The funds support communities close to wind farms in various rural areas, including Clay Coton, Crick, Lilbourne, Yelvertoft, Winwick, Cold Ashby, West Haddon, Guilsborough, Burton Latimer, Cranford, Rushton and Pipewell.
Recently awarded grants from the Winwick Wind Farm Community Benefit Fund have enabled the provision of a new Automatic External Defibrillator for Winwick village and replacement floodlights to benefit West Haddon Junior Football Club. From the Burton Wold Wind Farm Community Benefit Fund, recent grant awards have supported the creation of a community garden at Burton Latimer Library and the running of 12 free Women's self-defence and keep fit workshops.
Northamptonshire Community Foundation has been managing wind farm funds for 12 years. The charity’s Chief Executive, Rachel McGrath, said: “Small, rural towns and villages are so often overlooked when it comes to funding, and we are committed to changing that.
“From our longstanding wind farm funds to our more recently established Rural Community Needs Fund, the funding distributed by Northamptonshire Community Foundation reaches all four corners of the county and supports our most vulnerable communities. In fact, 3 in 20 Northamptonshire residents were impacted by our grant making during the 2023/24 financial year.”
The foundation is also focused on tackling climate change in Northamptonshire and has recently re-opened the Creative Climate Action Fund and launched the Small Green Arts Fund.
Both funds aim to raise awareness of the climate crisis. In 2025, the Creative Climate Action Fund will support up to three local groups with grant awards of up to £50,000 for creative projects that build awareness around climate change and encourage people to make behavioural changes to protect the environment.
From the Small Green Arts Fund, grants of up to £3,000 will be awarded to arts, culture and craft projects across the county, which are responding to and raising awareness of the climate crisis.
Northamptonshire Community Foundation is the county’s largest independent grant maker. During the 2023/24 financial year, the foundation awarded more than £2.9 million in grants to grassroots charities and community organisations across the county. Read more here: https://www.ncf.uk.com/impact