£1.3m from dormant bank accounts is helping the VCSE sector in NI to become more sustainable

Organisations from the voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) sector in Northern Ireland are benefitting from over £1.3 million from the Dormant Accounts Fund NI. Delivered by The National Lottery Community Fund in conjunction with the Department of Finance, the programme is supporting the sector to be more resilient and prepared for the long-term future.

TinyLife has been awarded a £100,000 grant to improve their financial resilience over three years and become more sustainable. They are one of 18 organisations receiving a share of this funding today, which has been raised from dormant UK bank and building society accounts. Find out more about the projects awarded today.

Alison McNulty, CEO of TinyLife, said: “This funding is really important to TinyLife, to enhance our long-term sustainability, so we can continue to provide support services within Neonatal Units, homes and communities to families who have experienced the birth of a premature or sick baby.

“The pandemic showed the need to change the way we work so we carried out a review of the organisation and now we have the resources to implement actions from that so we can reach our full potential. We’re making improvements to our digital capacity and ICT systems, developing our staff and repositioning ourselves within the sector. The Dormant Accounts Fund NI has given us the opportunity to strengthen the organisation over the next three years.”

This grant announcement comes as The National Lottery Community Fund publishes learning from the first year of delivering the programme and awarding grants to over 100 organisations across Northern Ireland. Read the Dormant Accounts Fund NI Learning Report for more information.

Co-operation Ireland also received a £100,000 grant to improve their communications capacity, succession planning and long-term sustainability over two years.

Peter Sheridan, CEO, Co-operation Ireland, said: “This funding will go towards developing an online learning platform to allow us to share our peacebuilding experience in a more efficient way with our partners. With updated audio-visual equipment, digital technology and management systems we’ll be able to improve our communication and better tell the story of our work.

“This project is really needed as the pandemic has led us to adapt to the changing environment by moving our programmes online and introducing hybrid working. We knew these changes needed to be made in our organisation so the Dormant Accounts Fund NI programme couldn’t have come at a better time. The programme is providing a critical role in the development of the charity sector, as there is no other funding available to help charities in this way.”

Paul Sweeney, The National Lottery Community Fund’s NI Chair, said: “I’m delighted that another £1.3 million has been awarded to organisations across Northern Ireland through the Dormant Accounts Fund. As we share this news, we have also published learning from the programme which will help us to determine its future priorities.

“The programme has been open since January 2021, and I’m proud that we’ve supported so many organisations to build their capacity, helping them to carry out fantastic work they do to support communities across Northern Ireland.”

Dormant accounts are UK bank and building society accounts that have been untouched for 15 or more years, where customers who own the accounts cannot be traced. As part of this first phase of Dormant Accounts Fund NI support, organisations can apply for up to £100,000 as part of a flexible and responsive grant programme.

For more information on the Dormant Accounts Fund NI programme visit www.tnlcommunityfund.org.uk/funding/programmes/dormant-accounts-ni.