Shared Island Civic Society Fund

Please see a slideshow presentation below, introducing the fund.

The Shared Island Civic Society Fund is an initiative to promote practical North-South cooperation and engagement through increased cross-border civic society connections.

The Shared Island initiative is a whole-of-government priority which aims to harness the full potential of the Good Friday Agreement to enhance on-the-ground cooperation, connection, and mutual understanding on the island and engage with all communities and traditions to build consensus around a shared future.

The Shared Island Civic Society Fund has entered a second, three-year, phase, running from 2025 to 2027, with increased resourcing to support enhanced island-wide societal connection, cooperation and mutual understanding.

The fund has been allocated a budget of €6m over the 2025-2027 period, funded both by the Shared Island Initiative and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. This means that there will now be €2 million available each year for disbursement by way of grant funding to eligible organisations. The maximum grant awarded to any project is €50,000 and the average grant awarded in previous rounds was just under €30,000.

Principles of the fund

The Shared Island Civic Society Fund seeks to ensure that funding is not a barrier to cross border engagement. It encourages and supports civic society and community organisations to develop new cross-border links, to further strengthen existing partnerships, or to create or broaden cross-border connectivity on issues of concern for the island of Ireland.

Who should apply to the fund

Consistent with the objectives of the Shared Island Civic Society Fund:

• Applications are sought which will foster sustained engagement between civic society organisations at a regional, national or sectoral level as distinct from stand-alone events or engagements.
• Applications are invited from civic societies, business and trade union representative groups and other regional or national representative bodies, including of underrepresented voices of women, young people, older people, ethnic minorities, and LGBTQI+
• Applications are particularly welcomed in the areas of:
  • Environment
  • Women
  • Youth
  • Migrants
  • Community/Voluntary sector
  • Trade Unions, Business, and Social Enterprise

This is not an exhaustive list and the Shared Island Civic Society Fund will review all applications in line with our assessment criteria

What we look for in projects

To qualify for funding, projects must have a strong North South dimension.

Applicants will be asked to demonstrate how their proposed project will do one or more of the following:

• Deepen North South links through the development of sustainable cross-border civic relationships;
• Develop and/or deepen cross-border relations between civic society organisations, North and South;
• Promote constructive and inclusive dialogue around the opportunities and challenges facing the island through cross-border and cross-community engagement;
• Contribute significantly to the development of an all-island civic society ecosystem, particularly in relation to areas of cooperation and fundamental rights provided for under the Good Friday Agreement;
• Adopts an innovative or novel approach to building North South relations.

Eligibility criteria for assessment

The following eligibility criteria apply:

• Applications must demonstrate a clear partnership between at least one organisation based in the South and at least one organisation based in the North, or must be from an all island body;
• Funding will not be awarded to cover standalone activities that are not part of a wider project/programme
• Only direct project/programme work will be eligible for funding and grants will not be awarded to cover core operational or capital costs;
• An organisation may only make one application for funding as a lead organisation per round;
• Organisations already in receipt of funding from the Department of Foreign Affairs and other Government Departments/public bodies are eligible to apply for this fund, although activities supported must be distinct from those being supported by other Government funding schemes;
• Organisations who have received funding from previous rounds of the Shared Island Civic Society Fund and have not submitted all relevant reports from those previous rounds are not eligible to apply to subsequent rounds.

To be eligible an application organisation must also demonstrate

• What the project/programme outcomes are and how they align with the fund’s objectives;
• The impact of the project/programme North and South based on clear expected outputs and outcomes;
• The capacity of the application organisation to deliver the outcomes set out in the project;
• The organisation’s financial management capacity;
• The organisation’s governance arrangements;
• The organisation’s monitoring and evaluation systems;
• The organisation’s financial stability and sustainability.

In addition to the above eligibility requirements, applications will be strengthened by the inclusion of funding contributions to the proposed project from the participating partner organisations.

You apply for the Shared Island Civic Society Fund via the Grant Application Portal for the Department of Foreign Affairs of Ireland Home · DFAT Grant Application Portal.

You are required to register your organisation on the Grant Application Portal in advance of making your application to the Shared Island Civic Society Fund. Include a reasonable level of detail about your organisation and select “Euro” as the currency of your grant applications.

In completing the application form, applicants must clearly demonstrate that their projects will deliver on the Fund’s overall objective to deepen cross-border and all-island collaboration, North and South.

Applications must provide details of both cross-border partners and set out how collaboration between these partners will strengthen North South civic, economic or cultural links. The objectives, deliverables, costs, and timescales for this collaboration must also be clearly set out in the application. Applications will be prioritised based on how strongly they meet these criteria and align with the objectives of the Fund.

Any questions about the Fund should be directed to sharedislandcsfund@dfa.ie.

Any technical questions about using the online Grant Application Portal can be sent to PortalAdmin@dfa.ie.

The above e-mail addresses are not connected please ensure you direct your query to the correct e-mail for appropriate follow up

Please note that the below documents must be included along with the application:

• letters of commitment from each organisation partnering in delivering the project
• the lead organisation's most recent annual accounts/financial statements or if newly formed a declaration of no income/expenditure signed by the Treasurer and another Board or Committee member (on headed official paper if available), along with evidence of a bank account, e.g. copies of a bank statement
• If you’re applying for €10,000 or more, you’ll need a valid Tax Clearance Certificate for the lead organisation. This certificate, issued by the Irish Revenue Commissioners, is necessary for processing payments from any Irish Government Department, regardless of the organisation’s location in the world. You can easily obtain a resident or non-resident tax clearance certificate online at revenue.ie.
• Below Partner Organisation Details form and Checklist:

How to use the Grant Application Portal

Find out how to use the portal with our video guides.

Any technical questions about using the online Grant Application Portal can be sent to PortalAdmin@dfa.ie.

Effective reporting by organisations receiving funding is essential for the Department to gain a better understanding of the work and impact of grantee organisations.

Reporting is also a requirement under the terms and conditions of receiving funding in line with Circular 13/2014.

All projects should be completed within the timelines laid out in their applications which should be no later than 12 months after the receipt of grant payment. In turn, final project reports must be submitted once the project has been completed or within twelve months of the date of receipt of the grant (whichever is the earlier date).

Reports should be prepared using a reporting template which will be made available to grantees on our website

Along with the final project report, organisations in receipt of funding less than €12,500 must submit their annual financial accounts. Where the grant is over €12,500 they must submit recent audited financial statements.

The relevant accounts at reporting stage are those for the financial year in which the organisation received payment of the grant from the Shared Island Civic Society Fund.

Failure to submit reports and accounts in a timely manner in the correct format may impede organisations’ ability to receive future funding support from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

Tánaiste announces new round of funding for cross-border projects

Read about organisations funded under previous rounds.