Lightning Reach in 2025: a year to celebrate

2025 has been a huge year for Lightning Reach. Together with our partners, we’ve grown our reach, strengthened our impact, and helped more people than ever access vital support - quickly, securely and with dignity.

What makes this year so special isn’t just the numbers, it’s the people behind them: the individuals who found help when they needed it most, and the partners who worked alongside us to make joined-up support a reality.

Reaching more people, delivering more support

Lightning Reach's impact to date

This year alone, over £7 million in financial support was delivered through Lightning Reach to people across the UK. That brings the total support delivered through the platform to more than £25 million since our launch - reaching people at moments when the right help truly mattered.

In 2025, our community continued to grow rapidly. Nearly 280,000 people have now used Lightning Reach, with tens of thousands engaging with support opportunities this year - from applying for grants to checking benefits and other entitlements. The scale of engagement we’ve seen reflects a growing trust in Lightning Reach as a place people can turn to when they need support most.

View the full impact summary

Broadening access and breaking down barriers

We’re especially encouraged by how our reach is widening. In 2025, more men accessed support through Lightning Reach than in previous years - an important shift in a space where stigma can still prevent people from asking for help. Our confidential, non-judgmental approach is helping more people feel able to take that first step.

We continue to support those facing the greatest challenges. Most people registered on Lightning Reach are on low incomes, many receive benefits, and a significant proportion come from ethnic minority communities.

As Jason shared: “It’s like having a place you can go where no one judges you - they just help you find support.”

Powering faster, joined-up support for partners

2025 also highlighted the real value of collaboration. Councils, charities, utilities and many more worked with Lightning Reach to deliver support faster and more efficiently - reducing admin, speeding up decisions and improving outcomes for the people they serve.

Local authorities used Lightning Reach to strengthen early intervention and prevention work. Charities transformed how quickly they could get emergency funds to people in crisis. Utilities streamlined the delivery of customer support, helping people access multiple forms of help through a single route.

Across the board, partners told us the same thing: Lightning Reach helps them spend less time navigating systems and more time supporting people.

Looking ahead to Lightning Reach in 2026

As we close out 2025, we’re incredibly proud of what’s been achieved - and even more excited about what’s ahead. With a growing user base, deepening partnerships and clear momentum, the Lightning Reach community is well placed to reach even more people in the year to come.

As we look to 2026, we’re more excited than ever about what’s ahead. We have big plans for our product, with further feature expansion designed to make accessing and delivering support even simpler, faster and more effective - for individuals and partners alike.

We’re also planning many more workshops, events and opportunities to connect, sharing learning, strengthening collaboration and supporting organisations to get the most out of Lightning Reach. Alongside this, we’ll be focused on getting Lightning Reach out there even further - increasing awareness, deepening partnerships and reaching even more individuals who need support but may not yet know help is available.

Everything we’re building in 2026 is rooted in the same belief that brought us here: that people deserve support that’s easy to access, dignified, and joined up.

Find out how your organisation can work with Lightning Reach at www.lightningreach.org/partners