Community Funding Opportunities
Fund your Community Project
You may be eligible to apply for funding to help reach your goals. We've compiled a list of some of the current local and national funding opportunities to help your group support wildlife. Find out what funding opportunities are available below.
National Funding Opportunities
Funding opportunities available to community groups across the UK.
Alpkit Foundation
Location: United Kingdom
Funding amount: up to £500
Who can apply?
- Community groups
- Schools
- Not-for-profit organisations
What can they fund?
- Projects that champion education, participation, environment, diversity and health and encourage responsible outdoor activity
Deadline(s): no deadlines
Aviva Community Fund
Location: United Kingdom
Funding amount: up to £50,000
Who can apply?
- Charities or social enterprises (which includes community interest companies) with an annual income of less than £2,000,000
What can they fund?
- Climate Action: promoting healthy, thriving communities by preventing, preparing for a protecting against the impacts of climate change
- Financial Wellbeing: helping people take control of their wellbeing by giving them the tools to be more financially independent and ready for anything
Deadline(s): continuous rolling deadline
Matthew Good Foundation
Location: United Kingdom
Funding amount: £15,000 shared between 5 shortlisted projects
Who can apply?
- Local charities
- Voluntary groups
- Social enterprises that have an average annual income of less than £50,000
What can they fund?
- Projects which make a positive difference to communities, people and the environment
Deadline(s): Quarterly application deadlines
National Lottery - Awards for All England
Location: England
Funding amount: £10,000
Who can apply?
- Voluntary and community organisations
- Constituted group or club
- Registered charity
- CIO's
- Not-for-profit company
- CIC's
- Schools
- Statutory body (inc. local authorities, town, parish, community council)
- Community benefit society.
What can they fund?
3 key objectives:
- Bring people together and build strong relationships in and across communities
- Improve the places and spaces that matter to communities
- Enable more people to fulfil their potential by working to address issues at the earliest possible stage
Deadline(s): no deadlines
Southall Trust
Location: United Kingdom
Funding amount: up to £5,000
Who can apply?
- Charities that show creativity and innovation in their work.
- Charities that promote social justice, inclusion and diversity.
- Charities that challenge structural inequalities and injustice.
- Charities making good use of volunteers.
- Charities that are engaged with their local community and show clear evidence of support from within it (e.g. through local giving, volunteering and/or partnerships).
What can they fund?
- Actions and activities that have a positive impact on the natural environment
Deadline(s): Open
Tesco Community Grants
Location: United Kingdom
Funding amount: up to £1,500
Who can apply?
- Schools
- Registered charities
- Not-for-profit organisations
What can they fund?
- Priority given to projects that provide food and support to young people
Deadline(s): no deadlines
Woodland Trust - Free Trees for Schools and Communities
Location: United Kingdom
Funding amount: not specified
Who can apply?
- Schools across the UK, plus nurseries, colleges, universities and outdoor learning centres
- All kinds of different groups such as resident associations, sports clubs, parish councils, scouts, guides and many more
- You don’t need to belong to an official organisation
What can they fund?
- Schools: trees should be planted on either the school grounds, land the school has arranged regular access to or in an area that is publicly accessible
- Community Groups: trees should be planted on land which is accessible to the public
- You should also make sure that your local community is aware of your plans to plant and are happy for you to go ahead
Deadline(s): 2 deadlines per annum. The Woodland Trust is currently taking applications for tree packs to be delivered in November 2025. Applications are expected to close in August.
The Tree Council - Branching out Fund
Location: United Kingdom
Funding amount: £250 to £2,500, with specific criteria for those under £500, and those above £500.
Who can apply?
Community groups, schools, small registered charities, and Tree Warden Networks seeking to establish trees, hedgerows, and orchards.
What can they fund?
Trees: Native, UK-sourced and grown bare-root trees of an appropriate size for your project. We prefer to fund younger trees which will establish better, although we will fund trees up to 'standard' size (8-10 cm girth)
Hedging: Native, UK-sourced and grown, bare-root whips (saplings) and cell grown (root trainer) stock for hedging projects (40-120cm height) Hedgerow trees: trees planted in hedgerows that are allowed to develop to full-size
Orchards: fruit trees on semi-vigorous, vigorous and very vigorous rootstocks
Deadline(s): While last year's grantees busily finish off this tree planting season, the Branching Out Fund will open again in late spring 2025. Register now to hear when the fund reopens.
Suez Community Fund Grants
Location:
To be eligible for a SUEZ Communities Fund grant in England, your project must be located within one of the active funding zones. A funding zone is the area surrounding a qualifying site owned by the donor, SUEZ Recycling and Recovery UK. Please check the Postcode Checker, to confirm your eligibility, before you apply.
