For more than 35 years, the Openreach Community Fund has been making a real and lasting difference in communities across Northern Ireland.

Every year, we award around £50,000–£60,000 to local grassroots projects and groups tackling disadvantage, including rural isolation, low income, social exclusion and reduced access to services. We prioritise projects that help improve the lives of young people, older people and people with disabilities right across Northern Ireland. By supporting our fundraising efforts, you're helping to strengthen communities, champion inclusion and provide vital funding to smaller charities and projects that often struggle to access support elsewhere.

But our impact extends beyond funding. At Openreach, our people are passionate about giving back, and volunteering is one of the most powerful ways we support the communities around us. Time and again, our colleagues have rolled up their sleeves to provide practical help to the charities and community groups we work with, making a difference not just through our funding, but through hands-on action and commitment.

Established in 1989 through a unique partnership between Openreach in Northern Ireland and the CWU, the fund reflects our long-standing commitment to investing in local communities. Managed on our behalf by the Community Foundation NI, the fund opens annually for applications and provides much-needed financial assistance to projects that are changing lives across Northern Ireland.

Here are just a few of the incredible organisations whose work has been supported by the Openreach Community Fund:

• Portadown Wellness Centre, empowerment for people impacted by mental health

• Cancer Friends Causeway Coast, cancer support group

• Green Spaces Community Growing Project, horticulture, and wellbeing group

• Mae Murray Foundation, all ability leisure, and social settings

• Cre8 Theatre, producing visual, interactive, and boundary-breaking theatrical performances

• Braveheartsni, ACHD patient and family support