Revenue grants between £500,000 and £1.5 million over 3-5 years are available to UK community-led partnership projects that have a significant impact on climate change and make a clear link between climate and nature.
The National Lottery Community Fund’s £30 million Climate Action Fund - Our Shared Future is a UK-wide grant programme for community-led partnerships, formed from a mixture of organisational types, for projects that will have a significant impact on climate change. Projects led by, or supporting, people and communities that have been hardest hit by climate change are likely to be prioritised.
This is a predominantly revenue grant programme (with a limited capital funding element) offering grants starting at £500,000. The majority of awards are expected to be for between £1,000,000 and £1,500,000 over 3-5 years.
Partnerships, which can be newly formed for the purpose of applying to the Fund, or well-established, can be either locally-based or UK wide. UK wide partnerships must be delivered across two or more UK countries.
Projects should make a clear link between climate and nature, and incorporate other social and economic benefits such as (please note that this is not an exclusive list):
- The creation of strong, resilient and healthy communities, and
- The development of 'green' skills and jobs.
Possible examples of activities and projects that could be funded by the Climate Action Fund include those that:
- Encourage environmental awareness by increasing outdoor learning opportunities.
- Employ storytelling or creative approaches to engage communities with the climate challenge through nature.
- Explore systems of producing food that are less damaging to nature, more self-sufficient, or that shorten distance we transport food, and
- Make new, better quality and more accessible natural spaces. For example, where the natural environment has been replaced by human activity in urban areas.
Grants can be used to cover:
- Engagement activities.
- Learning and evaluation.
- Limited capital costs. This could be for buying equipment or buying, leasing, refurbishing or developing land and buildings, or other construction-related work.
- Operational costs, including utilities.
- Organisational development and management.
- Project costs.
- Staffing, and
- Volunteer expenses.
Further information, guidance and an online application for is available on the National Lottery Community Fund website.
Please note that a 2-stage application process applies to the Fund. After a first-stage application has been made, the National Lottery will inform applicants if they’ve successfully progressed to the second and final stage within 12 weeks, with a final decision made around 4 months after the 2nd stage application has been submitted.