The Northern Ireland Executive has announced cash support of £7.5 million to support charities in the region impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Communities Minister Deirdre Hargey said over 300 charities will be offered funding after applying for the second phase of the Covid-19 Charities Fund.
The money will be awarded to support unavoidable costs and to eliminate deficits accumulated by charities from 1 October 2020 to 31 March 2021.
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The maximum award for an individual charity will be £75,000.
Minister Hargey said the funding is vital for charities who have lost income from fundraising and trading activity as many are still facing unavoidable costs, even if they are not currently operating or have reduced services.
“Along with £8.8million awarded in Phase 1 of the Covid-19 Charities Fund, this will bring the total disbursed by my Department to support charities during 2020/2021 to £16.3million. The Executive allocated my Department with £15.5million in May 2020 and I secured additional funding to ensure that all local charities’ needs could be met in full.
“I want to thank Community Finance Ireland for helping my Department deliver the much needed Covid-19 Charities Fund. I also want to thank NICVA for promoting the Fund and the support they provided to applicants to ensure local charities had help to apply.”
Phase 2 of the Fund is being delivered by Community Finance Ireland, following successful delivery of Phase 1 by The National Lottery Community Fund who disbursed £8.8million to over 500 charities to support them in the period up to 30 September 2020.
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Donal Traynor, Group Chief Executive of Community Finance Ireland, said it is important to support the charities sector during the current challenging time.
“Our approach to the Fund has been to bring our team’s skills and sectoral knowledge to aid a fair and swift assessment of a charity’s specific needs and make an award which meets those needs in full,” he said. “We encourage all applicants, who receive a letter of offer over the coming weeks, to return their acceptance note as soon as possible so that our team can move to payment stage.”