Ulster Bank: Skills & Opportunities Fund
For its final ever round in 2018 the Fund will provide grants of up to £35,000 for charities, social enterprises, community groups, state-funded schools and colleges based in Northern Ireland, to fund projects aimed at helping people in disadvantaged communities develop, create or access the skills and opportunities they need to build their financial capability skills or to start or develop a new business now or in the future, ease their financial capability, or enable them to get into work or start a business, now or in the future.
Scheme details
Grants up to a maximum of £35,000 can be applied for, but you cannot apply for a grant higher than 20% of your turnover.
Who can apply?
You can apply if:
You’re a not-for-profit organisation or an eligible state funded education body e.g. charity, social enterprise, community group, school, college.
You’re based in Northern Ireland or the Republic of Ireland; England or Wales or Scotland.
You can demonstrate experience of working in and/or with disadvantaged communities.
You are able to demonstrate experience in measuring the impact of your projects.
Your organisation has a turnover of less than £10 million as shown in your most recent set of accounts or is a state-funded school or college.
Your organisation has traded for at least 2 years. (Not applicable to schools/colleges).
What types of projects are funded?
They’ll consider any application as long as your project helps people in disadvantaged communities to learn new skills that will enable them to become self-employed, set up their own business, grow their business or become financially capable.
They also consider the regional priorities of each area –see below for the priorities for NI.
As a general guide, they’ve funded projects that offer training, support, qualifications, work placements, employment, self-employment, career guidance and enterprise opportunities. For example (and this is not an exhaustive list), projects in the past have targeted women with low literacy and numeracy and no work experience, the homeless, unemployed people, disadvantaged young people, women in rural areas, students about to leave school, ex-offenders and those with a history of addiction.
Basically, the projects they support are as diverse as the people they help.
Priorities in Northern Ireland
They particularly welcome applications for smaller grants (£1,000 upwards) to support smaller-scale projects and rural groups.
They want to fund projects that support financial capability and financial inclusion and/or enterprise and entrepreneurship.
They’re interested in projects that focus on driving inclusive economic growth and improving social mobility in local communities where there is a measurable economic or social impact.
They’re particularly interested in initiatives that allow their staff to participate in volunteering activities and offer the chance for them to share their business skills.
Fro more information please see their FAQS
If they haven’t answered your question through the FAQs please contact the Skills & Opportunities Fund team.
Exclusions
Your organisation and project must not:
have received funding from the RBS Inspiring Enterprise programme, Large Grants programme, Skills & Opportunities Fund or the Ulster Bank Community Impact Fund in the last 12 months.
compete with existing bank programmes: view a list here to check.
be a local authority or public sector body. Councils, ministerial and non-ministerial departments, agencies and public corporations are not eligible for this fund.
be sectarian or political.
be a university, an ex-service/veteran not-for-profit club, a trade union, fraternal, or professional society.
seek funding for costs not directly related to the project, or for excluded activities such as personal appeals, research projects or sports teams (unless the outcomes are related to employability, enterprise or education).
be seeking funding for a capital-only project. Funding for capital costs must not exceed 25% of overall project costs.
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