A £15.5 million fund aimed at helping local charities during the Covid-19 pandemic will open on Monday.
It will support groups that have lost income due to the impact of lockdown and are unable to cover unavoidable costs until September 30.
The programme will provide up to £75,000 for eligible organisations and be administered on behalf of the Department for Communities by the National Lottery Community Fund.
The funding required to cover immediate costs and prevent short term closure will vary for each organisation.
They will have to meet eligibility criteria including being able to demonstrate that their fundraising or trading income has reduced due to coronavirus, their unavoidable costs cannot be covered by existing grants or public funding and they are therefore at risk of imminent collapse, and they are not in receipt of any other Covid-19 financial support.
Communities minister Deirdre Hargey said it is a "fund of last resort".
"There is a limited amount of money in the fund and it therefore is available for those charitable organisations who can demonstrate that they have lost income due to the impact of Covid-19 and will be unable to cover unavoidable costs until the end of September 2020," she said.
"This funding is to ensure the survival of the organisation and will not be awarded to support new activity",
Further information is available at www.communities-ni.gov.uk/covid-19-charities-fund.
