Our Natural World priorities

We have five funding priorities:

• Peat
• Space for nature
• Freshwater
• Nature friendly farming
• Fishing in tandem with nature

Applying for support in Our Natural World

If you decide to submit an expression of interest, we will ask you which priority your work is most aligned to. You’ll also have the option to choose up to two other priorities your work contributes to. In each priority, we have identified a number of long-term outcomes. We want to know how your work contributes to these.

If you are working across more than one area, this will make us more, rather than less likely to support you. We are keen to support organisations working in partnerships, as well as key organisations that work across our priorities to convene, mobilise or generate new ideas.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

We commit to funding more organisations led by communities experiencing racial inequity, and in Our Natural World – where the majority of organisations are not ethnically diverse – we will use our position as a funder to influence recruitment and governance practice to be more inclusive.

1. Space for nature, and biodiversity, is restored at scale on land and at sea.

We want to support work that:

• Restores nature across large areas of land (including urban), freshwater, or sea. This includes developing the policy framework required or tools such as shared learning on innovative funding models. Whilst we recognise that work will occur at a variety of scales, especially in built up environments, we will prioritise projects that are large scale, involving multiple partners and landowners. Please note:
  • Species-focused projects: We will consider species-focused projects only where it delivers against a broader set of environmental outcomes and brings together a wide range of stakeholders.
  • Single site projects: We will only consider projects that focus on a single site that can demonstrate a strong connection with another priority in Esmée’s strategy for Our Natural World (peat, nature friendly farming, freshwater or fishing in tandem with nature), or our other strategic aims: Creative, Confident Communities or A Fairer Future.
• Brings together partnerships, including groups of landowners or communities, or where there is a clear mandate and commitment to active involvement from those partners. We recognise that such partnerships require time and resources to develop. We will consider support at an early stage where there is evidence of commitment from all parties, and proposals can demonstrate a strong track record in genuine partnership working.
• Can demonstrate how they plan to have a lasting impact beyond the funded period, either because an objective would have been achieved, or adequate ongoing revenue sources can be secured.

Applications for grant funding support cannot cover capital costs. However, we will consider applications for both grant funding and social investment (repayable finance), where the social investment can be used for capital costs, or to support revenue generation. You can learn more about our social investment support, including examples, here.

2. More nature rich spaces for people to access and enjoy, particularly those facing barriers to doing so.

We want to support work that:

• Seeks to improve access to nature and where this is a core part of the work.
• Pays special consideration of the additional barriers that some people face in accessing nature, particularly socio-economic barriers.
• Uses creative ways of engaging people, such as through the application of technology – particularly where habitats and species are susceptible to disturbance or are so remote from people that physical access will not be possible for all.