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A Dormant Asset is a financial product which has been dormant for over 15 years, where an owner cannot be traced. The Dormant Bank and Building Society Accounts Act established a system for distributing dormant accounts (2008), and later, assets (2022), to good causes in the UK. The National Lottery Community Fund is the sole named distributor of Dormant Assets money, distributing funds across all four nations of the UK. In Northern Ireland (NI), the funding has been used to support the NI Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) sector to be more resilient and prepared for the future, by funding activity that increases capacity and sustainability.

In January 2021, The National Lottery Community Fund launched the Dormant Assets NI Phase 1 Grant Programme, which offered grants to VCSE sector organisations in NI seeking to build their capacity, resilience and sustainability. By its closure in March 2023, the Grant Programme had received over 700 applications and had awarded nearly £20m to 244 VCSE sector organisations in NI. 

SQW was commissioned to evaluate the Grant Programme in November 2023. The evaluation ran until May 2025 to provide evidence about the extent to which the Grant Programme and its funded activities are contributing to improving the resilience of VCSEs in NI. The study has also shared learning regarding effective practice in building sector capacity, resilience and sustainability.

We have recently published our final evaluation report and executive summary. The report explores the emerging evidence of how the Grant Programme has contributed to improving the resilience of the VCSE sector in NI, setting out what works in delivering and achieving outcomes. The report explores the extent to which activities have aligned with good practice identified from the wider evidence base. We have also published a set of evaluation case studies based on learning from grant recipient organisations, and a guide for VCSE organisations From Surviving to Thriving: Insights on Building VCSE organisational Capacity and Sustainability.

The report draws on online surveys and semi-structured interviews with grant holders, unsuccessful applicants and other stakeholders. It also draws on programme management data and seven case studies with grant funded organisations. Insights from across all three waves of data collection and evaluation activity have fed into the development of the final evaluation report.

We have found that:

• The programme has been delivered against the backdrop of a challenging VCSE sector in NI, and grant holders applied for funding to address challenges such as the generation and diversification of income, and limited time and resource for strategic planning.

• The Grant Programme funded a range of activities, including income diversification, recruitment of new staff, and improvements to digital capacity or digitising processes and materials. Grant holders reported a range of enablers in delivering these activities, but also a number of challenges and barriers.

• Grant holders achieved a range of outcomes as a result of the Dormant Assets grant funding; commonly, grant holders reported greater staff knowledge, skills and confidence as a result of their grant funded activities, as well as new ways of working and new income streams.

• The Grant Programme has enabled the delivery of a wide range of projects across a diverse set of organisations in NI. We found that it has contributed to the capacity, resilience and overall sustainability of funded organisations, and is supporting the sector more widely on its journey towards resilience.

​​​​​SQW also recently delivered a Webinar alongside The National Lottery Community Fund, to share findings from the final evaluation report. A recording of the session is available below.