The National Lottery Community Fund: Sustainable Community Buildings

Overview

This fund will open for applications on Wednesday 12 March 2025 and close on Wednesday 23 April 2025.

• Area: Northern Ireland
• Suitable for: Voluntary or community organisations
• Funding size: Up to £50,000  (capital funding only)

This funding is to help your organisation to:

• learn how to be more environmentally sustainable – by attending carbon literacy training
• understand what changes you can make to be more environmentally sustainable – by working with experts in sustainability to create an environment plan for your organisation
• improve the environmental performance of your building – for example, they could offer funding so that you can add solar panels, improve insulation or install energy-efficient lighting
• share the benefits of being more environmentally sustainable with your community
• monitor, measure and report on the impact of your funding – for example, track what difference the improvements have made to carbon emissions, energy savings, community engagement and behaviour change
• ultimately reduce your carbon footprint and energy bills.

This funding is part of their new strategy. One of their aims is to support communities to be environmentally sustainable.

You can apply if your organisation is a:   

• unregistered voluntary or community organisation
  • An organisation set up with a governing document - like a constitution. But is not a registered charity or company. If you get funding they would expect you to incorporate or become registered with a regulator (For example, the Charity Commission or CIC regulator).
• not-for-profit company
  • A company limited by guarantee - registered with Companies House. And might also be registered as a charity.
• registered charity (unincorporated)
  • A voluntary or community organisation that's a registered charity. But is not a company registered with Companies House.
• Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO or SCIO)
  • A registered charity with limited liability. But is not a company registered with Companies House.
• Community Interest Company (CIC)
  • A company registered with Companies House. And the Community Interest Company (CIC) Regulator.

You need at least 2 board or committee members who are not related

Funding criteria

To get funding, your organisation must meet the following criteria.

• You cannot apply if you currently hold a Sustainable Community Buildings grant
  This programme has been running throughout 2024. Organisations that have already received grants are not eligible to apply again.
• You must own your building or have an unbreakable lease for at least 6 years
  They want to invest in community buildings that will benefit from this funding long-term.
  If you own the building, they'll ask to see the land registry title (at stage two).
  If you lease the building, they'll ask to see your agreement or contract (at stage two).
• Your building must be open and used
  They want to fund community buildings that are well-used by communities. They’ll ask for details about the number of people who use your building and its opening hours. They’ll prioritise buildings that can demonstrate they are well used throughout an average week.
• You must not be solely focused on delivering sports activities
  Or be affiliated with a governing body of sport (recognised by Sport Northern Ireland). They’ll still consider your application if sports clubs are part of a range of groups that use your community building. However they cannot fund sports clubs that are affiliated with a governing body of sport – for example, the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA), Ulster Rugby and Irish Football Association.

If your expression of interest is successful, you’ll also need to:

• complete carbon literacy training
  They ask that two people from your organisation attend the training. It should take around 2 days to complete. These days might not be consecutive.
  It must be a committee or board member and a volunteer or staff member that attend.
• work with a sustainability expert
  They ask that you work with an expert (that we provide) to work out how to improve the environmental performance of your building. You’ll work with them to create an environment plan.

There is no guarantee you’ll get funding to improve your community building. 

Even if you complete the training and work with the sustainability expert.

This is because they only have a set amount of funding to improve the environmental performance of community buildings and they want to fund where they can make the greatest impact.

They also expect projects that they fund to:

• have ideas on how to share the benefits of being more environmentally sustainable with their community
  They want you to share what you’ve done to empower others in your community.
• monitor, measure and report on the impact of their funding
  For example, they’ll want you to track what difference the improvements have made to carbon emissions, energy savings, community engagement and behaviour change.

Eligible Costs

If you’re invited to apply for funding to improve your building’s environmental performance, they can fund things like:

• solar panels
• battery storage
• ground-source heat pumps
• energy efficient lighting
• new insulation
• energy-efficient windows and doors.

Every building will need something different. They’ll ask you to work with a sustainability expert to work out exactly what your building might need. These things will be recorded in your environment plan, which will be what you’ll use to apply for funding.