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 receive one grant each year.

We will consider a further award in subsequent years, provided we have received your end of grant monitoring form and you still meet the criteria.

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 gas or 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

We do not fund

• The advancement of religion.  We will fund faith based organisations to undertake secular activities
• Political parties or causes
• Medical research
• Core running costs
• Individuals
• People taking part in 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
• Retrospective funding - money which has already been spent
• Improvements to land or building over which the applicant does not have tenure
• Works which would be a statutory responsibility

Most recent grants awarded

December 2020

• Wycliffe Congregational Church - £1,020
• Friends of Reddish Vale Country Park - £2,793
• Winterbourne Steepleton Fuel Allotment - £4,134
• Mark 1st School PTA - £9,861
• Winscombe Lawn Tennis Association - £20,000
• Life Cycle UK - £20,000

View our awards archive

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

Please read Who can apply and What we fund before applying for a grant. We prefer to receive applications on-line but if you are unable to do this please call our Community Helpline on 01285 841912 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 all year round and these are reviewed on a monthly basis. Applications will be reviewed at the beginning of each month for the previous month and 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.

• 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?

Apply