Guidance

This is the guidance for the Taic Freumhan Coimhearsnachd 2025-27 scheme. A version of this guidance is available in PDF format here, and other formats of the guidance can be made available on request by emailing tabhartas@gaidhlig.scot.

The scheme closes at 3pm on Tuesday 28 January 2025. This page was last updated on 12 November 2024.

About the Fund
Project requirements
Environment, Equalities, Diversity & Inclusion and Fair Work
Submitting an application
How we will assess your application
More information

About the Fund

Taic Freumhan Coimhearsnachd is Bòrd na Gàidhlig’s primary fund for supporting community organisations in delivering projects to promote and increase the usage and learning of Gaelic at community level. This year we are bringing the Colmcille scheme together with Taic Freumhan Coimhearsnachd into a single fund to support community Gaelic usage.

The fund offers the opportunity to apply for up to 2 years’ worth of funding, for longer-term projects or those that are recurring annually. The estimated budget for the scheme is £200,000, pending confirmation of Bòrd na Gàidhlig’s 2025/26 budget.

Previous rounds of the fund have been competitive, therefore we expect that not all applications that are suitable will be successful.

The fund is flexible in supporting most types of projects that seek to bring people together to use Gaelic, but we are particularly looking to support:

Gaelic events in your community and online
Projects and opportunities that encourage young people to use Gaelic together
Projects that support Gaelic usage among families and between generations
Adult Gaelic learning in the community
Colmcille – Building connections between speakers of Gaelic and Irish

In your application we expect you to expand on how your project meets one or more of these aims. You should also be aware of the how your project may contribute to Bòrd na Gàidhlig’s Corporate Plan 2023-28 and the National Gaelic Language Plan 2023-28.

In assessing your application, we will be primarily looking at:

How clearly your project shows that it will promote the use of Gaelic in your community and achieve the specific aims we have for this year
The ability of your organisation to deliver the project successfully
The strength of your plans to assess the impact of your project
The value for money demonstrated by the project
How your organisation fulfils responsibilities in terms of the Environment, Equalities and Fair Work

Detailed guidance as to how applications will be assessed can be found on Bòrd na Gàidhlig’s website.

Project requirements

Who can apply?

This fund is open to constituted third-sector (charities or voluntary organisations) based in Scotland that hope to deliver a project to promote the use of Gaelic within a given community. Examples of projects that have previously received support through Taic Freumhan Coimhearsnachd can be found via the GrantNav website.

Organisations may submit a maximum of one application in this funding round.

If you received support through the 2024-26 funding round of the scheme (awarded in February/March 2024), you will only be eligible to apply for support if your currently funded project ends in 2025 and your new projects also begins in 2025. If you have any questions about your eligibility please get in touch with Bòrd na Gàidhlig as soon as possible.

It is also essential that your organisation has an active UK bank account, in the name of the organisation, at the time of submitting the application. If your organisation is in the process of applying for the opening of a bank account, your organisation is ineligible to apply.

Who cannot apply?

Individuals
Public or local authorities (including ALEOs)
Commercial or for-profit organisations
Bòrd na Gàidhlig Delivery Partners

Project Timeframe

The fund will support projects which will start between 1 April and 31 December 2025 and will be fully completed by 31 August 2027.

It is expected that the next funding round will run from November 2025 to January 2026 for 2026-28 projects.

What costs are supported?

You may request up to £5,000 for projects with a duration of up to 12 months, or £10,000 for projects with a duration over 12 months.

You can apply for a maximum of up to 80% of project costs as long as this is below the maximum sum stated above.

You must ensure that no other part of the project’s budget is funded by money from other Bòrd na Gàidhlig funding schemes, the Gaelic Arts Fund run by Fèisean nan Gàidheal, Seachdain na Gàidhlig’s Small Grants Fund or Bòrd na Gàidhlig’s Delivery Partners.

Projects should aim to have income from participants where possible (e.g. fees for Gaelic classes, parental contributions towards school trips, tickets for concerts) and we may set conditions on our funding that a minimum level of income is received through such contributions if your application is successful.

All projects that pay wages or fees to those delivering the project must pay at least the real Living Wage (currently £12.60 per hour). If using industry rates in your budget, please include information about who set the rates and a link to verify this information.

In-kind/volunteer costs are permitted as part of a contribution towards total project costs. Any in-kind support for volunteered time can be calculated with a minimum value of the real Living Wage or an appropriate industry rate, if available, and should be budgeted as both income and expenditure.

We will not support project costs relating to:

Organisation start-up or ongoing running costs
Costs relating to running, attending or taking part in the Royal National Mòd or local Mòds
Local Fèisean (which are funded by Bòrd na Gàidhlig through Fèisean nan Gàidheal)
Air travel (please consider lower-emission options)
Equipment costs of over £500 in total
Competition prizes
Delivery of the school curriculum
Early years sessions

How will we be paid?

If your application is successful, if your project is expected to complete within 12 months, you will typically receive 80% of the total grant after returning the signed funding agreement and any outstanding reports for other projects, with the final 20% payable after you have submitted a satisfactory end of project report.

For projects expected to run for over 12 months, you will typically receive 40% of the total grant after returning the signed funding agreement and any outstanding reports for other projects. Up to 50% of the grant will be payable after completing a progress report around half-way through your project’s expected duration, with the final 10% payable (if required) after you have submitted a satisfactory end of project report.

