The Foyle Foundation Fund

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Purpose of the Fund:

The Foyle Foundation was formed to implement the will of the late Christina Foyle. She was the daughter of William Foyle who, with his brother, founded the former family-owned bookshop Foyles in Charing Cross Road, London.

The Foundation completed its grant giving programme at the end of 2025, marking 25 years of giving to the fields of the arts, learning, community small grants, state school libraries and health.

The Foyle Foundation has appointed the Community Foundation for Northern Ireland to deliver a final small grants fund on its behalf for community organisations in Northern Ireland.

The fund aims to support ‘projects which generate income or cost savings, contributing to financial sustainability’.

Eligibility:

We recognise that this fund has a broad aim, and we have kept it as such to maximise flexibility for applicants and to enable you to shape proposals to your specific organisational priorities & opportunities.

However, to keep the process manageable we have agreed the following eligibility criterion for potential applicants.

We will not consider applications from sports clubs, CICs, Parent Teacher Associations or organisations with an annual income (in your most recent annual accounts) of more than £300,000.

In addition, you should be able to spend your grant within 12 months of award i.e. by end December 2027.

Priorities:

We will prioritise applications which clearly demonstrate how the funding requested will support income generation and/or generate future cost savings, and which make the strongest return on investment cases.

We will prioritise applications which most clearly demonstrate how the funding requested will support future financial sustainability.

In the event of oversubscription, we will prioritise strong applications from organisations with an annual income of less than £150,000.

By way of example your proposal could focus on:

  • The development of fee earning services;

  • Generating income through renting out space within your premises;

  • Reducing your running costs through energy efficiency improvements or other measures;

  • The development of a social enterprise business plan/activities.

Amount of funding available:

You can apply for up to £5,000.

We anticipate making approximately 40 awards.

Closing date - 16th November 2026

For more information please visit The Foyle Foundation Fund - Community Foundation Northern Ireland