Department of Foreign Affairs: Reconciliation Fund

Overview

The Reconciliation Fund awards grants to organisations working to build better relations within and between traditions in Northern Ireland, between North and South, and between Ireland and Britain. From 2023, the Reconciliation Fund will move to operating one annual funding round for 12-month grants. A Strategic Partnerships stream for 3-year funding was also launched in summer 2021.

2025 Funding Round (for 12-month funding)

The next annual round will open in spring 2025. Please monitor their website for updates.

This page will be updated to include new guidance

Reconciliation Fund Strategy 2021 - 2024

Following extensive engagement with their funding partners and others working in the field of peace and reconciliation, a new Reconciliation Fund Strategy was approved by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, in order to guide the work of the Reconciliation Fund during the period 2021-2024. While the new strategy has still to be formally launched by the Minister (when the easing of Covid-19 restrictions permits), it has already come into effect since 15 March 2021.

The strategy outlines an updated set of funding priorities and criteria for the Reconciliation Fund, to ensure that the Fund supports their vision of a reconciled Ireland and remains relevant, effective, and efficient over the coming years. A summary of these funding priorities and criteria can be found in the Am I Eligible? tab. Potential applicants should also consult the new Strategy document itself.

As well as setting out overarching themes and priority areas, the new Strategy outlines how the Reconciliation Fund can provide, in addition to direct project funding, Core Operational and Capital funding to support the important work of peace and reconciliation.

The new Strategy provided for the expansion of the Strategic Partnership multi-annual funding stream that had been piloted under the Reconciliation Fund’s previous Strategy. Under the new funding stream, around 15-30 organisations will be eligible to become a Strategic Partner of the Fund, with a commitment to funding over a 3-year period, allowing them to develop a more strategic long term approach to planning their work. The first call for applications for Strategic Partnership under this new scheme was made during May-June 2021.

Annual Round Funding

Eligibility

The following sets out their funding priorities, in line with their new Reconciliation Fund Strategy:

Thematic Pillars

Their funding priorities continue to be rooted in two key overarching thematic pillars – repairing and building. For 2021-2024, the Reconciliation Fund will focus its support on reconciliation and peacebuilding work that seeks to:

• Repair those issues which lead to division, conflict, and barriers to a deeply reconciled and peaceful society;

and/or

• Build a strong civil society that encompasses all communities, through the continued implementation of the Agreements and promoting a rights-based society, political stability and respect for all.

Priority areas

Applications should be in line with one or both of these overarching pillars, while also focusing on one or more of the Reconciliation Fund’s priority themes/activities. Requests for funding support should therefore involve projects which support at least one of the following priority areas:

*Through dialogue or other means, seek to build understanding between peoples and traditions, whether within Northern Ireland, on a North-South basis, or on a British-Irish basis.

• Promote inter-community links and reduce segregation in Northern Ireland, including in the areas of integrated education and housing, and the use of shared community spaces.
• Build sustainable North-South links through the development of relationships and connections.
• Develop and deepen relations between Ireland and Britain.
• Seek participation in the most hard-to-reach and marginalised communities (in terms of economic and social deprivation), or those not normally involved in reconciliation and peace-building work, in line with the Government’s commitments made at the time of the NDNA Agreement.
• Seek to address the legacy of violence during the Troubles.
• Specifically target sectarianism, and which are aimed at eliminating sectarianism from society.
• Help to tackle paramilitarism and support the transitioning of members of paramilitary groups to peaceful, democratic activities.
• Employ a transgenerational approach, helping a younger generation to be more aware of the recent past and to break the cycles which are barriers to long term reconciliation.
• Develop the role of women in peace-building and civic and political life, in line with UN Security Council Resolution 1325, and which build their capacity to take their rightful place as leaders in society.
• Educate and illuminate the events of the past, and in particular the events of the Decade of Centenaries, in order to deepen understanding and promote respect and tolerance between different groups and traditions.
• Explore issues around identity (including language and other cultural traditions) in ways that promote understanding, tolerance and inclusivity, or help to recognise the common aspects of traditions and identities shared by different groups.
• Involve academic research likely to significantly promote mutual understanding, peace and reconciliation, including in the context of the Government’s commitment at the time of the NDNA Agreement to commission research on the challenges faced by border communities (with a particular focus on minority communities in border counties).
• Empower diverse, underrepresented or new voices to articulate their views on issues relating to reconciliation.
• Assist communities from different traditions in trying to build a shared vision of the future.

Other factors guiding consideration of applications

In addition to assessing whether applications contribute under the thematic pillars and key priority/activity areas outlined above, they will be guided by a number of other factors in considering funding applications:

General factors:

General factors which will be used in assessing applications will include:

• Geographical location of activity, with the aim of ensuring an appropriate spread of funding;
• Value for money of the project;
• The organisation’s financial management capacity, governance arrangements and sustainability;
• The funding environment for the particular sector.

Further information available on their website.

What can you apply for?

In the annual funding round, grants are awarded for a 12-month period and can cover the direct cost of Project activities, Core Operational costs, or Capital costs.

Support for Project activities can cover a range of costs e.g. venue hire, catering, preparation of resources/materials, facilitation fees, travel costs for participants, etc.

Applications for project funding may also include a request for support for Core Operational costs, such as salaries and overheads, and Capital costs, where they are directly attributable to the project or programme for which funding is sought e.g. where salary costs are incurred for the purpose of managing/coordinating/administering the project or rent/heat/light/phone charges etc. are incurred in order to deliver it.

Salary Costs: if you are applying for funding to cover salary costs, please note a Reconciliation Fund grant cannot be used towards the costs of private occupational pension schemes. Costs incurred for contributions towards social insurance payments may be included e.g. National Insurance or PRSI.

Please ensure you include a breakdown of salary, i.e. base salary and social insurance contributions, when applying for funding from the Reconciliation Fund.

Notes:

They will also accept stand-alone applications for either Core Operational or Capital costs where they are not directly attributable to a particular project.

If you are applying for a grant of €10,000 or more (or if your funding request, combined with any Reconciliation Fund grants already approved for your organisation within the current calendar year, amount to €10,000 or more) you are required to provide a valid Tax Clearance Certificate.

If the grant is over €12,500, the organisation’s accounts must be externally audited.

Previous Grants

• Download the full list of grants awarded in the 2024 Annual Round of the Reconciliation Fund
• Download the full list of grants awarded in the 2023 Annual Round of the Reconciliation Fund.
• Download the full list of grants awarded in Tranche 1 of the Reconciliation Fund 2022 and Tranche 2 of the Reconciliation Fund 2022.
• Download the full list of grants awarded in 2021 under Tranche 1 of the Reconciliation Fund 2021 and Tranche 2 of the Reconciliation Fund 2021.

See website for preceding years.