Applicants must have operated for at least 12 months, and their main aims must align with one of the programme’s two funding themes.

1. Contributing to nature recovery and responding to the climate emergency
2. Improving nature-rich spaces and access to them

Funding may also support wider environmental activities such as recycling, litter picking, beach cleans and sustainable transport.

Priority will be given to organisations with annual incomes of £250,000 or less, those working in the most deprived communities or supporting marginalised groups, and those whose governing objectives relate to protecting or restoring habitats or species.

In its 2025 pilot, the programme funded 35 grassroots projects.

Examples included:

• a youth project in Cardigan teaching young people species-recording and habitat-creation skills;
• an initiative extending carbon-literacy education to schoolchildren in the West Midlands and South East;
• a community mushroom farm in North Edinburgh offering locally grown mushrooms alongside foraging and identification courses.