Duke Energy offers grants to nonprofits

For nonprofit organizations struggling to survive through the disruption of COVID-19, Duke Energy is offering emergency relief funding to help support them.

The Duke Energy Foundation, which provides more than $30 million in charitable grants each year, has allocated emergency funds to community groups that support local individuals and families through financial hardship.

Specifically, the group focused on Johnson County groups who specialize in food insecurity and hunger relief, said Jean Renk, government and community relations manager for Duke Energy.

“These folks are Duke Energy customers as well. What we can do to provide them with as much stability as we can, that’s our focus,” she said.

Duke Energy has set aside $100,000 to be distributed to the different Indiana counties the company works in, including Johnson County, Renk said. The foundation sent invitations for county groups dealing with food insecurity to apply for the funding.

The hope is that an expedited application and approval process will get funding to county organizations quickly, Renk said.

The foundation is only able to help nonprofit organizations at this time, not individuals, Renk said. But Duke Energy also announced earlier this week it is not disconnecting any customer’s service for non-payment, to give customers experiencing financial hardship extra time to make payments.

The company will continue to read meters and send bills. Customers should pay what they can to avoid building up a large balance that will be harder to pay off later. As part of our regular customer service, we offer payment plans to eligible customers.

Those with questions can contact the company’s customer service line at (800) 653-5307.