National Lottery Community Fund: Access to resilience

Overview

Key Information

• Area - Northern Ireland
• Suitable for - Support, network, umbrella, membership or community anchor organisations.
• Funding size - Up to £150,000, for up to 3 years.
• Total available - £3 million. They aim to make around 25 to 30 grants.
• Application deadline - 12pm on Thursday 4 July 2024

Overview

Access to Resilience will fund support organisations that provide capacity building support to small VCSE (Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise) groups in Northern Ireland.

This programme is supported with money from Dormant Assets NI. Dormant Assets NI is an expansion of the Dormant Accounts Fund NI.

This programme aims to address the gaps in their Dormant Assets investment to date. They want to fund support organisations – sometimes known as network, umbrella, membership or community anchor organisations. They want these organisations to improve access to the help they provide to small, underrepresented VCSE groups in Northern Ireland.

Support organisations will reduce barriers and increase access to the support they offer for small VCSE groups, with an annual income of around £10,000 up to £100,000.

By underrepresented VCSE groups, they mean groups that focus on representing the needs of:

• older people
• disabled people
• women
• ethnically minoritised people
• faith-based communities
• LGBTQ+ people
• rural communities.

These groups are the focus of this funding because they can face barriers to the existing capacity building support that is available to the sector.

This can be due to difficulties accessing support in a way that meets the needs of those communities and also because additional support may be needed to address historic inequality and discrimination.

These groups were also underrepresented in the Dormant Assets funding that they have awarded to date.

Specifically, they want to fund support organisations so that they can help these groups to improve their capacity and resilience through:

• financial planning and budgeting
• project management
• good governance
• diversity and inclusion
• digital skills
• impact measurement
• strategic planning
• volunteer management
• collaboration
• leadership
• succession planning.

They want the projects we fund to address existing barriers to capacity building and achieve meaningful and inclusive participation.

If you are a generalist support organisation that already helps a diverse range of VCSE groups, this funding will enable you to improve access to your support for underrepresented VCSE groups who are not currently benefiting from that support.

Or

If you are a Specialist support organisation that already specialises in helping a sector of underrepresented VCSE groups e.g. women’s groups, rural groups, older people's groups etc. this funding will enable you to meet the needs of these groups.

Eligibility

This funding is for organisations that support community groups.

To apply you must be a:

• support organisation
• network organisation
• membership organisation
• umbrella body
• community anchor organisation
• established organisation that has a history of providing capacity building support to other groups.

You must also be a:

• unregistered voluntary or community organisation
  An organisation set up with a governing document - like a constitution. But is not a registered charity or company. If you get funding we'd expect you to incorporate or become registered with a regulator (For example, the Charity Commission or CIC regulator).
• not-for-profit company
  A company limited by guarantee - registered with Companies House. And might also be registered as a charity.
• registered charity (unincorporated)
  A voluntary or community organisation that's a registered charity. But is not a company registered with Companies House.
• Community Interest Company (CIC).
  A company registered with Companies House. And the Community Interest Company (CIC) Regulator.

You must support underrepresented community groups

You should use this funding to support community groups with an annual income of around £10,000 up to £100,000.

They must also focus on representing the needs of:

• older people
• disabled people
• women
• ethnically minoritised people
• faith-based communities
• LGBTQ+ people
• rural communities.

You can apply if you’re a generalist or a specialist support organisation

You might be a generalist support organisation that helps a diverse range of community groups. Your aim might be to improve access to underrepresented community groups who are not currently benefiting from your support.

Or you might be a specialist support organisation that already specialises in helping underrepresented community groups. Your aim might be to get more resources to meet the needs of these community groups.

If you're a generalist support organisation

They expect you to:

• identify the sector of underrepresented community groups you want to improve access to – for example, women, older people, disabled people
• collaborate with a community group from that sector to work out what those groups need – for example, a women’s group or an older person’s group
• improve access to your services for community groups that support disadvantaged people – for example, by delivering them in a different way that encourages and supports participation
• use diagnostic tools (or other methods) to assess the skills and capabilities of the groups you’ll support - find out more about diagnostic tools
• measure the impact of the support you give to each group.

If you're a specialist support organisation

They expect you to:

• identify the sector of underrepresented community groups you support – for example, women, older people, disabled people
• improve access to your services for community groups that support disadvantaged people – for example, by delivering them in a different way that encourages and supports participation
• use diagnostic tools (or other methods) to assess the skills and capabilities of the groups you’ll support – find out more about diagnostic tools
• measure the impact of the support you give to each group.

Projects they fund

This programme is part of Dormant Assets NI funding. Dormant Assets NI awards money from dormant financial assets to support voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) organisations in Northern Ireland. It aims to help them be more resilient and prepared for the future by funding activity that increases capacity and sustainability.

The first phase of this funding (The Dormant Accounts Fund NI) closed for applications in March 2023. You can find out more by looking at the awards they made.

They can fund

They’ll fund things that improve the skills, capacity and resilience of community organisations.

They’re specifically looking for you to improve the outcomes for community organisations who work with disadvantaged people. They want the projects they fund to address existing barriers and achieve meaningful and inclusive participation.

For example, they’ll fund projects that focus on improving their capacity to do:

• financial planning and budgeting
• project management
• good governance
• diversity and inclusion
• digital skills
• impact measurement
• strategic planning
• volunteer management
• collaboration
• leadership
• succession planning.

Eligible costs

You can spend the money on:

• giving advice, mentoring, coaching and training
• guidance materials
• any costs associated with meeting access needs – for example, creating materials in Braille or providing a sign language interpreter
• payments that will encourage participation – you can offer incentive payments of up to £1,000 per group, per year to complete the project
• staff costs
• reasonable expenses for participating groups
• interpreting and translation costs
• room hire
• refreshments
• travel
• full cost recovery – you should include all related overheads.