RISE Community Fund to Award Cash Grants in Louth
Throughout February Small businesses, social enterprises and community groups encouraged to share plans for innovating with technology.
The RISE Community Fund has announced plans to award new cash grants to small businesses, farms, social enterprises, schools, charities and community groups in County Louth, with funding available to those who can demonstrate innovative plans to use technology to scale the positive impact of their work and benefit the local community.
Supported by National Broadband Ireland (NBI), the company responsible for delivering the Irish Government’s National Broadband Plan, as well as other corporate partners including KN Circet, KPMG, Test Triangle, Dream Dev Technologies and TLI Group, the RISE Community Fund has travelled the breadth of the country in recent years to provide a cash injection for community organisations thinking creatively about how they can use technology. Previous Louth groups to receive grant funding from the RISE Community Fund include Commercial Club, Drogheda Women’s and Children’s Refuge Centre CLG, Louth Village Youth Club, Mattock Rangers CLG and local farmer Barry McDonnell.
David McCourt, Chairman of NBI and founder of RISE, commented: “At NBI we’ve always been clear that our mission is about more than bringing Netflix to rural Ireland; it’s about empowering communities to embrace new technologies with the foundation of world-class fibre broadband, which NBI is delivering at scale. In partnership with RISE, we’re finding and rewarding entrepreneurial uses of technology, and we’ve already awarded over 130 cash grants across the country including many great examples here in Louth.”
Applications for the cash grants open on 3rd February and close on 28th February 2025. Grants of up to €1000 will be available to successful applicants across the county. “The application process is incredibly quick and easy, and successful applicants will be notified in March, with money following in quick succession. We can’t wait to see the entrepreneurial ideas from Louth,” added McCourt. With 5,300 premises in Louth already able to order or pre-order a service on its network, NBI is reminding Louth residents and businesses to visit their website at www.nbi.ie to order from their broadband provider of choice.”
Read more about the RISE Community Fund and gain access to the grant application at riseglobalfoundation.com.
About the RISE Community Fund: The RISE Community Fund is a not-for-profit working in partnership with corporate sponsors with a shared vision to tackle the urban/rural digital divide and use technology and entrepreneurship to create jobs in rural Ireland. Its founding partners were National Broadband Ireland (NBI) and Granahan McCourt Capital. Today, the fund is supported by a growing number of corporate sponsors including KN Circet, KPMG, Test Triangle, DreamDev Technologies, and TLI Group.
All grants provided by the RISE Community Fund are privately funded. No State funding is used in the provision of grant funding.
