03
JUL
2019

Grants for Sustainable Communities: The Community Foundation for Ireland

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The Community Foundation for Ireland have established a fund of €100,000 to focus on creating  Sustainable Communities through the Circular Economy and Sustainable Consumption and Waste.

We are inviting community groups to apply who are interested in or already working towards these elements of sustainability through implementing local actions focused on national ‘Circular Economy’ priorities.

The benefits of reducing consumption and improving waste practices will assist communities socially, environmentally and economically by increasing the significance of all reusable resources. This grant has been developed with the Sustainable Development Goals in focus specifically Goal 12 which seeks to promote sustainable consumption and production patterns.

Within the scheme, three strands of grant funding will be offered:

  • Strand 1: Grants of up to €3,000 to develop a Community Action Plan focused on reducing consumption and waste in the areas of food waste, plastic and packaging, clothing/textiles and electrical items.
  • Strand 2: Grants of up to €5,000 to support community groups to trial new and innovative approaches around reducing consumption and waste in the areas of food, plastic and packaging clothing/textiles and electrical items.
  • Strand 3: Grants of up to €10,000 to support community groups to grow current small scale initiatives to reduce consumption and waste in the areas of food, plastic and packaging, clothing/textiles and electrical items that reach a larger number of users and could act as a viable demonstrator for other groups.

INFORMATION & RESOURCES:

Information on grant criteria and useful resources is available here

The Sustainable Communities Toolkit produced by The Wheel & the Environmental Protection Agency is available here

 

THE AIM:

The grants scheme has been devised to reduce consumption and waste in communities throughout the country by supporting the experience and enthusiasm of local community groups.

CRITERIA:

Grants will support community groups who wish to reduce consumption and waste in their local areas with a view to achieving a measurable local impact.

Priority will be given to projects that focus heavily on engaging the wider community and demonstrate an intention and capacity to work closely with local people, businesses and institutions. Assessors will take into account a proportional geographic spread of funded projects and priority will be given to proposals that demonstrate an intention to engage with a wide group of stakeholders within the community.

Applicants are asked to consider how they can measure impacts of their project to demonstrate its effectiveness and how these measures will assist in managing into the future. Applications are invited for projects that offer actions and approaches that are suitable for replication in other communities around Ireland. Applications that reduce consumption and waste by promoting sharing of products and equipment will be favoured for funding.

 

OUTCOMES:

The ultimate aim of the funding scheme is that successful community groups will develop new or existing waste prevention measures that will ‘act local but think global’.

The Fund Will Not Cover:

Core or ongoing overhead costs of grantee organisations, Equipment costs, Promotion of religious causes, Work that has already taken place, Non-charitable activities, General political donations, Sponsorship or fundraising events, Work taking place outside the Republic of Ireland.

Once you have ensured that you meet all of the grant criteria, you can then make an online application by clicking on the link here.

Closing Date: 4.00pm on 02nd August 2019

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