Community Grant Programme

To apply for a community grant your project must be in an area affected by our operations or activities – but your organisation may be based elsewhere.

We welcome applications from registered charities, social enterprises and non-profit organisations.

In addition, all organisations must have:

• a bank account in the name of the organisation with at least two signatures who are unrelated
• a constitution (if not a registered charity)
• a management committee with a minimum of three people who are unrelated
• accounts for the most recent financial year or a financial projection if it’s a new organisation (we will only fund organisations that are financially solvent).
   

Applying more than once

Organisations can only submit one application at an application deadline and can only apply once each fiscal year (running April-March). This is regardless of the outcome of a previous application. 

Organisations can receive a maximum of one grant each financial year. We will consider a further award in subsequent years if:

• we have received an end of grant monitoring form for the previous grant and
• the applicant is applying for funding for a ‘new’ project and
• the organisation still meets the criteria, including the requirement that the community is being affected by our operations.

We will not provide on-going support to a project that has previously received funding or fund core running costs.

Successful groups must first fully complete their project before applying again, even if the application is for a different project. For clarity, a project is only considered completed when all funds have been spent and all required project reporting has been completed. Please contact [email protected] if you have not yet received this project reporting form. 

We support projects in the following areas:

Social benefits

• Initiatives that support hard-to-reach members of the community improving diversity and inclusion.
• Initiatives that support community safety – from electricity safety to protecting at-risk members of society including the elderly and those with special needs.
• Initiatives which achieve improved educational attainment through building confidence and self-esteem of children and young people.
• Education projects especially those that upskill young people with STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths) skills.
• Activities that promote or support health and wellbeing in the local community, for example addressing energy efficiency.
   

Economic benefits

• Initiatives that support employment either through a work placement or retraining schemes which increase the employability of people from lower income communities back into the workplace.
• Initiatives that support capacity building for community, charity or voluntary groups to help them improve their services, whether it be reaching more users or extending the hours that the service is available.
   

Environmental benefits

• Initiatives such as conservation projects that have a direct and positive environmental impact or awareness raising projects that improve environmental behaviour or understanding from recycling to water resource management.
• Improvement of the energy efficiency of community facilities.
• Initiatives which help people to manage their energy usage and access affordable tariffs.
   

Grants will not be available for:  

• Land and building purchase 
• Commercial organisations  
• Projects with a total cost in excess of £40,000 - this grant fund aims to support organisations applying for small to medium size projects, ready to start within one month of receiving funding and to finish within 12 months of the project award date
• Standalone feasibility and project development costs including planning costs
• Projects involving the onward transfer of grant funds as awards to individuals or other organisations (re-granting)
• The advancement of religion – we will fund faith-based organisations to undertake secular activities
• Political parties or causes
• Medical research, medical equipment or medical treatment
• Core running costs
• Projects that only benefit individuals 
• People taking part in day trips and residential trips (including treks or expeditions) 
• Statutory organisations such as local government, schools, the NHS or local councils, including parish councils irrespective of whether they have charitable status – we can consider applications from PTA/Friends of type organisations, but projects must be for the benefit of the wider community as well as the school population
• Retrospective funding, i.e. funding can only be requested for works that will begin / expenditure that will be incurred after our funding decision has been made and a formal grant contract issued  
• Improvements to land or building over which the applicant does not have tenure 
• Works that would be considered a statutory responsibility, such as scheduled transport services, works to public highways and public car parks 
• Applications from organisations outside England and Wales 
• One-off community events such as summer fetes and fairs, or seasonal projects such as Christmas lighting or community bonfires

Most recent grants awarded

September 2024

View our awards archive

National Grid’s Community Grant Programme funds projects in communities affected by our operations.

Please read Who can apply, What we fund and What we do not fund before applying for a grant. We prefer to receive applications online but if you are unable to do this please send an email to [email protected] with your contact number and they will be able to help you.

We will acknowledge your application and you may be contacted by a grants officer to provide additional details.

We accept applications on a quarterly basis (see timeline below). These are then checked against minimum requirements and passed on to be reviewed by a National Grid funding panel, where all applications received will be assessed and scored against evaluation criteria. The highest scoring applications will be awarded funding. You will be notified of the outcome once a decision has been made. If you are successful, we will give you further information and ask you to provide your bank details. Grants are normally paid directly into your organisation’s bank account. If you are unsuccessful we will let you know.

After 12 months, or once your project is complete, we will ask you to report back on progress, confirming how the grant has been used and the impact that has been achieved.

We accept applications on a quarterly basis. See timeline below.

Annual timeline

Q1 Apr – Application window opens; May – Applications reviewed against criteria; June – Panel session/ decisions

Q2 July – Application window opens; Aug - Applications reviewed against criteria; Sept - Panel session/ decisions

Q3 Oct – Application window opens; Nov - Applications reviewed against criteria; Dec - Panel session/ decisions

Q4 Jan – Application window opens; Feb - Applications reviewed against criteria; Mar - Panel session/ decisions

Our application window for the next panel is now open. You can submit an application via the button below.

• Is your project in an area affected by our operations or activities?
• Are you a registered charity / recognised community organisation or social enterprise?
• Can you show that this grant will have a positive impact on your community and meet our social, economic and/or environmental funding priorities? Please see what we fund to check this.
• Have you checked that your organisation and your project are not excluded from applying? Please read who can apply for more information.
• Are you applying for a specific project and not core running costs?
• If you have previously received a grant from us, was this more than 12 months ago and have you provided a final monitoring form?

NGET apply here