Meithrin Natur

Who can apply

You must work in a partnership

Your partnership must have experience of working:

• with children under 5 years old and their caregivers
• in the natural environment

We want organisations to bring together their knowledge from across different sectors. For example, organisations working in:

• early years
• nature and the environment
• health and wellbeing

The lead organisation in the partnership must be a:

• constituted voluntary or community organisation
• constituted group or club
• registered charity
• charitable incorporated organisation (CIO)
• not-for-profit company
• community interest company (CIC)
• community benefit society

We’ll give our funding to the lead organisation. They can then pay the other partners for the work they do.

The lead organisation must:

• be one of the organisations listed above
• make sure the project and partners meet our terms and conditions
• use our partnership agreement template [PDF 224KB]

Partnerships can also include:

• schools (as long as your project benefits and involves the communities around the school)
• statutory bodies (including local authorities, town, parish and community council)
• private sector organisations

But these organisations cannot apply for the funding.

You need at least 3 board or committee members who are not related

Related can mean:

• related by marriage
• in a civil partnership with each other
• in a long-term relationship with each other
• related through a long-term partner
• living together at the same address
• related by blood

All companies who apply must have at least 3 directors who are not related in any of these ways. This also applies to companies that are also registered as charities.

Who cannot apply

Who we cannot accept applications from:

• statutory bodies (including local authorities, town, parish and community councils)
• schools
• individuals
• sole traders
• organisations based outside the UK
• companies that can pay profits to directors, shareholders or members (including Companies Limited by Shares)
• organisations applying to more than one of our programmes for the same project over the same period. This is because you cannot get duplicate funding for something we're already funding you to do. It’s OK to apply to another programme if you've already had an unsuccessful decision though
• organisations contracted through Applicant Support
• organisations funded through Support for Meithrin Natur grant holders
• one organisation applying on behalf of another

We can fund some political activity and campaigning

But only if:

• the activity is not party political. This means that it must be about policy, practice, or legislation rather than opposing or supporting a political party.
• the activity is meant to help the cause of your organisation and benefit the public or society.

We will not fund projects where political activities are the main purpose. But we can fund projects that are mainly about campaigning.

We do not accept applications written for you by private businesses or consultants

Be careful of businesses or consultants who say they can support you with your funding applications. They might say they’re acting on the Fund’s behalf, or they’re a preferred supplier of the Fund. They could even offer to write an application for you.

We do not accept applications from these types of businesses or consultants.

But it’s ok to get help from support organisations - like your local authority or County Voluntary Council (CVC)

They may be able to give you support and advice on writing your application.

You must help children and their caregivers connect to the natural environment

By this we mean giving children and their caregivers positive and meaningful experiences with nature and outdoor spaces. Like parks, rivers or forests. It’s about helping them access, interact with and learn to care for nature and these spaces.

Children and caregivers include:

• babies and children under 5 years old
• expecting parents
• family, foster carers, paid or unpaid carers

For example, you could:

• create an outdoor space for children and their caregivers to play and interact with the natural environment
• host indoor workshops about how to grow your own flowers, fruits or vegetables
• run sensory activities that help children and caregivers build connections with nature

We’re open to learning from other projects that are already helping people to do this. Here are some examples that could help inspire your own project:

• Culture Nature
• Playful Green Planet
• Generation Wild

Your project should be designed with the people you support

You should:

• involve them in how it’s developed, delivered and led
• make use of their existing skills and interests
• complement and make connections with the existing services they use
• fill any gaps in local services

You’ll have support to help you develop and deliver your project. We’re funding other organisations to help you through our fund, Support for Meithrin Natur grant holders.

Projects should support people experiencing poverty, disadvantage or discrimination

We want to fund vulnerable or excluded communities. Particularly people who find it hardest to access support. So we’ll expect you to show us how you’ll reach these people.

You can use statistics to help show us who you are working with. But it’s most important that you tell us about the local context. Tell us about your knowledge, experience and engagement with people facing those challenges.

You must evaluate your project

You’ll have support from Support for Meithrin Natur grant holders to do this. We’ll expect you to collect useful information to inform your project. And share your learning from the project.

As you’ll be working with children or young people. Or adults at risk

You need to have a policy in place that explains how they’ll be safe. If you get funding you’ll need to follow our expectations on safeguarding children and adults at risk.

The NCVO website has child safeguarding advice and information services.

Your project must be delivered bilingually in English and Welsh

We want people in Wales to access the projects we fund in the language they need. You should make sure people can engage with your project in English and Welsh.

You can include costs for bilingual services in your proposed budget. For example, the cost of translating promotional material.

To help you deliver a project in English and Welsh, you should:

• read our guidance on how to manage your project bilingually (PDF 130KB)
• read about our Welsh language standards
• consult Welsh language communities when planning your project.

For more information contact the Welsh Language team by emailing welshlanguage.advice@tnlcommunityfund.org.uk. 

We can fund:

• equipment
• one-off events
• staff costs
• training costs
• transport
• utilities
• volunteer expenses
• translation costs
• marketing and communication costs
• evaluation costs
• professional and legal fees
• part of your organisation's overhead costs
• small land or refurbishment projects

We’ll fund the delivery of the project. And we’ll fund some of the indirect project costs.

Also known as overheads. This could include things like rent or insurance. Or part of a salary for someone not working directly on the project. Like a senior manager or an office admin worker.

For example, the project you’re applying for could be half of the work your organisation does. In that case, we could fund half of your overheads.

This is sometimes known as full cost recovery. Find out how to work out overheads in our guide to full cost recovery.

We can also fund some capital costs

But we will not fund projects that are mostly for capital costs.

This can include buying land, refurbishing spaces or landscaping to help you deliver the project.

For example, to pay for greenhouses or other small shelters to run activities in.

If you need funding for land or refurbishment projects

You need to either:

• own the land or building,
• have a lease that cannot be ended for 5 years,
• have a letter from the owner saying the land or building will be leased to you for at least 5 years, or
• have an official letter from the owner or landlord that says you're allowed to do work on the building.

You should also find out if you’ll need planning permission for the work.

We cannot fund:

• retrospective costs (costs for things that have already happened, or you’ve already paid for)
• alcohol
• contingency costs, loans, endowments or interest
• paying someone else to write your application for you
• fundraising activities (where you use our funding to raise more money)
• VAT you can reclaim
• religious activities (we can fund religious organisations if their project benefits the wider community and does not include religious content) activities that statutory bodies are legally required to do
• activities that help children or young people with their schoolwork during school time
• overseas travel
• projects that take place outside of the UK
• activities that make profits for private gain
• cash that will be given directly to individuals