Funding in Northern Ireland
The National Lottery Community Fund is the largest community funder in the UK. Each year we distribute millions of pounds of funding raised by National Lottery players to community groups and charitable projects across Northern Ireland.
Our priority is to keep money flowing to support communities across Northern Ireland.
We are here to help and want to talk to you about your ideas to support local communities. We have a range of open funding programmes and are happy to chat to you about these.
Contact us if you have an idea on 028 9055 1455 or at enquiries.ni@tnlcommunityfund.org.uk
Each month we share lots of information about our funding opportunities, hints and tips, stories about supported projects and more. Sign up to our newsletter to keep up to date.
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It starts with community
Our new UK wide strategy - It starts with community - sets out our direction of travel and ambitions as a funder from now until 2030. We are looking to make a bigger difference in the years ahead and be more focused with our funding.
The strategy details our ambition to deliver our funding to strengthen society and improve lives across the UK.
Funding opportunities
National Lottery Awards for All Northern Ireland
£300 to £20,000
- We can consider a wide range of projects to support, develop and strengthen communities through this programme. We can also consider projects that are supporting communities to cope during the cost-of-living crisis.
- Project ideas should come from the community and must meet the programme criteria.
- No deadline, so groups can apply any time.
- Applying is quick and simple.
- Applications welcome from constituted voluntary or community organisations, schools, and statutory bodies.
- This funding is for projects that will run for 2 years or less.
Strengthening Communities
£20,001 to £500,000
- Strengthening Communities is our funding for community led projects.
- Your project must:
- involve people who experience poverty, disadvantage or discrimination
- support people early to help prevent negative experiences
- be led by your community and build on its strengths and connections.
- Your project must also achieve one of these outcomes:
- reduce health inequalities
- improve people’s physical health, mental health or wellbeing
- help people have positive relationships and connections.
- help young people reach their potential and thrive as adults.
- help children and young people develop good social and emotional skills.
- This funding is for projects that will run for up to 5 years.
Dormant Assets for All
£300 to £20,000
- This funding comes from Dormant Assets NI and not The National Lottery.
- Dormant Assets for All supports voluntary, community and social enterprise (VSCE) organisations, based in Northern Ireland, to be stronger and able to deal with future challenges.
- This programme supports organisations, that have been operating for at least two years, to become more resilient and prepared for the future through increasing their skills and capacity.
- Supports projects, lasting up to two years, that will make your organisation stronger. Community activity is not supported through this programme.
Other funding opportunities
UK wide programmes
We have some UK wide funding opportunities which are open to applications from groups based in Northern Ireland.
These include Climate Action Fund and The UK Fund.
Other National Lottery distributors
There is a range of National Lottery distributors across the UK.
The Arts Council for Northern Ireland, Sports Northern Ireland and National Lottery Heritage Fund support local projects.
Important information for groups who have received funding
Congratulations, you're now part of a family of fantastic organisations that are making communities across the UK better places to be.
We're proud to support the good work you do, using funding raised by National Lottery players for good causes. It's thanks to them that we give out more than £500 million to charities, community and voluntary groups each year.
As you have received funding from The National Lottery Community Fund, you’re now required to make sure you recognise the National Lottery support your project has received.
You can do this by using The National Lottery Community Fund grant holder logo on your website, social media and across any printed materials. We also have a wealth of information to help you promote your project.
If you have received funding through Dormant Assets NI visit our page on promoting your Dormant Assets NI project.
About the ideas we support
We believe people know what's best when it comes to improving their lives and communities. We focus on the potential in people’s ideas, and on the skills and energy people already have that they can draw on. We ask what matters to communities, not what’s the matter with them.
We are interested in ideas that:
- Involve people from the community right from the start – we want them to be involved in the development, design and delivery of a project.
- Bring people together and strengthen relationships in and across communities.
- Encourage people and organisations to work together to make a difference in their community.
We do this through:
- Funding grassroots projects that bring people and communities together.
- Asking groups to contact us early on so we can give advice and support, including feedback about which of our funding programmes is right for them.
- Offering a range of flexible funding and support to make sure we’re able to help the biggest range of groups.
- Helping organisations to share their learning with others.
Reducing your environmental impact
We all have a responsibility to protect the environment for future generations. This includes the communities and projects we support.
We’ll expect all applicant organisations to consider their environmental impact and to have relevant policies and procedures in place.
Learn more about how you can make your project or event more environmentally sustainable and perhaps save money at the same time. You can access some links to local guidance to reducing your carbon footprint on our website.