Together for Our Planet

You can apply if you are a:

• constituted group or club
• voluntary or community organisation
• registered charity
• charitable incorporated organisation (CIO/SCIO)
• community interest company (CIC)
• not-for-profit company
• school, college, university (as long as your project benefits and involves the wider local communities)
• statutory body (including town, parish and community council)
• community benefit society.

We cannot accept applications from:

• individuals
• sole traders
• organisations that can pay profits to directors, shareholders or members (including Companies Limited by Shares)
• organisations based outside the UK
• one individual or organisation applying on behalf of another.

Board or committee members

It’s really important that organisations that apply have at least two people on their board or committee who are not related.

By related, we mean:

• married to each other
• in a civil partnership with each other
• in a long-term relationship with each other
• living together at the same address
• related by blood.

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

If you’re a school or an organisation working in a school

Your project needs to strengthen the community outside of the school too. It should benefit and involve more than just:

• teachers
• pupils
• parents of pupils.

We will not fund school projects that:

• improve school facilities or equipment that are not available for the wider community to use
• help with staff training
• are part of the school curriculum
• involve activities the school should already be providing (like a project teaching literacy during school hours)
• take place during teaching times (before and after school might be okay).

We cannot accept multiple applications from the same group or organisation.

If you’re not sure if you can apply

Contact us. The team will be happy to help. You can also check what other funding programmes you might be able to apply to.

To ensure as many people and communities as possible can get involved, we’ll prioritise applications from:

• people and communities hit hardest by climate change
• people and communities who are starting to think about taking climate action
• groups who have not received funding from us before
• groups who do not have a current award with us
• smaller organisations with an annual turnover of under £100,000.

Other organisations can apply, but please consider these factors first. You can still apply if you have a current grant from The National Lottery Community Fund, but the project should not duplicate work we’re already funding you to do.

Make sure you also check who can and cannot apply before filling out the application form.

Your project activities

We can fund lots of different climate action activities. Projects should reflect what matters to your community and what climate action means for you. They can be small in scale and might be new plans for your community or might be about celebrating the work you’re already doing.

They could cover an area like:

• food
• transport
• energy
• waste and consumption
• the natural environment.

You do not need to be an expert in any of these areas to apply.

We recognise that activities may still need to respond to specific lockdown rules and regulations related to COVID-19. We also know these are likely to vary across the UK. We understand that projects will need to stay flexible about what they are able to do. We’ll be as flexible as we can too.

All projects must be about developing a community-led climate action project. Your project will also need to meet at least two of these criteria:

1. It supports the development of longer-term climate action within communities (that is, taking place after the COP26 event in November).
2. It encourages communities to plan for the climate emergency - to consider what climate action could mean to them and why it matters.
3. It celebrates the importance of community-led climate action and encourages more people to get involved.
4. It builds resilience in communities that are hardest hit by climate change.
5. It provides jobs, skills or training opportunities for communities which support climate action.

Whilst this programme is inspired by COP26, we're looking to support a legacy in communities beyond the event itself. If you’re considering applying for costs for a one-off event, we’d also expect you to include activities that take place beyond the event.

You should consider the environmental impact of your project and try to reduce, reuse and recycle where possible. You can find further help with reducing your group’s environmental impact on our guidance page.

The projects we’re unlikely to fund

• applications for statutory activities
• applications for broader environmental projects that do not directly link to climate change (for example community litter picks)
• applications for costs to attend the COP26 event, such as transport or accommodation.
  

We'll support a range of projects

We're keen that projects reflect a mix of communities and places from across the UK. We’ll make sure there's a spread of funding across the UK and a range of activities being delivered across the projects.

We'll take this into account when assessing your application against others that we receive.

You must involve your community in your project

We believe that people understand what's needed in their communities better than anyone. It’s important to us that you involve your community in the design, development and delivery of the activities you’re planning.

This short video explains it well - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFkavT5kGSk. It might be helpful when you’re putting your application together.

Delivering your project in Welsh

When you receive funding from The National Lottery Community Fund for a project in Wales, you'll need to deliver it in Welsh as well as English, and make sure all your activities are available to your community in both languages.

For further information, read our guidance on managing your project bilingually or contact the Welsh Language Team at welshlanguage.advice@tnlcommunityfund.org.uk.

If your project works with children, young people or vulnerable adults

You need to have a policy in place that explains how they'll be safe. And we might ask to see this policy if we decide to give you funding.

The NSPCC has lots of helpful advice about setting up and following good child safeguarding policies.

If you're not sure about the sort of projects we fund

You can always contact us. 

We can pay for activities or items, costing between £1,000 and £10,000 in total, that will support your community to take climate action. These could be activities that bring people together to talk about what matters to them and what they want to do, events to raise awareness or to reach other members of the community, or equipment to support something such as a community growing project.

You must spend the money within 12 months of getting it.

These lists do not include everything. So, if you're not sure, contact us.

We can fund:

• community-led research, feasibility studies or work to create a plan as to how and what climate action will look like for your community
• events and activity costs
• equipment and materials
• staff costs (proportionate to the funded activity)
• training costs
• transport costs related to your project (but we cannot fund the costs of travel to and from the COP26 event)
• utilities or running costs related to your project
• volunteer expenses
• costs associated with delivering your project bilingually, like translation costs
• small land or building projects. You’ll need to either:
  • own the land or building
  • have a lease that cannot be ended for five years
  • have a letter from the owner saying the land or building will be leased to you for at least five years, or
  • have an official letter from the owner or landlord that says you're allowed to do work on the land or building and you should also think about getting planning permission for the work.

We can fund some capital costs as part of a wider project (for example, raised beds within a community garden project). However, we'd not be likely to fund a solely capital project.

Whilst this programme is inspired by COP26, we are looking to support a legacy in communities beyond the event itself. If you're considering applying for costs for a one-off event we’d also expect you to include activities that take place beyond the event.

We cannot fund:

• alcohol
• items which will only benefit an individual or family, rather than the wider community 
• contingency costs, loans, endowments or interest
• electricity generation
• political activities
• religious activities (although we can fund religious organisations if their project benefits the wider community and does not include religious content) 
• profit-making or fundraising activities
• VAT you can reclaim
• statutory activities
• costs that have already been incurred 
  
• activities that improve educational attainment - personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) education, science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), English
• overseas travel or projects that take place outside of the UK.

If you’re not sure if you can apply 

Contact us. The team will be happy to help. You can also check what other funding programmes you might be able to apply to.