Trustees in Wales sought to power up £800million community fund

We’ve launched the search for trustees to help shape and govern our Community Benefit Fund – worth up to £800 million – set to support projects and places near our onshore wind energy parks across Wales.

Grants from local communities across Wales will be awarded to help elevate and transform projects and places at the heart of Welsh communities.

Our whole family of energy parks represent a huge £3billion investment.  If all our proposed energy parks go ahead – it will mean that up to £20million would be available through the charity organisation every single year, for the lifespan of our turbines.

A Community-Led Fund with National Impact

The fund will be managed by an independent charity with a national board of trustees and local community panels recruited from areas surrounding each energy park. It will support local groups, charities, and organisations through grants designed to elevate existing initiatives and spark new ideas that meet the needs of local people.

Each energy park will have its own allocated funding pot, calculated at £7,500 per megawatt of installed capacity. These funds will be index-linked to the Consumer Price Index to retain their value across the full lifespan of each park.

Recruiting Drive for Passionate, Dedicated Trustees

We’re seeking passionate individuals with lived experience, strategic expertise, and a commitment to community-led change to form the founding trustee board. The board will provide governance and leadership for the fund’s Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO), regulated by the Charity Commission of England and Wales – ensuring grants are impactful, inclusive, and transparent.

Alongside a representative from Bute Energy, trustees will play a critical leadership role in ensuring the fund delivers systemic, place-based change through innovative, data-led, and community-driven social investment.

Local community panels

Whilst we’re currently recruiting for the Board of Trustees, we’ll later recruit local panels for each energy park so that we have as much knowledge and support locally as possible to bring it all to life.

These people will be passionate community leaders who will know their community and how best to support to ensure local priorities and projects are put forward and supported.

Insight led grant funding

Guided by our themes of focus, our team has adopted a data-driven approach to mapping the challenges and aspirations of local communities. Using a combination of qualitative (research, conversations, case studies) and quantitative (census, statistics, polling) data analysis – we use a digital platform to visualise and understand the interdependencies between the pieces of insight. This approach will help us identify where we might invest as early as possible, and guide both local panels and the board of trustees.