Grant Funding

NGOs and Education Networks

Grant Call 2026 is now closed.

The next Grant Call is due to open in April 2028.

WorldWise Global Schools (WWGS) provides grant funding to support Global Citizenship Education in post-primary settings on the island of Ireland. WWGS does so by providing funding directly to individual post-primary settings, as well as by providing funding to eligible NGOs and Education Networks. 

Who can apply for funding?

Eligible NGOs who have a registered charity number and are not in receipt of Irish Aid programme funding who work with post-primary schools may apply. WWGS provides multi-annual grant funding to support activities and initiatives that promote Global Citizenship Education (GCE) in post-primary settings in Ireland that will take place in the relevant funding period.

WWGS will support and fund established education networks that wish to increase their participating schools’ capacity to engage with GCE. The key characteristic of an established education network is that it is a recognised group of schools with a formal governance structure in place. A network may include schools from Northern Ireland as part of WWGS all-island support for GCE.

How to apply?

WWGS currently provides grant funding on a multi-annual basis for NGOs and Education Networks on the island of Ireland.

The new funding cycle for NGOs and Education Networks is now taking place under Grant Call 2026 and will cover the period 2026-28, which will be the 2026/27 and 2027/28 academic years. 

Grants of up to €40,000 per annum are available for the 2026-208 period to NGOs/Networks in line with our NGO/Education Network Grant Guidelines 2026-2028.

NGOs/Education Networks are required to complete an ONLINE application form, which includes a requirement to complete a NGO/Education Network Finance & Workplan Template and provide the details of participating schools.

Click on the registration button above to register for these.

If successful for funding, NGOs/Education Networks are required to provide a report on activities completed during the funding period. 

Key Grant Call Dates for NGO/Network applicants for the funding period 2026-2028

  • Grant Call Opens: 20th April 2026
  • Grant Application Webinar: 13th May 2026
  • Deadline for Grant Applications: 31st May 2026
  • Deadline for End of Year Report: Late Spring 2027
  • Appraisal and Notification of Funding Decisions: Mid-Summer 2026
  • Grant Disbursal: Autumn 2026
  • Knowledge Sharing Event: Early Spring (Annually) 

    Support for NGOs / Education Networks

    NGOs/Education Networks have a dedicated Grants and Operations Officer, Lisa Gallagher, who can be contacted by email. The Grants and Operations Officer supports NGOs on how to incorporate the WWGS GCE Guiding Principles and the WWGS Global Passport Framework into their work. The Grant and Operations Officer can also advise on budget expenditure, the use of the WWGS Reflection Tool (SAT), resource production and reporting requirements.

    Current NGO & Education Network Grantees (2024-2026)

    AfrI (Action from Ireland)

    Afri uses workshops with post-primary teachers and students to tackle ‘the four legged stool’: Climate Change, War, Forced Migration and Hunger. Afri supports schools to take informed action for change using the ‘Sowing the Seeds of Peace’ resource in workshops.

    Brigit’s Garden

    Brigit’s Garden has developed a Global Goals Challenge for a one day GCE training workshop for Students and their Teachers. This challenge takes place outdoors and is rooted in the Sustainable Development Goals. The challenge raises awareness of human rights and sustainable development.

    Centre for Global Education

    The Centre for Global Education delivers a Whole School Approach to Global Citizenship Education to teachers and senior leaders in the North of Ireland. They cover key themes such as the causes of poverty, inequality and injustice.

    Children in Crossfire

    Children in Crossfire aim to embed their ‘Educating the Heart’ in schools in the North of Ireland. They are committed to a whole school approach in embedding Global Citizenship Education through their framework ‘Compassion Compass’ and head heart and hands model.

    Development Perspectives

    Development Perspectives run the SDG Challenge Schools to support schools to be Active Global Citizenship hubs that embrace GCE through a solidarity approach. This is done through highlighting root causes of global issues and the interconnection between all human beings and the natural world through workshops and training with students, teachers and Senior Management.

    ECO-UNESCO

    ECO-UNESCO offers in-school and virtual student workshops as well as Student Leadership training to support youth leadership. They focus on themes of Climate Change, Climate Justice, Sustainable Development, access to Education and Ethical Consumption and Production.

    Educate Together Network

    The Educate Together Network integrates GCE into teaching and learning and strengthens sustainable practices within the network by nurturing leadership at all levels through a personal-local-global solidarity approach involving the whole school community.

    Financial Justice Ireland

    FJI embeds critical financial education in curricula and activities. Through training and collaboration, FJI co-creates classroom resources that help students understand, question, and engage with financial justice, guided by teachers’ feedback and needs.

    Global Action Plan (GAP)

    GAP explores migration and conflict through environmental and climate justice with teachers, students and school leaders. GAP uses webinars and workshops to support teachers on topics such as migration, waste and critical media literacy.

    St. Louis Schools Network

    The project aims to support teachers and students in the St. Louis Network through gatherings such as CPDs and workshops, student leadership training, events and workshops, masterclasses using film-making as GCE tool, network days where students can present their films, debates, table quizzes, a GCE week, a film club and support visits by the Network's Co-Ordinator.

    Sustainable Living Initiative (SLI)

    This peer teaching and learning programme trains TY Students on a GCE topic. Students take part in a week-long seminar to learn how to deliver using GCE methodologies to groups in school assemblies. Students gain an increased understanding of migration and how it intersects with climate justice.

    Sonairte Visitor Eco Centre and Gardens

    Participants learn about the global and local dimension of sustainability and justice, and are encouraged to act as caretakers of the planet, each other and all species, realising that social and environmental justice issues go hand in hand. Sonairte connects schools with asylum seekers and the Irish indigenous Traveller community, and builds relationships based on respect, empathy and compassion. The project also supports students in schools who are also from these communities to feel recognised, heard and valued.

    The Hope Foundation

    Through interactive Development Education Workshops, the project aims to equip students with the skills and confidence to be active global citizens. It aims to encourage students to champion GCE within their own schools and to bring these schools from a charity to a solidarity approach to GCE.