty 

1 – Increase the number of children who have their basic human needs met, thereby reducing the impact of poverty.

OR

2 – Increase the number of children receiving high quality preventative wrap around supports, thus empowering these children and their families.

OR

3 – Break the cycles of poverty by increasing the number of children accessing and remaining in high quality education, and supporting best practice models of alternative forms of education.

Ensuring Safety

4 – Support the recovery of children and young people who have experienced unsafe environments or situations.

OR

5 – Protect and empower children and young people to be safe online by providing high quality supports to those in danger or at risk.

Enjoying the Environment 

6 – Ensure that all of Ireland’s children have access to green, vibrant and healthy spaces by providing programmes that bring children and young people into green spaces

Additional Notes

• Projects may be to continue/scale up a current programme, or to start a new one.
• Proposals to this fund can include the proportion of staff salaries specifically related to the project. This also includes new staff salaries required to increase service provision.
• Applications can include equipment or furniture that is relevant to the project or programme.
• The small-scale development of buildings or outside spaces is eligible, but large-scale development, constructing a new building, or buying a building or land is not eligible.
• Charities are encouraged to collaborate with other organisations as part of their work. There will be one lead applicant for this application who must be eligible, but this charity may collaborate with organisations who are not eligible or who may also put in their own application.

Priorities for this Strand

We anticipate that this will be a very competitive grant round so proposals that meet most or all the priorities below will be prioritised for funding:

• Projects that have a strongly justified need based on research or formal feedback. This should be referenced in the application.
• Projects or programmes that are centred around principles of prevention and early intervention.
• Proposals that have strongly articulated the impact of the project on the direct beneficiaries and wider community as well as for the direct beneficiaries.
• Projects that have the potential to be sustained beyond the life of this grant.
• Projects that will include the voice and feedback of beneficiaries in its development.

For charities who are applying for an Impact award (see further information on the Community vs Impact awards below), there are additional priorities:

• Projects that show innovation.
• Proposals that have strongly articulated the impact of the project on the organisation itself and the potential systemic change as a result of the project.
• Proposals that include evaluation as a part of the project and budget.
• Proposals that outline factors that ensure the success of the project.

Who can apply for funding?

Children and young people charities working at local, regional and national level can apply for a grant in the Addressing Essential Needs strand. Children’s charities should be able to demonstrate that they work regularly with children and young people.   Charities must demonstrate that working with children and young people is a core purpose of the organisation as outlined in the governing document.

Community Grants 
Organisations that have an annual income of £20,000 – £500,000 must apply for a Community Grant and grants up to £10,000 will be awarded.

Impact Grants 
Organisations that have an annual income of more than £500,000 must apply for an Impact Grant and grants up to £35,000 will be awarded.

Eligible Projects

Eligible projects

• Must meet the objectives of the Addressing Essential Needs strand, outlined above.
• Must work with vulnerable or marginalised children and young people:
  • Those at risk of poverty and facing consistent poverty.
  • Those facing discrimination.
  • Those with disabilities, life-limiting conditions and additional needs.
  • Those facing and recovering from trauma.
• Must create strong impact for the children who will benefit and the wider community.
• Should employ models of best practice.
• Should empower the children and young people who are benefiting from the programme.
• May be a current programme that will be developed or upscaled with the funding.
• May be to continue a project funded in last year’s RTÉ Toy Show grant round.
• Must start no earlier than June 2025 and run for 12 months.

Ineligible projects include 

• Ongoing core costs such as insurance, rent, bills, etc.
• Advocacy or Lobbying.
• Large-scale building work or procurement.
• Purchasing vehicles.
• Religious or political activities.
• Projects that have already happened or any activities that will happen before the grants are awarded.
• Projects taking place outside of Northern Ireland.

Ineligible organisations and projects will not be successful, so please do not apply. 

Eligible Organisations

Eligible organisations must:

• Submissions will only be considered from registered children’s charities where ‘children’ 0-18 years old form a key part and named in the organisation’s mission statement and organisational purpose/s. This includes:
• • Those at risk of poverty and facing consistent poverty.
  • Those facing discrimination.
  • Those with disabilities, life-limiting conditions and additional needs.
  • Those facing and recovering from trauma.
• Be a registered charity
• Have an annual income of £20,000 – £500,000 to apply for a Community Grant and income of £500,000+ to apply for an Impact Grant.
• Have up to date and sufficient governing documents, annual accounts and child safeguarding policies.

Ineligible Organisations include:

• Charities who cannot demonstrate that working with children and young people is a core purpose of the organisation as outlined in the governing document.
• Charities with an annual income of less than £20,000
• Schools, childminding facilities, Universities or state bodies
• Sports organisations
• Profit-making companies
• Animal welfare organisations
• Proposals from individuals

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, the Fund will not support:

• 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

Timeline for Community Grants

Opening Date for applications:  Monday 17th February 2025 
Closing Date for applications:  Friday 21st March 2025 
Grants will be awarded:  Early June 2025 
Work should begin:  Mid-June 2025 

Governance Documents:

Before submitting your completed application please upload the following supporting documents.  All documents must be in the name of the applicant organisation.

• A copy of your most recent accounts or up to date income and expenditure.
  • Annual accounts should include unabridged financial statements for the year, or where relevant, a monthly profit and loss for the year.
  • All applicants must declare their organisation’s annual income on the application form, and this will be verified in your most recent annual accounts.

• A copy of a current account bank statement for your organisation’s bank account.
  • This must be in the same name as your constitution, dated within the past three months.  If the bank statement is overdrawn, please provide an explanation as to why the account is overdrawn.  The Foundation staff will then consider this explanation in line with our due diligence policies and procedures.

If you have NOT applied to the Community Foundation for NI in the last twelve months, please also upload the following supporting documents.  All documents must be in the name of the applicant organisation.  

• The Constitution or Memorandum and Articles of Association.
  • This must show the mission statement or main objects of the organisation, how any donations will be used.
  • This document must be signed.
  • For the purposes of this grant round, children and/or young people should core or central to the charitable objectives.

• A copy of your equality / equal opportunities policy. 
• A copy of your child safeguarding and adult safeguarding policies. 

If you do not submit the correct governance documents, your application will not be considered for funding.

Reporting requirements 

All grantees will be required to submit an interim and Final Report during the project. Interim reports will be due at the end of January 2026 and Final reports will be due in July 2026.

Where a project or budget change is required, approval from CFNI must be sought ahead of time.

How to apply 

The RTÉ Toy Show Appeal Addressing Essential Needs Strand is open for applications on Monday 17th February 2025 and will close at 1pm on Friday 21st March 2025. 

FAQs and contacts

It is recommended that you read our Grant FAQs before starting your grant application and join our pre-application information session on how to apply.

Should you have any further questions, please contact the Grants Team at applications@communityfoundationni.org. Please note that due to the high number of enquiries we may not be able to respond to queries immediately.

In 2024 the success rate for applications to this fund was 18%.