Grassroots organisations can transform energy advice delivery in underserved communities, but they need more than just funding to succeed.

While funding is incredibly valuable, it can sometimes miss a trick, especially if the funding is for a new way of working, which will often require training for staff and volunteers. When 81 grassroots organisations received £2.7m to expand energy advice services, the real transformation came from combining that funding with targeted capacity building. For many years, the Centre for Sustainable Energy (CSE) has known that whilst funding opens doors, adding in training, mentoring, and ongoing support creates lasting change.

Through two recent programmes funded by the Vulnerability and Carbon Monoxide Allowance (The Safe and Warm Communities Scheme for SGN and the Affordable Warmth and Safety Scheme for Northern Gas Networks), we’ve seen how equipping organisations with knowledge and skills – many of which are new to the world of energy advice – multiplies impact and builds sustainable local support networks.

How grassroots organisations support underserved communities

Grassroots organisations are often an underutilised resource when reaching local communities with energy advice. These organisations provide social support, which makes them a great vessel to address fuel poverty and other local issues. Organisations are uniquely set up to help people in vulnerable circumstances, and staff and volunteers understand local priorities and challenges.

By providing support that addresses the needs of their communities, grassroots organisations can unlock ongoing and life-changing positive impact for people. These benefits can include increased confidence in seeking support, empowerment and self-advocacy, better financial circumstances, reduced isolation, and improved physical and mental health.

The two schemes funded grassroots organisations to expand their energy advice offering. Between January 2023 and March 2025, 81 organisations received over £2.7m. As a result, they were able to help almost 45,000 households with energy advice, carbon monoxide safety and crisis support.

Equipping grassroots organisations with valuable skills

Although funding is beneficial, the additional value within these schemes lies in combining the funding with training and support to offer meaningful energy support. CSE is uniquely positioned to implement this through training and facilitating networks, as we can draw on our own experience delivering energy advice and our skills in collaborating with communities.

Our comprehensive support package has included training workshops, peer networking opportunities, tailored resources, regular sector updates, and crucially, bespoke one-to-one mentoring.

Our mentoring allowed organisations to build knowledge and confidence in providing vital energy advice and crisis support. As a result, many organisations have embedded energy advice to their service in the long term and secured further funding to ensure they can continue offering this type of support into the future.

Challenges and barriers to accessing local support

Throughout the schemes, we noticed ongoing challenges that can stop people from accessing advice.

• Trust barriers – people feel repeatedly failed by energy suppliers and public bodies, making them wary of reaching out, and then of sharing personal information – even when it’s needed to access appropriate support.
• Complex needs – organisations face ever-growing demand from people with multiple, interconnected challenges, often constrained by limited time and resources, which comes with a lack of funding.
• Steep learning curves – the energy advice landscape is complex (and constantly changing), with multiple factors influencing appropriate support. This creates a significant knowledge burden for organisations new to energy advice.

However, if organisations can overcome these challenges, then they have a great basis to provide energy advice long into the future. Once staff and volunteers have the knowledge they need, trust will continue to build naturally as more people receive support. CSE’s main aim in this project was to help build that foundation and set these organisations up in the energy advice space.

Making funding work harder and last longer

There is a growing need for energy advice services. For grassroots organisations to become a key player in offering support to those in fuel poverty they need funding. And alongside that, funding schemes need to include in-built guidance and support for organisations so that they can expand their knowledge and confidently provide energy advice for a long time. That’s why the Safe and Warm Communities Scheme for SGN and the Affordable Warmth and Safety Scheme for Northern Gas Networks have been so valuable.

We urge funders to recognise the value of capacity-building approaches, working through experienced intermediaries to build lasting organisational capability. Most importantly, consider longer-term funding commitments because these provide the stability that turns promising starts into sustained community assets.