Check the Postcode Checker
Funding amount: Up to £50,000 to not-for-profit organisations in England
Who can apply?
- Voluntary organisations, community groups / associations, sports clubs (note exclusion criteria regarding membership restrictions), local and national Charities
- Parish Community Councils / Town Councils
- Local Authorities
- Social enterprises and Community Interest Companies operating on a non-profit-distributing basis. These are defined by Social UK as ‘businesses that trade to tackle social problems, improve communities, people’s life chances, or the environment. They make their money from selling goods and services in the open market, but they reinvest their profits back into the business or the local community.
These organisations must have a minimum of three unrelated Directors, that also do not reside at the same address.
What can they fund?
Grants are available for community projects delivering capital improvements to public amenities. Examples may include:
- Village hall improvements
- Nature reserves and conservation
- Village greens
- Community centres
- Public playgrounds
- Cycle paths
- Sports fields and facilities
- Country parks
- Historic buildings, structures or sites (improvements to places of religious worship will only be considered if Grade I designated. Projects to improve other historic buildings, structures or sites must be Grade I, II or II* or have another significant heritage designation i.e. Scheduled Ancient Monument)
Deadline(s): 14 May 2025, midnight
Morrisons Foundation
Location: United Kingdom
Funding amount: Up to £10,000 for capital spend or direct project delivery.
Who can apply?
Registered charities making a positive difference in local communities in England, Wales and Scotland.
The Morrisons Foundation prioritises applications from small charities, those with an income of less than £1m, but applications from larger charities are welcome.
What can they fund?
Applications should deliver on (at least) one of three objectives to be considered for support, these are:
1. Tackling poverty and social deprivation;
2. Enhancing community spaces, facilities and services;
3. Improving health and wellbeing.
Deadline(s): Applications are accepted and reviewed on a continual basis, there is no deadline for requests to be submitted
Local Funding Opportunities
Funding opportunities available to community groups within Surrey.
Community Foundation for Surrey
Location: Surrey
Funding amount: average grant is £6,000
Who can apply?
- Registered charities
- CIO
- Charitable Trusts
- Voluntary and community groups
- Faith groups, where the project clearly benefits the wider community
- Educational establishments for exceptional projects that fall outside statutory support
- Organisations with a potential national reach
- Community Benefit Societies with charitable status
- CASC (Community Amateur Sports Club)
- Not for profit organisations such as CICs
- Small and newly formed groups which are not constituted or cannot meet the eligibility criteria may apply under the umbrella of another group
What can they fund?
- Charitable activities and projects
- Core costs / essential running costs
- New projects
- Pilot projects
- Existing projects
- Repeat/continuation funding for projects
- Staff costs
- Full cost recovery to cover overheads which relate to projects
- Small capital costs (typically items under £10,000 such as specialist equipment, tools and materials, IT kit etc.)
- Emergency funding requests
Deadline(s): 4 per annum
Downlands Trust
Location: Surrey
Funding amount: up to £3,000
Who can apply?
- Not specified
What can they fund?
- Promoting the conservation, protection and improvement of the countryside
- Encouraging access to the countryside for all
- Promoting the health and social benefits of becoming involved in a local practical conservation work group
Deadline(s): unknown
Godalming Town Council Grant
Location: Godalming
Funding amount: up to £1,000
Who can apply?
- Not specified
What can they fund?
- Local community projects and activities that benefit the residents of Godalming
- Projects need to fit the Town Council’s vision and priorities
- Priority will be given to groups with match funding or that can lever in other funds
Deadline(s): 3 deadlines per annum
Guildford Aspire Community Grants
Location: Guildford
Funding amount: up to £1,000
Who can apply?
- Charities
- Social enterprises
- Community groups
- Voluntary organisations
- Organisations receiving funding from the council through separate funding agreements are not eligible
What can they fund?
- Projects that involve local communities actively working with partners to improve where they live, in ways that matter to them
Deadline(s): 1 deadline per year.
Lower Mole Countryside Trust
Location: Mole Valley, north Surrey and Kingston upon Thames
Funding amount: up to £500
Who can apply?
- Not specified
What can they fund?
- The provision of a high quality countryside management service for north Surrey and Kingston upon Thames, through education and encouraging local people to become involved and promoting conservation by raising funds for countryside and access improvements
- Projects must be in accordance with the aims of the Lower Mole Valley Countryside Trust
- Projects should be visible to the public and/or of benefit to the public
- If the proposal relates to conservation interest it must be in line with the relevant Habitat Action Plan or Species Action Plan
- If the proposal improves public access it must not be detrimental to any conservation interest
- Projects should be supported by the local community
Deadline(s): unknown
