Our Grantmaking Principles

We prioritise those least served by our current energy system. We want to create a better society, not just better energy. We redistribute profits as an act of justice and service, sharing prosperity for a fairer Kent, prioritising places and people facing the biggest energy poverty and other challenges. 

We collaborate for higher impact on shared purpose. Reach out to us if you want to work together to hit scale on our shared goals.

We are humble, we trust local organisations to be experts. We will consider supporting core costs and multi-year grants. We will listen to and respect grantees as partners.

We aim to serve, and be transparent. We don’t want to waste local community groups' time. We will try to communicate clearly, have an easy and accessible grant process and reporting, and commitment to quick grant decisions.

We try to be careful stewards, aiming for meaningful impact. We prioritise creating  infrastructure that can last for generations (like better insulated community buildings, improved walking and cycling routes, greener public spaces, and youth training). We will seek to learn from others about what works, meaningfully measure our work, and share our learning.

Organisations we’ve supported 

In 2024/5: 

• Allington Millenium Green Trust in Maidstone is a public nature reserve used for exercise and recreation, including by nearby communities experiencing high child poverty. They received £500 to resurface paths with wood chippings.

• CT5 Peoples’ Forum Trust in Whitstable is a locally-run space for residents to speak with Councillors about the issues which mattered to them and support initiatives to improve the town. They received £750 to hold community meetings gathering stories of local carbon reduction initiatives, to foster local council support for replicating these.

• Downs Sailing Club in Deal share their clubhouse with local community groups. They received £4,000 to reduce their carbon footprint by over 3.1 tons every year by going solar. 

• Tunbridge Wells Climate and Nature CIC received £500 towards their September climate and nature fair.

• Emmaus Dover received £3,200 towards improving the loft insulation in all their accommodation buildings - more comfortable, less carbon intensive, less expensive to heat.
  
  
• Enchanted Garden CIC in Whitstable received £3,100 towards stream and species restoration along with workshops in ecological skills.

We flexed our grantmaking goals from 2020-2023 to provide survival funds for small charities during the COVID-19 pandemic, supporting:

• Abbey Physic Community Garden in Faversham provides companionship, therapeutic activities, training and skill building for people with mental health issues and those who are socially isolated. They received over £3,000 towards laptops so the team could keep connected and also run virtual sessions

• Emmaus Dover supports people who have experienced homelessness by providing them with a home and meaningful work in a community setting. They received £5,000 to bring a community support worker off furlough for six months 

• Children and Families charity based in Sheerness received £5,000 to take on staff to deliver food boxes to families in need.

• Dandelion Time based in Maidstone, offers help to children with very challenging emotional issues, often resulting from trauma, violence or serious health difficulties in the family. They received £5,000 towards maintaining one-to-one support sessions for vulnerable families through lockdown.

• Hythe Civic Society received £2,000 towards planting fruit tree and hedgerow seedlings, and interpretation boards for their Community Orchard at Eaton Lands.

• Samphire, Dover work with vulnerable migrants. They received £3,000 to set up remote working for office staff throughout the pandemic, also reducing their carbon footprint.

• Sittingbourne based domestic abuse charity SATEDA received £5,000 which enabled remote delivery of their support services to survivors of domestic abuse.

• The Canterbury Umbrella community café received a grant of £1,600 for the purchase of an energy efficient commercial freezer to replace an aging ice cream chest freezer, greatly enhancing their ability to keep food for longer and cutting their energy consumption.

• Folkestone Youth Project received £6,000 towards The Shed urban wilderness in Folkestone so they could keep on working with at-risk young people in one of the most deprived wards of Kent.