How to apply
You can tell us about your ideas online
Tell us about your idea Continue your idea
You can see a full list of questions we ask about your idea.
It's worth noting this is not an application form, this is a way for you to tell us your idea. We can send you an application form after we've talked to you.
If you do not want to use our online form
Do not worry, you can still contact us by email, phone, or face-to-face, any time. The online form is just an extra way to get in touch.
If you have any communication needs
You can contact us if you have any communication support needs that make completing a form difficult or impossible for you. We’re happy to talk about alternative ways for you to tell us about your funding proposal.
If your project is for young people between 8 and 25
You’d be better applying for our Empowering Young People fund.
Here’s what happens after you tell us about your funding idea:
- We'll email you to let you know we got your idea
- Then we'll get in touch to talk about your idea in around 15 working days
- We’ll give you some feedback and let you know if we think you should fill out an application or not.
- If we ask you to apply, we'll send you a link to your online application form (or an offline version if you need it).
- You will also be asked to send additional information. This may include job descriptions, salary breakdowns, evaluation plans and an exit plan or sustainability strategy for the end of the project.
- If your application is to continue or develop an existing project, you will need to forward an evaluation showing the impact it has made.
- You have 30 days to complete your application and submit it
- You’ll normally get a final decision about whether we’re going to fund you or not within four months.
We’ll ask you to upload a budget for your project
You can use your own budget. Or you can use our template budget table (Excel Spreadsheet, 28 KB).
Here’s what happens if we ask you to fill in an application:
- You'll fill in the application and submit it when you are finished
- We'll let you know we got it. We’ll send you an email to let you know we got your application
- You'll get a funding officer. Your funding officer will get in touch to ask some questions about your project. They’ll also arrange a face to face assessment visit with you.
- You'll meet your funding officer. You'll have the face to face assessment visit with your funding officer. They’ll want to know how your project fits with this funding programme, as well as the difference you’re looking to make, and how you’ll run the project.
- Your funding officer will write a report. After the visit, your funding officer will write up an assessment report. They might get in touch with you again to ask some questions before they write their report. The report will assess:
- how you plan to run the project and how much it will cost
- how well your project fits with what this funding programme is asking for
- if your organisation has the skills, experience and resources it needs to run the project.
- We'll decide to fund you or not. Your funding officer will take your application to a decision meeting. As a group, we decide which projects get funding. This group will be made up of staff, or NI committee members. There are always lots of good applications, and we only have a certain amount of funding to give away. So making final funding decisions can be tough. It’s a competitive process.
- Your funding officer will let you know. If we decide to give you funding, your funding officer will let you know. They'll talk about next steps too. If we decide not to fund your project, your funding officer will get in touch with feedback (in case you want to apply again in future).
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.
There’s more information about how you could consider the environment on ‘the projects we fund’ tab.
You can also access some links to Northern Ireland guidance on our page about reducing your environmental footprint page.
Here’s what happens after we give you the funding
Our help with managing your funding page lets you know what to expect when we've awarded you over £20,000 of funding. This page will let you know about the things you need to do too.
We do checks on the information you give us
As an organisation that gives out public funds, we carry out some checks on the information you give to us.
Learn more about the checks we do on your information.