How to fund community energy projects with community share offers

July 2022

Want free energy?

Community owned renewable energy like wind turbines and solar panels can be part of how we fix this energy crisis.

The need for change has never been higher due to sky high energy bills and the climate catastrophe.

We are offering local communities like yours free resources, access to funding and support for local, community led energy projects.

Community Share Offers are an effective and democratic way for communities to secure the assets they need. They are designed so that members of a community can put their money to work in order to purchase or finance any income-generating asset that is needed by the community. To find out more, click here.

We are helping local organisations to work together with Fundsurfer to source and fund projects that will benefit their local community.

We also have access to additional match funding and grants, for example the Government’s new Community Ownership Fund can provide a grant of up to £250,000 towards the capital needed for your particular project. This is then matched through running a community share offer, which must be completed successfully within 6 months of being awarded the grant.

Fundsurfer is a Reach Fund Access Point, helping you to apply for a non- repayable grant of up to £15,000 for CICs and charities. The Reach Fund grant assists exclusively in terms of supporting organizations to become investment ready; this can include support towards launching and promoting a community share offer or crowdfunding campaign.

We have a dedicated licensed community share practitioner (CSP) who can help you create and draft all documents required to launch your community share offer. A CSP can also help you secure The Community Shares Standard Mark, which is awarded to community share offers that meet national standards of good practice and helps with closing investment.

Local communities have an unique opportunity to work together to build, own and benefit from funding directly into their local area, supported by a network of partners, donors and investors.

Fundsurfer has helped our clients raise over £20,300,000 since 2014. We have a broad network of private, public and institutional investors. We can introduce your project to those looking to invest into resident led projects which can benefit local communities.

We have existing partnerships with key stakeholders that can help you, via modular housing, renewable energy, community ownership or anything in between, we can bring more that just funding options to the table for you.

If you want to get started or discuss a potential community share offer or crowdfunding project, contact our team to arrange a free consultation to discuss how we can help you secure funding.

Fees for community shares