The community fund was established in 2014. It shall remain in place for the operational life of the windfarm.

We utilise the services of an independent company (termed: Grant Making Organisation, or GMO) to oversee the administration of the fund from application review to award. South, and East Area Development Partnership CLG (SECAD) will act as the GMO from 2019 through 2021.

The fund is available to community and voluntary organisations for projects which are based within the ‘Area of Benefit (AOB)’ of Carnsore Wind Farm. These include, but are not limited to;

• Registered charities.
• Community development groups.
• Tidy town committees.
• Sports, and recreation clubs.
• Primary, and secondary schools.

We support projects which focus on the following themes;

• Education and skills.
• Health, safety and wellbeing.
• Environment and habitat conservation.
• Energy efficiency and sustainability.
• Culture and heritage.
• Recreation, sport and social inclusion.

We cannot support:

• Projects operated by individuals/private sector or non-for-profit organisations.
• Projects which primarily benefit organisations that apply restrictive ‘members only’ conditions to access.
• Projects where work has commenced prior to application, however separate stage of a project can apply.
• Projects which directly replace statutory activities/funding.
• Projects which provide unnecessary duplicate activities/services/infrastructure within the community.
• Projects which do not directly benefit the local community, and are not deemed as ‘not-for-profit.'
• Projects where duplicate funding from other sources exists, however match funding is welcomed.
• Projects which conflict with or adversely affect the aim, objectives or policy of ESB or any other associated companies.
• Projects which directly promote or advance:
  • any particular religion or faith.
  • any particular political party.
  • any type of hunting or shooting.
• Projects which seek to purchase/cover the cost of the following:
  • Recoverable VAT costs.
  • Insurance.

The ‘Area of Benefit’ or AOB is a radius of up to 10km around a wind farm, which is set to ensure that communities directly neighbouring our wind farms benefit most from the funds. As such, applications from within the AOB will receive priority over all others.

In order for an application from outside the AOB to be considered for funding it must demonstrate the benefit provided to the communities within the AOB.

Once a year, the Grant Making Organisations (GMOs) will open each fund in order to accept applications. When open, a link to the relevant website will be added above as well as being promoted in local media. Each potential applicant will be required to;

1. Register, and/or Login to an online application portal.
2. Read and follow the guidelines provided.
3. Fill in all sections of the application form with relevant information, and provide supporting information as applicable.
4. Submit the application form online, which if done successfully you’ll receive a confirmation email.
5. Your application will be appraised for up to two months by the Grant Making Organisation (GMO), through the use of its internal evaluation committee or an external committee consisting of local community members. After which time a letter will issue to all applicant groups whether successful or unsuccessful.

The Carnsore fund is €11,900 per annum and we expect individual awards to be between €1,000 to €4,000. However, these suggested award values are neither a minimum nor a maximum, rather an indication of the scale of resources available annually versus expected demand. Awards may exceed the above suggested values if a project is identified as being of significant strategic benefit to the community.