Community Power Grant Application

Transform Your Community Through Energy Democracy

Access to affordable, clean energy is a fundamental right. If your organization is working to empower communities through renewable energy transitions, reduce energy costs for low-income households, or hold utilities accountable to the people they serve, this Community Power Grant Application template is designed for you.

Built for Energy Justice Organizations

This grant application template is purpose-built for nonprofits, community organizations, advocacy groups, and grassroots coalitions working at the intersection of energy access, environmental justice, and economic equity. Whether you're organizing tenants to demand better utility rates, installing community solar in underserved neighborhoods, or building coalitions for local renewable energy projects, this form streamlines your grant application process while capturing the nuanced details funders need to evaluate community power initiatives.

Comprehensive Grant Assessment in One Form

The application walks applicants through a structured submission process covering:

• Organization background and capacity to execute energy justice work
• Project overview including renewable transition goals and community impact
• Energy burden reduction strategies targeting low-income households
• Community organizing and engagement plans that center affected residents
• Utility accountability measures and advocacy components
• Budget breakdown with transparent cost allocation
• Partnership networks demonstrating coalition strength
• Measurable outcomes tied to energy cost savings and carbon reduction

Why Paperform for Grant Applications?

Traditional grant platforms are rigid, difficult to customize, and often create barriers for smaller community organizations. With Paperform's doc-style editor, you can build an application that reflects the values of energy democracy—accessible, transparent, and community-centered.

Conditional logic lets you tailor follow-up questions based on project type. If an applicant indicates they're working on community solar, you can ask specific questions about site selection and subscriber models. If they're focused on tenant organizing around utility bills, you can gather details about coalition partners and policy targets.

File upload fields make it simple to collect supporting documents like community letters of support, organizational budgets, partnership MOUs, and preliminary technical assessments—all in one organized submission.

Calculation fields can help applicants estimate their project's potential impact on energy burden reduction, allowing them to input household data and see projected savings in real time as they fill out the form.

Streamline Review with Stepper Workflows

Once applications are submitted, your grant review process can run on autopilot with Stepper (stepper.io), Paperform's AI-native workflow automation platform. When a new application comes in, Stepper can:

• Send confirmation emails with next steps and timelines
• Route applications to different reviewers based on project type or geography
• Update your grants management system or Airtable base automatically
• Notify your team in Slack when high-priority applications are submitted
• Track review stages and trigger reminder emails for incomplete scoring
• Compile finalist applications into a summary document for board review

This means your small team can run a professional, responsive grant program without drowning in administrative work—freeing you to focus on supporting the community organizers doing the real work.

Perfect for Foundations, Advocacy Groups, and Public Programs

This template is ideal for:

• Environmental justice foundations funding grassroots energy campaigns
• Community development financial institutions supporting renewable infrastructure
• Utility consumer advocates distributing funds for organizing and education
• Municipal green energy programs offering grants to neighborhood associations
• Climate justice coalitions pooling resources for local renewable projects
• Faith-based organizations addressing energy poverty in their communities

Accessible, Transparent, and Equity-Centered

Energy democracy means putting power—literally and figuratively—back in the hands of communities. Your grant application should reflect that. Paperform lets you create forms that are mobile-friendly (because many organizers work from their phones), visually clear (because jargon-heavy forms exclude people), and easy to save and return to (because community organizers are busy).

You can embed this form directly on your website, share it via a clean custom link, or even set up multiple language versions to ensure language is never a barrier to accessing funding.

Secure, Compliant, and Trusted

With SOC 2 Type II compliance and robust data security, Paperform ensures that sensitive applicant information—including financial details, community demographics, and strategic plans—is protected. You can also set up email notifications so your team knows immediately when a new application arrives, and autoresponders that reassure applicants their submission was received and what to expect next.

Trusted by over 500,000 organizations worldwide, Paperform provides the professional infrastructure small and mid-sized grant programs need without the enterprise price tag or complexity.

Get Started in Minutes

Rather than starting from scratch or wrestling with clunky legacy grant software, this template gives you a complete, thoughtful application framework you can customize to your specific priorities. Add your organization's branding, adjust questions to match your funding criteria, set submission deadlines, and launch—all without writing a single line of code.

Energy justice can't wait. Make it easier for community organizers to access the resources they need with a grant application process that's as accessible and equitable as the work you're funding.

Start accepting Community Power Grant applications today with Paperform.