Corporate Giving Guidelines
Our shared future depends on the economic strength and social well-being of our communities. That's why we provide grants to a wide range of charitable, not-for-profit, and tax-exempt organizations throughout our service area.
To apply, please first take our short eligibility quiz to ensure your program meets our requirement. After successfully completing the eligibility quiz, you will be directed to the grant giving application form.
Funding Guidelines
We look to support programs that focus on:
- Education and Skills: The shortage of skills which are essential to the daily delivery of our business operations is a key issue for National Grid. Our community work focuses on engineering, research and development skills central to our business activities.
- Energy and Environment: Particularly projects that focus on reducing the causes and impact of climate change, the promotion of the local environment around our operational sites, the delivery of energy efficiency and alleviating fuel poverty.
- Community Investment: Programs that directly support our employees and their initiatives in the community and also encompass safety and inclusion & diversity initiatives.
As a general rule, funding is not provided for:
- Organizations not eligible for tax-deductible support under Section 501(c) (3) of the IRS Code
- Organizations that refuse to offer support and/or services to individuals or groups because of race, color, religion, creed, national origin, ancestry, alienage or citizenship status, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, physical and mental disability, marital status, veteran status, predisposing genetic characteristics, or any other factor protected from discrimination under municipal, state or federal law
- Fraternal and veterans organizations or private clubs
- Agencies already receiving our support through United Way
- Organizations outside of National Grid's service territory, except to fund a specific project that is delivered directly to our customer communities
- Political or lobbying organizations
- Religious organizations
- Organizations that spend more than 25% of their budget on overhead and fundraising
- Travel and conferences
- Capital campaigns
Current Initiatives
Below are some of the programs and partnerships we support throughout our territories.
The shortage of skills which are essential to the daily delivery of our business operations is a key issue for National Grid. Our community work focuses on engineering, research and development skills central to our business activities.
For over a decade, National Grid has been honored to partner with City Year to create a positive influence on the students and communities that we serve. By investing in teams of City Year corps members in Boston, New York and Providence, National Grid enabled 36 corps members to serve over 65,000 hours to support students in high need schools during the 2015-2016 school year.
Recognized as a national best practice by the Department of Labor, the Energy Utility Technology (EUT) Training Program is a workforce training program that involves a partnership between National Grid and several community colleges in Massachusetts. Students take classes in computer applications, technical math, industrial safety and more as part of a two-semester, college-credit program designed by National Grid to help them earn an EUT Certificate. The program includes a 10-week internship at National Grid’s training facility in Millbury, Massachusetts. National Grid has already offered employment to several recent graduates and will continue to interview graduates for jobs. This is an outstanding example of National Grid partnering with the community to enhance the education of our young people.
Our Northeast Regional STEM partnership with Girls Incorporated is an innovative collaboration that brings STEM programming to girls through Operation SMART (Science, Math And Relevant Technology). Our investment provides more than 1000 girls from six affiliates with high quality STEM training and support during the summer months. They work to advance the work of STEM for all girls while creating opportunities and programming directed towards the most vulnerable girls in our communities.
National Grid and the College of Staten Island/CUNY teamed up to launch an Engineering Workshop Series program designed to inform and encourage underserved, at-risk high school students about engineering career paths. Through this program, high school students work on exciting engineering projects involving robots and engineering microcontrollers.
We are particularly interested in projects that focus on reducing the causes and impact of climate change, the promotion of the local environment around our operational sites, the delivery of energy efficiency and alleviating fuel poverty.
National Grid and the Green Education Foundation are working together to empower children to become environmental stewards. Grid’s sponsorship of their "Green Energy Challenge" teaches students Pre-K-12 the science of energy, nonrenewable and renewable energy sources and conservation strategies.
For several years,, National Grid has partnered with the Baltimore Woods Nature Center (Syracuse, NY) in support of their Nature in the City program. This program introduces local public school students in grades K–6 to science through classroom and green space lessons. Lessons explore the ways people interact with the urban environment, including energy use, the scale of cities against the forces of nature, geography of waterways and cities, urban wildlife, water quality, insects and more. Interactive, inquiry-based lessons are hands-on and adhere to Syracuse curricula and NYS science learning standards.
The partnership with the New England Aquarium initiated several signature environmental education programs which include the Free-to-Learn program (providing free aquarium admission to 3,500 children and their teachers from low income communities); the Teen Ocean Summit (a one-day symposium for students and their teachers from Massachusetts high schools to discuss and debate climate change); and the Teacher Resource Center.
National Grid’s continued partnership with Habitat for Humanity of Cape Cod helps to bring affordable housing to low income families across Cape Cod. Homes are built to achieve the standard of a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) gold certification.
National Grid is sensitive to the needs of households who are struggling to pay their energy bills and do not qualify for federal or state energy funds. National Grid sponsored The Good Neighbor Energy Fund administered by the Salvation Army in Massachusetts and the United Way in Rhode Island. In New York, National Grid worked with HeartShare Human Services to help those in need through the Care and Share Energy Fund. We are proud that our partnership with these fine organizations provided assistance to hundreds of thousands of households in need. We also encourage employees and customers to contribute to the energy assistance funds in their state.
Programs that directly support our employees and their initiatives in the community and also encompass safety and inclusion & diversity initiatives.
We are very proud to be a major supporter of the United Way across our U.S. footprint. Our significant investment with this critical organization continues to make a positive impact across the cities and towns where we live and work. Last year, National Grid along with its 17,000 United States employees contributed over $3 million to the United Way campaign.
Junior Achievement is the world’s largest organization dedicated to educating students about work readiness, entrepreneurship and financial literacy through experiential, hands-on programs. Highlights of our involvement over the past year include volunteer recruitment sessions, a bowl-a-thon that raised more than $70,000, as well as two co-hosted leadership conferences for college bound high school students.