Drone Hill Wind Farm Community Fund

About this fund

The Drone Hill Wind Farm Community Fund supports community projects benefiting those living in the areas covered by Reston & Auchencrow, Grantshouse, Coldingham, and Cockburnspath & Cove Community Councils. The fund is provided by Greencoat UK Wind, the owners of the Drone Hill Wind Farm in East Berwickshire.  

The fund opened in 2012.  An annual amount of £40,000, inflation-adjusted, will be paid into the fund each year for the operating life of the wind farm.

Grant size: £250 - £10,000

Purpose of this fund

The fund provides grants to support charitable activities that:

• Enhance the quality of life for local residents.
• Contribute to vibrant, healthy, successful and sustainable communities.
• Promote community spirit and encourage community activity.

Grants may support a wide range of costs, for example, the costs of equipment, staff or sessional workers, consultations, running costs for local groups, maintenance or refurbishment of community facilities, and so on.
 

Additional criteria

The panel will welcome applications that propose to work across one or more of the four areas.  

If you are applying for a grant towards the costs of a new community building or improvements to an existing one (including but not limited to specific energy-saving measures) we expect you to have taken advice from Zero Waste Scotland’s Energy Efficiency Business Support Service. The process takes about 2-4 weeks as long as you can provide them with the information they ask for. Their support is completely impartial and free to community groups and charities in Scotland. This will help you identify the most cost-effective energy-saving measures for your building. In addition, Zero Waste Scotland can provide access to zero-interest loans with cashback grants for some energy-saving measures/ technologies. We expect you to explore whether your group and project are eligible for this funding before applying to Foundation Scotland. Please visit our Energy Efficient Communities help for applicants page for more information. 

Who can apply?

Groups and organisations working to benefit people in any of the four communities can apply. You don’t need to be a registered charity to apply, but your group/organisation must meet our standard eligibility criteria. 

Applications from groups/organisations located out with the fund area will be considered on a case-by-case basis and must demonstrate a clear benefit for residents within the fund area.

What can’t be funded?

Information on what the fund cannot support is provided here. 

Additionally, the fund cannot support:

• Anti-wind farm or anti-renewable energy activities, including activities contrary to the interests of Greencoat UK Wind, or any of their holding companies, subsidiaries or sister companies (as defined under the Companies Act 2006);
• Activities that bring Greencoat UK Wind, or any of their holding companies, subsidiaries or sister companies (as defined under the Companies Act 2006) or Foundation Scotland into disrepute.

How are decisions made?

A Community Panel, made up of people who live, work or volunteer in the four communities, makes recommendations on grant awards from the fund. The Panel advises on the overall fund strategy and is governed by Terms of Reference.
The Panel of up to 16 members includes a mixture of community councillors and other members of the community:

• Up to two Community Council representatives can be appointed directly by each of the four Community Councils.  
• Up to two ‘wider community’ representatives were selected through an open and transparent process from each of the four areas.  

Up to three representatives from each of the four communities are entitled to vote at Panel meetings.

Each Panel member typically serves a minimum of one and a maximum of four years, with members retiring on a phased basis to ensure knowledge and expertise are retained. Opportunities to become a Panel member are openly advertised, both locally and on this website.

Minutes of the latest Panel meetings are available on request from the Community Funds Coordinator. Contact details can be found below.

More information on the decision process can be found here.