A short-term competitive fund to kick-start environmental renewal whilst creating and retaining a range of jobs in England. It is open to environmental charities and their partners.
The Green Recovery Challenge Fund is accepting applications for two grant levels:
- £50,000 - £250,000. Deadline noon 2 October 2020
- £250,000 - £5million. Deadline for Expressions of Interest noon 24 September 2020
Projects must be ready to deliver and you must be able to spend the funding by 31 March 2022.
We are distributing this government funding in partnership with Defra.
The Green Recovery Challenge Fund is a short-term competitive fund to kick-start environmental renewal whilst creating and retaining a range of jobs. It is open to environmental charities and their partners to deliver projects in England.
The aim of the fund is to support projects that are ready to deliver and focus on nature restoration, nature-based solutions and connecting people with nature, delivering against the goals of the Government’s 25 Year Environment Plan (25YEP), whilst helping to sustain and build capacity in the sector.
The £40million fund has been developed by Defra and its Arm’s-Length Bodies, including Natural England, Forestry Commission, Environment Agency and others. The National Lottery Heritage Fund is distributing and monitoring this government money.
- Grants of £50,000 - £5million to deliver environmental projects in England
- Open to environmental charities and their partners
- Projects must be ready to deliver and funding must be spent by 31 March 2022
The Fund covers three themes:
- Nature conservation and restoration, including ecosystem restoration and species recovery;
- Nature-based solutions, particularly for climate change mitigation and adaptation; and
- Connecting people with nature.
All projects will need to deliver against at least one of these themes, but may contribute to more than one or all of the above.
We will provide up to 100% of project costs. There is no partnership funding requirement for this Fund, although we encourage you to include partnership funding if it helps you to deliver better value for money against the Fund’s outcomes.
Examples of eligible costs include:
Capital:
- Building / planting materials
- Equipment purchase
- Contractors / consultants
- Interpretation materials
- Land/ lease purchase where essential for the success of your project
Core costs:
- Salaries etc of staff working directly on projects (including ensuring sustainability of project outcomes)
- Recruitment
- Skills and training
- Volunteer travel and subsistence
- Equipment hire
- Communications
- Monitoring and evaluation activities
- Full Cost Recovery – for charities only
Funding for AONBs, National Park Authorities, Local Authorities and universities can only be used to cover the following:
- Salaries & direct on-costs of staff delivering the project
- Costs of backfilling an existing post where a member of staff is transferred to deliver new work associated with the grant
- Activity costs
Projects can deliver works or activities on private land providing that they are for public benefit rather than private gain.
The costs you apply for should cover the period from 1 November 2020 to 31 March 2022 only.
The following costs are ineligible:
- Anything that contravenes HMG’s advice on COVID-19
- Recoverable VAT
- Costs related to promoting the cause or beliefs of political or faith organisations
- Costs already covered through other funding, for example from COVID-19 related HMG funds, mainstream funds from HMG or other schemes such as the Heritage Emergency Fund
- Costs related to lobbying and/or activity to influence legislative or regulatory action
- Costs incurred prior to any grant award
- Full Cost Recovery for ‘other not-for-profit organisations’ (e.g. AONBs, National Parks Authorities, local authorities, universities)
Under this programme, we welcome applications from:
- environmental charities
- partnerships involving at least one environmental charity
Environmental charities
Your organisation will be a not-for-profit organisation such as a charitable incorporated organisation or company limited by guarantee, registered with the Charity Commission. The organisation’s principal aims (or charitable objectives) will be concerned with the protection or improvement of the natural environment.
We will ask to see your constitution or governing document as part of your application (see supporting documents - under How will we assess applications?)
Partnerships
In addition to at least one environmental charity, partnerships can include:
- Other not-for-profit organisations, including non-environmental charities
- AONBs, National Park Authorities, local authorities and universities, however these bodies can only use the grant funding to cover certain costs
- ‘For-profit organisations’ (for example utility companies) however these bodies cannot be the lead applicant or receive any of the grant funding.
Partnerships cannot include the following government bodies:
- Non-ministerial departments, executive agencies, executive or advisory non-departmental public bodies
If you are making a joint application, you will need to decide which organisation will be the lead applicant. The lead applicant will fill in the application form and, if you are successful, receive the grant and report on progress.
We will need to see a draft of your partnership agreement as part of your application.
Eligible organisations can be involved in more than one application providing they can demonstrate that they have the capacity and capability to deliver within the time available.