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.

National Lottery Awards for All Northern Ireland

£300–£10,000

Projects bringing local people together to make positive changes in their community.
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.
If we funded you within the last two years, we may have to give priority to other groups that have not recently been funded through this programme.
This funding is for projects that will run for 12 months or less

People and Communities

£10,000–£500,000

Project ideas should come from the community. Talk to the people you want to help and get them involved in shaping and planning the project.

Your project should make good use of the skills, knowledge, resources and energy of people within your community; making it stronger and ready for the future.
Understand the need for your project and how it fits with the work of other organisations. Build relationships and work together on shared goals.
Applications welcome from constituted voluntary or community organisations, and social enterprises.
This funding is for projects that will run for between 1 and 5 years.

Empowering Young People

£10,000–£500,000

This funding is for projects that work with young people (8 – 25 years old), and which will run for between 1 and 5 years.
Projects will help young people to: have the skills they need for the future; have better relationships with their support networks and communities; and/or have improved health and wellbeing.
Young people must be involved in the planning and delivery of the project. They must be able to develop the skills to help themselves, and their support networks and communities need to be involved too.
Applications welcome from constituted voluntary or community organisations, and social enterprises.

Dormant Accounts Fund

The fund opened for applications on Tuesday, 12 January 2021.
This fund will support the voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) sector to be more resilient and prepared for the future by funding activity that increases capacity and sustainability.
Dormant accounts are UK bank and building society accounts that have been untouched for 15 or more years, and where banks and building societies are unable to trace the customer who owns the account. They are not derived from National Lottery activity.
Under Section 22 of the Dormant Bank and Building Society Accounts Act 2008, we distribute money under direction from the Department of Finance.
To make sure this funding has maximum impact in communities, we held a consultation in late 2019. You can read what we heard.
In the first phase, we have developed a flexible and responsive grant programme that will support organisations to be able to adapt to future challenges and be more financially resilient.
We'll also support larger investments that will enable collaboration and develop new and creative approaches to sustainability. These Northern Ireland-wide or sector-specific proposals could focus on specific themes such as volunteering, digital capacity or diversity and inclusion. If you have any questions, contact us.

Apply here - Funding in Northern Ireland | The National Lottery Community Fund (tnlcommunityfund.org.uk)