Cathy McCormack Community Activism Fund

Launched in March 2024, Glasgow Community Energy’s community benefit fund – generated from the proceeds of selling our renewable energy – is named in honour of local community activist and anti-poverty campaigner Cathy McCormack (1952–2022).

Cathy was a local legend in Easterhouse, where she was known for her work to improve damp housing conditions in Council-owned schemes and for the connections she made between these local social injustices and the global climate crisis. In the early 1990s, she helped to secure funding for a pioneering solar heating project on the Easthall housing scheme, the first of its kind in the world.

Cathy was also known for her creative activism, notably the Dampbusters play staged during Glasgow’s Capital of Culture celebrations in 1990 to raise awareness for the poor housing conditions of so many living in poverty across the city. She also recognised the health benefits of community activism. In her 2009 autobiography, The Wee Yellow Butterfly, she wrote:

When I was suffering from depression I asked my doctor if he could give me a prescription for a warm dry home but all he could offer me was anti-depressants. I realised my doctor was employed to treat the symptoms of our health problems in the same way that the officials were employed to treat the symptoms of our dampness. I refused his kind of medicine and joined my community’s fight for justice instead. p.78

The Cathy McCormack Community Activism Fund aims to ensure that Cathy’s legacy and radical spirit lives on in Glasgow.

Using proceeds generated from selling our renewable energy, the Fund will offer small grants to community organisations for projects and activities aimed at addressing the root causes of social, economic and environmental injustice in their local areas, not just the symptoms.

For the first few years of the scheme (up to and including 2026), grants will be awarded to community organisations close to the two schools where our solar panels are installed in Pollokshields and Easterhouse. These include: The Pollokshields Trust, St. Paul’s Youth Forum, Connect Community Trust, East End Flat Pack Meals and Fuse Youth Café.

From 2027 onwards, we aim to open up the grant scheme across Glasgow to give others the opportunity to apply. With Glasgow Community Energy’s plans to expand, developing new renewable energy sites across the city over the next few years, the hope is to create a much bigger funding pot – generated in an ethical way – which has the possibility of delivering more radical change across the city.

In the spirit of our predecessor organisation the Radical Renewable Art + Activism Fund, we aim to support activities which could not easily find funding elsewhere, and to have a relatively light-touch with our grant issuing and reporting so that it does not become the onerous task required by many other funders.

The outcomes of the first round of Cathy McCormack Community Activism Fund grants will be reported at Glasgow Community Energy’s Annual General Meeting on Wednesday 26 March 2025.