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Energy Efficiency Sharematch

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Promotional banner for an energy efficiency funding opportunity, reading "match funding towards your community business share issue," powered by crowdfunder and Co-operatives UK through community shares

Access match funding support to invest in greener ways of operating your community business. Delivered by Co‑operatives UK and Crowdfunder, funded by Access – The Foundation for Social Investment.

Deadline Now extended until March 2026. 

With the climate crisis and high fuel costs, community businesses are seeking ways to decarbonise their operations and reduce spending. The new Energy Efficiency Sharematch fund has been launched to support with this. 

The £250,000 pilot fund supports co-operative and community benefit societies in England to raise capital via community shares to pay for measures that reduce their energy bills and carbon footprint.  

Energy efficiency measures 

Examples of eligible measures include: 

  • Installing solar panels or heat pumps
  • Insulation
  • LED lighting
  • Double glazing
  • Draft proofing
  • Purchasing energy efficient equipment and transport

Community shares could be a more affordable way to pay for these measures than loan finance. They also offer an opportunity to engage the local community in the climate crisis.

Eligibility criteria

1. Community businesses applying for the scheme must be a: 

  • Co-operative society
  • Community benefit society
  • Charitable community benefit society 

2. Applicants would need to use the Crowdfunder platform to run their share offer before March 2026.

Organisations raising investment in community shares for a wider project could be eligible for any energy efficiency measures being installed.  

Next steps

We’re please to share additional guidance (download below or access here) for organisations considering using community shares to pay for installing energy efficiency measures. 

Using community shares for these sorts of investments is a less trodden route, and through the Energy Efficiency Sharematch Fund, we want to test out how this could work. 

The Energy Efficiency Sharematch Fund guidelines offer insight into considerations to make for raising community shares to pay for these sorts of measures, including ways of evaluating the financial impact.

The guidelines also set out the Community Shares Unit’s intention to test out a new simplified process of obtaining the Community Shares Standard Mark for these sorts of share offers. 

We know some energy efficiency measures may only have moderate investment costs relative to the cost of buying and refurbishing a whole community owned building. They may also have less of an impact on the direction of the organisations business model, as they generally aren’t about launching new services. 

Therefore, the guidelines outline steps for a ‘Follow on’ share offer – if an organisation wants to achieve the community shares standard mark but meets certain criteria there is a proportionate and more streamlined assessment process.

Those criteria include:

  • A minimum of three year’s trading accounts, or one year’s accounts plus a previously Standard Mark approved business plan
  • A governing document pre-approved for issuing community shares
  • A maximum fundraising target of £100,000, or an additional 20% in total net assets, whichever is smaller
  • An offer document, summarising the (energy efficiency) investment project including, details of the society, a financial impact assessment, a financial summary of the society’s track record, the terms and conditions affecting member shareholders, and the terms and conditions of the offer, compliant with the Community Shares Handbook and Standard Mark criteria.

If you want to work with us to test out using this streamlined route (which may be for an energy efficiency share offer or other share offer), please get in touch with [email protected]

Guidance for the Energy Efficiency Sharematch Fund

Content by Community Shares

We’re please to share additional guidance for organisations considering using community shares to pay for installing energy efficiency measures through the Energy Efficiency Sharematch Fund.

Energy Efficiency Sharematch graphic
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PDF, 645.29 KB

The fund will provide grant funding to match money raised from community investors. It is administered by Crowdfunder, working with Co-operatives UK. The scheme is funded by Access – The Foundation for Social Investment using funds from the Dormant Assets Scheme, which redirects money from forgotten accounts to good causes. 

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Energy bills are having a massive impact on profitability, so this funds aims to support organisations to undertake measures to become more energy efficient, cutting fuel bills and helping long term sustainability.
– Jason Nuttall, Programme Director, Crowdfunder
Want to apply to the Energy Efficiency Sharematch fund?
Register your interest online
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