Please note that projects are funded on a break-even basis, so that you will be required to return to us any Bòrd na Gàidhlig funding that is not utilised in completion of the project.

Acknowledgment

As a public body it’s important to us that the public know where our funding is spent, and that’s why it’s important that you acknowledge where appropriate that Bòrd na Gàidhlig provided funding for your project. If your application is successful, you will be required to acknowledge our grant in various ways throughout the project and to provide information to us in your reporting as to how you have carried this out.

For further information please read our Acknowledgement Guidance and our Brand Guidance on our website.

Project monitoring and evaluation

If your application is successful you will need to monitor and evaluate your project delivery and show the impact of the project in reports requested from you.

All funded projects will be required to submit a final report and if your project is expected to last for over 12 months, you will be required to complete a progress report approximately halfway through your project’s duration.

At a minimum we will ask all projects to note how many people take part in the project and to ask participants (or a sample of participants for large events/projects) for feedback on the impact of the project on their usage, learning or opinion of Gaelic.

In the application form we’ll ask you how you intend to monitor the project, what targets you will use to assess whether the project is successful, and how you will gather feedback from participants.

Reports will be available to submit via the Fluxx application portal at https://bng.fluxx.io, and will be viewable if your application is approved.

Environment, Equalities, Diversity & Inclusion and Fair Work

Bòrd na Gàidhlig has a responsibility to promote good practice in:

Reducing impact on the environment
Promoting equality of opportunity for those with a protected characteristic under the Equalities Act 2010
Promoting opportunities for young people who are, or have been, in care under the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014

We would like the organisations and projects that we fund to also consider how their work can contribute to these aims and will ask in the application form how your proposed project will seek to do so.

For further information, please consult the links below:

Fair Work

Organisations in receipt of public funding in Scotland are required to adhere to the Scottish Government’s Fair Work First policy, and as such must:

Pay at least the real Living Wage; and
Provide appropriate channels for effective workers’ voice, such as trade union recognition

You will be asked as part of your application and reporting to confirm that you are adhering to the policy and provide evidence of doing so.

Further guidance as to how Bòrd na Gàidhlig is implementing the Fair Work First policy is available here, and guidance from the Scottish Government on the policy is available here.

Submitting an application

Applications should be submitted via our Fluxx application portal at bng.fluxx.io. An account can be registered for free on the website and it is possible to save the progress of an application whilst working on it. All supporting documents can be submitted via the portal.

The application portal will close at 3pm on Tuesday 28 January 2025 and it will not be possible to submit an application after this date unless permission has been provided prior to the deadline by Bòrd na Gàidhlig officers.

Detailed support is available on our website as to what information we are looking for from each question.

If you have any issues with the portal, wish to receive the application materials in a different format, or have any questions about the application please email us at tabhartas@gaidhlig.scot.

When submitting your application, unless applying on behalf of a school, you must include the required supporting documents, as follows:

Essential

Constitution or Memorandum and Articles of Association
Most recent annual accounts or for recently constituted organisations, a letter from your bank to confirm an account has been opened and any bank statements available
Child Protection or Safeguarding policy (if the project involves children or vulnerable adults)
List of board or committee members (except for companies registered with Companies House)

Recommended (if available)

Latest annual report
Gaelic policy
Equal opportunities policy or Equalities, diversity and inclusion policy
Environmental policy or statement

Applications which do not provide the required supporting documents (unless on behalf of a school) will be declared ineligible and will not be assessed.

How we will assess your application

You will receive an automatic email acknowledgment from the Fluxx portal to confirm that we have received your application. If you do not receive this, please check that you have submitted the application rather than only saving the application.

Bòrd na Gàidhlig officers will then screen applications after submission to ensure they comply with the rules of the fund and have provided required information. If your application is deemed ineligible, you will be asked to correct this. If your application is not fully compliant with the rules of the fund by 10am on Monday 10 February 2025 your application may be declined without assessment.

All eligible applications will be assessed by a panel of Bòrd na Gàidhlig officers according to the assessment guidance, and they will make recommendations to the Bòrd na Gàidhlig Senior Management Team who will decide on the outcome of applications.

Bòrd na Gàidhlig may request additional information or clarification of project details as part of the assessment process. If this additional information is not submitted within 5 working days of being requested we reserve the right to decline your application.

We expect that you will be informed of the result of your application by email in the first half of March 2025.

If you have been awarded funding, a letter of offer will be sent via Docusign to your nominated signatory (or signatories if you are an organisation with staff and required to complete a Fair Work Declaration). You will have up to 30 days from the date of issue to accept the offer (including terms and conditions) or the offer shall lapse.

If you are not satisfied with the outcome of your application, while we do not offer an appeal process you may make a complaint if you believe your application has not been dealt with in accordance with this guidance and the assessment guidance. For more information, our complaints handling procedure is detailed online here.

More information

For more information about this fund, please visit the Bòrd na Gàidhlig website or contact Bòrd na Gàidhlig at tabhartas@gaidhlig.scot.

You can also find answers to frequently asked questions about our funding on our website.

Privacy information relating to our funding schemes can be found on our website.

Alternative forms of this guidance and application forms can be made available on request and may be published at: https://www.gaidhlig.scot/en/funding/funding-schemes/taic-freumhan-coimhearsnachd/