Deadline: 01-Mar-2024
The Climate Action Fund is now open for applications focusing on community-driven energy projects.
This funding aims to inspire and support communities across the UK to address the energy and climate crisis. They’re looking for projects that show how communities can address climate change while tackling the energy challenges through community-led climate action.
Funding Information
- Projects can apply for up to £1.5 million over 2 to 5 years, with most projects awarded £1 million. Minimum grant £500,000. They aim to fund around 8-12 projects.
What they’re hoping to fund?
- The focus on energy and climate
- They’re interested in projects that can do at least one of the following:
- encourage people and communities to use energy in an environmentally friendly way
- bring communities together so that they can explore ways to promote energy efficiency
- enable communities to understand and engage with opportunities for clean energy generation, which do not use fossil fuels.
- They’re interested in projects that can do at least one of the following:
- Supporting vulnerable groups
- Climate change and the energy crisis has more of an effect on groups that may find it harder to engage with climate action. You should consider how everyone across the community can get involved with climate action and address any reasons why some people might be left out.
- They’ll prioritise projects that aim to support and engage with vulnerable groups facing multiple issues. This includes low-income households and people with health conditions.
- They’re interested in funding a wide variety of projects. Including projects that engage with communities to:
- Educate, inspire, and start community-led energy action that leads to a reduction in carbon emissions over the long-term. This includes demonstration projects that people can visit in their community.
- Build skills, tools, and resources to enable local action, such as, training community energy champion, exploring cost-effective easy to use solutions such as draught excluders or using LED bulbs.
- Share skills with people in the community so they can get involved in projects where they can generate their own energy though renewables. They will not fund the purchase of solar panels, wind turbines or other generators of renewable energy. However, they can fund groups to engage with communities and help them build their understanding about community energy projects.
- Use data to encourage action and positive behaviour change.
- Projects that work in collaboration with others
- They’re particularly interested in projects willing to connect with other local, regional and national initiatives to get inspiration, share learning and increase their effect.
- They want to fund projects that inform and promote different things such as:
- retrofitting
- energy generation
- advice
- They expect to fund projects in a mix of different locations across the UK. They encourage applications from partnerships that cover a broad geographical area and promote cross-country collaboration.
- Funded projects are expected to show they are keen to connect with others to share learning and amplify the effect and legacy of their work.
Eligibility Criteria
- They’ll accept applications from either:
- place-based partnerships
- UK-wide partnerships
- single voluntary or community organisations
- This organisation must be either a:
- constituted group or club
- voluntary or community organisation
- registered charity
- charitable incorporated organisation (SCIO/CIO)
- community interest company (CIC)
- not-for-profit company limited by guarantee – you must be a registered charity or have a not-for-profit ‘asset lock’ clause in your articles of association
- school, college, university (providing your project benefits and involves the wider local communities)
- statutory body (including, town, parish and community council)
- community benefit society.
- If you’re a school or an organisation working in a school
- Your project needs to strengthen the community outside of the school too. It should benefit and involve more than just teachers, pupils or parents of pupils.
Ineligible
- They cannot accept applications from:
- individuals
- sole traders
- organisations that can pay profits to directors, shareholders or members (including Companies Limited by Shares) – they cannot fund these organisations directly but they can support your project
- organisations based outside the UK
- one individual or organisation applying on behalf of another
- organisations that do not have at least two people on their board or committee who are not married, in a long-term relationship, living together at the same address, or related by blood.
For more information, visit The National Lottery Community Fund.