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About Cadent Foundation

The Cadent Foundation has been established to make a positive and lasting difference to local communities and the wider society within Cadent’s network.
 
That’s why, over the next 5 years we will be awarding £20+ million of grants to charities and community groups to support projects that make a real difference.
 
Applications are open from March 23rd to May 31st.
 

Our mission

We aim to make a positive impact by providing support to people living in vulnerable situations and energy poor communities, to work to protect and preserve our natural environment and create a sustainable energy future.

To enable us to do this,  the Cadent Foundation is administered by Charities Trust (Charity Registration No: 327489) who we work with to manage the grant giving and ensure that all funds donated by the foundation are only used to further charitable purposes for the public benefit.  This process applies to all grant and partnership applications*. 
 
*Please read our terms and conditions and privacy policy for further information.

How to apply

What we fund

Projects through partnerships:

  • Research and Innovation (R&I) -  Projects that help eliminate harmful emissions and support sustainable energy
R&I grants will only be made through partnerships, contact us at: enquiries@cadentfoundation.com with details of your project.
 
Projects through online grant applications:
  • People – Projects that help alleviate suffering and hardship of people in vulnerable situations
  • Environment – Projects that will help protect and preserve the environment
  • Communities –  Projects that provide a better and healthier community to live in and use

Grants can be applied for up to £100,000 by UK charities or groups* with charitable purposes.
*T&Cs apply

For more information on what we do not fund, click here.
 

Where we fund

Cadent owns and manages four Gas Distributions Networks in the following areas:

Our North West network covers around 2.7m customers in the third most populated region of England. It consists of the five counties of Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside, and has a mix of rural and urban landscape.

East of England is our largest network serving 4m customers across East Midlands and East Anglia, having significant levels of customers in rural locations from Humberside down through Lincolnshire, Norfolk and Suffolk.

Our West Midlands network is centred on the UK’s second largest metropolitan area of Birmingham and includes a number of smaller urban areas that effectively constitute local sub-networks within the network. It serves around 1.96m customers.

Our North London network, serving around 2.3m customers, extends from Central London, covering north of the River Thames, to High Wycombe in the west and Southend-on-Sea in the east.

Partnerships

We want to partner with organisations, profit and not-for profit, that are working to advance sustainable energy and create innovative ways to tackle the climate crisis.
 
To qualify you will need to demonstrate you are working towards an outcome that is for the public benefit.
 
If you wish to partner with us on a project, contact us at enquiries@Cadentfoundation.com outlining your project idea and purpose, details of your organisation and the breakdown of costs.

Grants

We will work with UK charities or groups with charitable purposes to fund projects, up to £100,000 that have a positive impact to people, the
environment and communities.
 
Grants up to £5,000 must have a Cadent employee sponsor.
 
Please read our Guidelines and Exclusions document to understand if your organisation and project is eligible.

 

Grant process

Assessment timeline

  1. Upon submission you will receive an acknowledgment email from Charities Trust, our charity administrator.
  2. Your application is assessed by the applications team, or if it’s over £25,000 by the Foundation Advisory Board. You may be asked to provide more information.
  3. We aim to make a decision within 12 weeks of the application and will notify you of the outcome.
  • Submission
  • Acknowledgment
  • Assessment
  • Decision

How to apply

We would encourage you to read over our guidelines and exclusions along with the FAQs, before applying for funding.
 
If you can answer yes to the following you may be eligible to apply

  1. Are you a UK registered charity? Or a community group with charitable purposes if applying for less than £5,000?
  2. Is your project based within Cadent geographical area?
  3. Does the project help people, the environment or communities?
  4. Have you been in operation for at least 2 years?
  5. Have you thought about the project plan and the spending breakdown?
  6. Can you provide a copy of your recent audited/signed accounts?
Apply now

How grant applications are assessed

Once you submit your application it will be assessed by our applications team. The team will look to understand from your application if it meets our project requirements. The project detail must demonstrate the positive impact it will have in communities,  to people or the environment.
 
If your application is for over £25,000 it will be assessed by the Cadent Foundation Advisory Board.
 
We aim to let you know the outcome of your application within 12 weeks.
 

Our impact

£240,000 committed to help food banks respond to coronavirus

Cadent Foundation, a new charitable foundation funded by the UK’s biggest gas network, has committed £240,000 to help food banks in the Trussell Trust’s network as they seek to support people affected by coronavirus.

The fund’s advisory board agreed to fast-track a grant to the Trussell Trust, which supports more than 1,200 food bank centres. The first transfer of funds was made today (20 March).

Julia Dwyer, Director, Cadent Foundation, said:

Food banks are facing a huge challenge right now, with supplies low and many of their army of volunteers falling into categories that really must self-isolate – just at the time when the need for food bank services is greatest.

Part of the core mission of our new foundation is to help people living in vulnerable circumstances. We had to do something in response to the coronavirus. Our advisory board met on Wednesday and unanimously agreed this financial support.

Sophie Carre, Head of Corporate Partnerships, Trussell Trust, said:

As the coronavirus pandemic develops, more people than ever may need help from food banks across our network. This presents a huge additional pressure on already overstretched resources. We may start to see a reduction in food donations and volunteers may become unavailable if they are in the at-risk categories or are self-isolating.

It’s hard for us to say exactly what the picture will look like in the coming weeks across the UK as each food bank in our network is a local charity, run by a community for their local community, and each will be affected differently.

We’re working closely with our network to understand each food bank’s situation, offer guidance, and work out how we can best support them. We know we won’t be able to do this alone, so we are truly grateful for this support from Cadent Foundation. Please look at our website to find out more about food banks and coronavirus.

Foundation Advisory Board

  • Adrian-Montague.jpgSir Adrian Montague CBE – Adrian is currently the Chair and Sufficiently Independent Director of the Foundation. He brings his knowledge and expertise from the legal and finance sector and represents other boards, such as Cadent Gas Ltd and Manchester Airports Group.
 
  • Catherine-Bell-(1).jpgCatherine Bell – Catherine is  a Sufficiently Independent Director and brings a wealth of experience from both executive roles and non-executive roles within the public, private and regulated sectors including the Department of Business and United Utilities, as well as a Governor of the London School of Economics.
 
  • Howard-Higgins-(2).jpgHoward Higgins – Howard is a Non-Executive Director and is the Global Lead for Energy and Utilities at Macquarie Group, leading on most global energy and utility transactions and transitions undertaken by MIRA since he joined in 2003. Prior to that, he has had a number of roles including CEO of BG Storage and Operations Director of Transco, the UK gas transmission and distribution company.
 
  • Euan-imrie-(1).jpgEuan Imrie –  Euan is the COO at Charities Trust having now spent 15 years in the not-for-profit/charity sector and bringing his experience to the Foundation Board. He has been involved in education for 20 years initially as a school governor and now as Chair of The Learning Trust. Previously, he has been a chartered accountant and a management consultant and was group Finance Director at Littlewoods in the retail sector.

Interested? 

We would love to hear from you and help building strong communities.

 

Application form

Useful information

Contact

Cadent Foundation Director
Julia Dwyer
Prologis park, Central Boulevard,
Coventry
CV7 8PE

enquiries@cadentfoundation.com

Charities Trust
Suite 22 Century Building,
Tower Street
Brunswick Business Park, Liverpool,
L3 4BJ 
Charity Registration No: 327489

 

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