Hardship Fund

AIST Hardship fund – Round 1

The AIST invites applications for the Hardship Fund, from midday on the 25th of September 2020.

The first round will disburse €100,000 at up to a maximum of €500 per applicant.

Applications received before midday on the 25th of September 2020 will not be valid and will not be retained.

The AIST Hardship Fund is open to all crew and production staff in the live event, arts, and entertainment industry in the Republic of Ireland. It is not restricted to members of the AIST. The fund is not open to students.

Applications are strictly confidential and will be processed by a small panel, who, themselves, are not eligible to apply to the fund for assistance. At least one of the panel will be a current member of the board of the AIST, other panellists may be from other facets of the industry.

Applicants who meet the criteria will be awarded a sum up to a maximum of €500. Awards will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis; there will be no assessment of need, beyond the requirement to meet the minimum criteria. Awards will be distributed until the allocation of funds are depleted for that round. Applications will not be held over from one round to another. Successful applicants will not be considered again for 12 months.

Applications must be sent via email only to aistfund@gmail.com. An automatic reply will be sent to acknowledge receipt. The time and date of the applicant’s email, will dictate order of processing. The time and date of the email, must be within the advertised window for applications, to be considered. To protect the confidentiality of the process, no other forms of communication will be entertained. An automatic email reply will be sent, if an application is submitted outside of an advertised window, stating that the application is not eligible and won’t be retained.

To comply with governance, transparency and C.J.A. money laundering rules, all funds will be distributed by electronic bank transfer, and only to bank accounts held within the Republic of Ireland. It should be noted, that awards may be subject to income tax, depending on the individual’s tax credits, and should be declared by the applicant.

Applicants will be required to meet the following minimum criteria:

1. Applicant must be resident in the ROI and have a ROI bank account.

2. Applicant must work primarily in a production or crew position in the live event, arts or entertainment industry.

3. Applicant must have lost work, and provide evidence of such.

Information requested for processing, should be included in the email application: (All information submitted is strictly confidential)

• Name

• Email Address

• Phone Number

• Address (Proof of address may be requested during processing)

• Profession* (Some evidence of work history may be required during processing)

• Award amount requested (up to a maximum of €500)

• Details of Lost Work*

• Evidence of Lost Work (copies and screen grabs of text or social media messages, emails or letters are acceptable)

• Total loss of earnings*

• IBAN

* Information collected for reporting purposes, any reporting will be anonymised.