Ballyhoura Development are excited by the opportunity presented to local social enterprises through the pilot Dormant Accounts funded €1.5 million Scaling-up Scheme for Social Enterprise. The scheme is designed to improve the impact and sustainability of social enterprises that address economic, social and educational disadvantage.

The scheme comprises 2 streams:

• Stream 1 will provide funding for medium scale capital projects up to a maximum of €100,000 
• Stream 2 will fund feasibility studies to social enterprises up to 80% of the cost to a max of €10,000.

Making the announcement today, Minister Humphreys said: "Our social enterprises play a vital role in communities across the country, as we saw during the recent pandemic. The National Social Enterprise Policy commits to growing and strengthening social enterprise. This Scaling-up Scheme for Social Enterprise will provide some much-needed capital support to social enterprises nationwide that will enable them to grow their operations and strengthen their impact on the communities they serve. It is envisaged that up to 30 social enterprises will benefit from this funding, which will undoubtedly have a huge impact on themselves, the communities they operate in, and on their customers and service users.”

Mary Laffan, Chairperson of Ballyhoura Development commented that "the fund demonstrated the importance of having a National Policy for Social Enterprise to create a supportive policy and funding environment and the Scaling Up fund presented opportunities for the fantastic range of social enterprises operating across the Ballyhoura area to access capital and feasibility supports."

Support and applications for both streams are now open and will close at 3pm on the 15th September 2022.

Find Out More

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Advice and support is available from Ballyhoura Development to local social enterprises interested in making an application under the Scaling Up Scheme.

Please contact your local Ballyhoura Development Officer for further guidance.