Ulster Bank Social and Community Capital are launching a £1m Coronavirus Response Fund today Monday 22 June 12noon

In response to the current pandemic, our Corporate Partners Ulster Bank S&CC are launching a £1 million Coronavirus Response Fund.

  • They are offering grants of between £5,000 and £50,000 to organisations across the UK that employ people from vulnerable or disadvantaged groups. These grants are unrestricted and can be used for any purpose, including core costs. Organisations must have an annual turnover between £50,000 and £1 million, must have been generating at least 30% of revenue from trading income before the crisis and must have suffered a loss in trading income due to lockdown restrictions. Full eligibility criteria are outlined below.

Applications will open through their websites at 12noon on Monday 22nd June and stay open for at least one week. They hope to leave applications open for longer but may need to close after a week depending on how many applications they receive and if they reach capacity, so we would encourage applicants to submit applications as soon as possible. The key information required is outlined below.

Full information on the grants, including the application form and how to apply, will be available on their website from Monday 22nd June.

Eligibility criteria:

  • Organisations must employ people from vulnerable or disadvantaged groups
  • Organisations must generate at least 30% of revenue from trading income
  • Organisations must have had a pre-coronavirus annual turnover of between £50,000 to £1 million
  • The organisation must have suffered a loss of trading income since March 2020, caused by lockdown restrictions
  • The organisation must have been founded and trading prior to 1st January 2019
  • The organisation must have been financially sustainable (or on a path to financial stability) up to March 2020
  • The organisation must be constituted, operating, and delivering impact in England, Scotland, Wales, or Northern Ireland
  • The organisation must have one of the following legal structures: Community Interest Company (CIC), Company Limited by Guarantee, Community Benefit Society, Co-operative Society, Unincorporated association, Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO), Charitable Trusts, Registered Charity

Please find below an outline of the information that will need to be provided in the application form.

Basic information about the organisation, contact details, staff and volunteer numbers, year and date founded, financial information for the last 3 years and forecasts for the next 2 years

A description of the organisations mission, key activities, and impact over the last year

Details about the grant request including what it will be used for, why it is needed and what impact would be achieved

Applications will be open from Monday 22nd June at 12 noon and stay open for at least one week. The fund may be open longer depending on how many applications are received and level of applications, so we encourage organisations to submit their application as soon as they can.