We believe that people are the key to tackling the environmental challenges we face today. We fund organisations who can move, engage and inform people, and connect with the bigger picture of policy-making, social justice, or quality of life.
Below, you can find information about our funding priorities for the Environment.
Please note this information relates to our priorities under our 2015-2019 strategy. You can find information on our current priorities in our latest strategy and under our work.
Connecting people with nature and environment issues
- We support work that:
- Excites and inspires people to get involved in nature or environmental issues and take action to make a difference, or
- Makes environmental issues relevant to people’s everyday lives and what they care about, or
- Enables groups that may be disconnected from nature, for example in urban areas, to become more engaged.
- Applicants must:
- Show how people’s connection to nature or environment issues will be sustained beyond the period of our grant.
- We want our funding to:
- Support both grassroots work and high-level strategic approaches which are able to influence the wider sector.
Countering the effects of damaging activity
- We support work that:
- Exposes and tackles harmful practice at all levels – from local communities to UK-wide, and
- Uses a ground-breaking, creative approach to make an impact on environment issues such as: transport, chemicals, pollution, climate change, littering, plastics, freshwater, overfishing , soil health and energy.
- Applicants must:
- Have an emphasis on positivity and practical solutions at the core of their work.
- We want our funding to:
- Enable environment issues to appeal widely, and beyond traditional ‘green’ audiences, and
- Support both grassroots and high-level strategic approaches to difficult issues.
Nature conservation on land and at sea
- We support:
- Work that takes place at a “landscape scale” which recognises and supports the interdependence of the natural world, or
- Bold and ambitious thinking which results in new collaborations between communities, landholders, voluntary sector organisations, and statutory bodies, or
- Marine projects which work alongside coastal communities and restore people’s connection to the sea.
- Applicants must:
- Operate at a strategic level, and deliver innovative work which has the potential to have a wide influence across the statutory, business and voluntary sectors.
- We want our funding to:
- Make a difference for people and communities as well as improving the environment.
Lesser known plants, animals and organisms
- We support work that:
- Supports plants, animals and organisms that have a critical, but under-appreciated, role in the web of life, or
- Enables a new generation of UK specialists to inspire future conservation.
- Applicants must:
- Show how people or communities will be connected with nature or environment issues through their work.
- We want our funding to:
- Transform public perception and understanding of the role of uncharismatic organisms or species in the web of life.