Sport Relief - Community Cash grants open

By James Laverty - last updated on 25 January 2012

Community Foundation Northern Ireland will administer the 2012 Sport Relief Community Cash Fund

Sport Relief has set aside a £50,000 cash fund for local community groups across Belfast and the rest of Northern Ireland. Grants ranging from £500 to £1,000 are available to grassroots community organisations in Northern Ireland that are working to make people's lives better.

The Sport Relief Community Cash scheme will prioritise applications from those who are most disadvantaged, either because of where they live, or because they come from a group that is considered vulnerable.

In Northern Ireland, therefore, priority will relate to:

groups working with those who are most deprived according to the indices of social deprivation;
groups benefiting individuals considered vulnerable such as: the elderly, people with physical / mental / emotional issues; young people at risk; minority ethnic groups.
One-off activities as long as they have longer-term benefits will also be considered.

Groups need to:

Be working in a disadvantaged or deprived area
Be small local groups with an income of less than £100,000 (in the last reporting period) and be run by local people
Have limited access to other sources of income

Examples of the type of activities that may be funded:

Activities that engage young people at risk
Parent and Toddler initiatives
Dad and lads projects
Cross generational work
Project costs for self help groups
Activities involving minority ethnic groups
Committee and volunteer/staff training
Projects may be sport related, but it is not essential that they are

Who Can Apply?

The programme is open to groups that have never applied for funding before. Applications can be considered from groups who have previously received funding but current grant holders can not be offered a grant unless their earlier grant is now closed. They accept applications from the voluntary and community sector including:

constituted voluntary organisations and community groups
faith organisations (if the funding is not promoting that religion and if their work is not single identity)
community interest companies