Community initiatives have a key role to play in fighting climate change and ending the suffering caused by cold homes.

Whether you’re looking to improve the energy efficiency of the buildings in your community, provide energy advice to local people, or start a local renewable energy initiative, various grants and funding schemes are available.

This page explores some of your options. It covers:

• Grants, including those administered by CSE
• Crowdfunding
• Raising shares
• Institutional investments such as bonds and loans

If you’re looking to improve the energy efficiency of your community building, check out our building-specific funding information.

Grants for community energy projects

The grant world is constantly changing. Grant programmes come in many forms including …

• Ongoing national grant programmes – like the many programmes from the National Lottery Community Fund.
• Short term one-off programmes.
• Funds for specific demographics (e.g. young people).
• Funds for specific types of organisation (e.g. faith-based organisations).
• Funds for specific activities (e.g. community energy projects).
• Location specific grants, for example UK Community Foundations, grants from local councils (like Community Infrastructure Levy funds), and through local members of the National Association for Voluntary and Community Action.

National Community Energy Fund

A new £10 million national Community Energy Fund was announced in autumn 2023, building on the old Urban and Rural Community Energy Funds and managed through the regional net zero hubs.

Finding grant funding

There are various funding search websites and databases including:

• CSE’s funding spreadsheet (we update this every 6 months).
• 360 GrantNav: This search website allows you to search, explore and download grants data published by UK funders. You can use this website to search for information on who funds groups that are similar to your own.
• Charity Excellence Framework: Sign up for free and search for trusts and foundations who are funding similar work.
• Grant Finder: funding database for registered customers. They also post highlights that anyone can view.
• Grants Online: free to use funding database.

Grants administered by CSE

CSE has deep roots in the community energy sector, which is why we are asked to administer grant schemes on behalf of many funders. These include:

Rural communities energy support network

Bristol City Leap community energy fund

SGN safe and warm scheme

Energy affordability fund

Thrive Renewables community benefit programme

SSEN enabling works fund

Power partners

Tips on making grant applications

Making a grant application can be a big undertaking. Luckily, there’s a wealth of guidance and resources online to support you with making your application.

At CSE, we have a lot of experience writing successful grant applications. We’ve put together a helpful checklist to support communities with grant applications, which you can download below.

Here’s some additional resources we recommend:

• CAF’s guide to writing a great grant application.
• Groundwork’s tips on applying for a community project grant.
• NVCO’s application guide.

Crowdfunding

For some ideas, particularly where other sources of funding or finance are not viable, crowdfunding is well worth exploring. It’s a great way to enable people to invest in something they believe in. It can also help to raise money which would put you in a position to secure other funding in future.

Crowdfunding is quite literally the process of getting funds from a crowd – via an online platform. Funders can come from anywhere in the world and they can be an individual, organisation or business.

In return for their contribution, you might offer donors:

• Nothing tangible (except of course that feel-good glow)
• Non-financial rewards, for example merchandise or free entry to an event.
• A financial return

Platforms can be broadly categorised into equity-based and loan-based (which are both FCA-regulated), and reward-based and donation-based. Crowd funding usually involves a one-off transaction, so there’s minimal administration involved.

You can use crowdfunding to raise very small or pretty large amounts — from small campaigns like Keep Streets Live which raised just over £3k, to ambitious projects like Solar Schools, which raised more than £700k. If you have a strong network of supporters and you’re prepared to put some time and effort into promoting the opportunity it can be a game changer.

Crowdfunding platforms

There are lots of websites that make crowdfunding simple. Here are a few suggestions:

• Crowdfunder UK
• Fundsurfer
• GoFundMe

Running a crowdfunding campaign

Here are some tips from Nesta for running a crowdfunding campaign.

And here are some successful examples of crowdfunder campaigns for community initiatives:

• Possible’s Solar Schools: asked parents and the local community to donate money towards solar installations on their local school.
• Bristol Energy Network’s Emergency Covid Winter Fund: asked residents to donate money to be distributed through anchor organisations providing fuel and food poverty relief.

• Bristol Energy Coop’s Hydro Feasibility study crowdfund: asked residents to donate money to raise funds to cover scoping and feasibility studies to explore a potential site for a community owned hydro-electricity project.

Raising shares

Raising shares from your community is a tried and tested way to secure long-term investments. It’s suitable for developing larger projects with an income stream, such as sales of electricity, beer, bread etc. This approach to financing is common for projects that require high capital costs (fixed, one-time expenses) such as large infrastructure developments.

You’ll need a strong business plan and to demonstrate that there’ll be surplus income which can be used to pay interest on the investments, and eventually pay back the capital investment too. Depending on the legal model, you may also wish, or be obliged, to pay into a community benefit fund. The interest rate on shares can vary depending on the health of the business, and depending on your constitution, may be capped:

The declared maximum rate of interest is the lowest rate sufficient to obtain the necessary funds from members who are committed to furthering the society’s objects

Community Shares Handbook

There are administrative costs associated with handling shares, so a minimum investment of £100-£250 is recommended, with a caveat that people only invest an amount they can afford to lose. You should not seek investment from financially vulnerable people. Businesses and organisations can also invest in shares.

Cooperative UK has a useful resource on community shares, including their Community Shares Handbook.

Share-raising platforms

Share-raising platforms connect projects to investors to help raise shares and manage them on an ongoing basis. Some examples include:

• Ethex
• Abundance

Another benefit of community shares is that they can help to secure further investment, particularly for larger projects. Raising community shares is valued by institutional investors as it demonstrates community support and provides some financial security.

Institutional investment

Institutional investment can take the form of bonds, loans, or equity from institutions. Before you can access sources of finance like these, you’ll generally have to be able to show that you have an ‘investment ready’ project or initiative. That means you have done all the at-risk development work to set up something which is now expected to be able to generate sufficient income to pay back what you borrow over time.

Some examples of institutional investors are Power to Change and Social and Sustainable Capital.

Bonds

A shorter-term community investment opportunity is a bond – these are fixed-term investments at a set interest rate and have the advantage that they can be part of a (tax-free) ISA savings account. Businesses and organisations can invest in bonds.

Platforms like Ethex and Abundance can also be used to raise bonds.

Loans

Ethical and charitable banks and loan providers are experienced at lending to community businesses and organisations, for projects that have environmental or social impact. Some will also provide low-interest loans.

Some key examples are:

• Charity Bank
• Triodos
• Big Issue Invest