The NYC Green Fund seeks to support an equitable and resilient network of parks and open spaces to benefit the well-being of all New Yorkers.
Donor Name: City Parks Foundation
State: New York
City: New York City
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 02/28/2025
Size of the Grant: $10,000 to $100,000
Grant Duration: 2 Years
Details:
The NYC Green Fund Grassroots grant program is intended to advance the viability of grassroots initiatives across parks and open spaces in all five boroughs and to foster a resilient network of equitable public green spaces. The NYC Green Fund Grassroots grant program provides support for a range of programming areas including open space stewardship, environmental action, organizational development, health and wellness, youth development, and arts and culture. With direct funding and technical assistance, diverse community groups will receive support in their work to activate and enrich parks and open spaces across NYC.
Types of Work Supported
Applicants may apply for funding in the following categories. Please select up to three categories.
- Stewardship: Community-led care of open spaces such as volunteer service and beautification projects.
- Examples: planting a native flower garden, caring for a dog run, or beach clean-ups.
- Environmental Action: Educational and awareness-building programs that provide people with the knowledge and skills to take responsible actions to protect the environment.
- Examples: a teach-in on the impacts of shore erosion, a petition in support of public composting, or a public awareness campaign against local sources of pollution.
- Organizational Development: Resources that support your organization’s ability to activate public space such as staff training, strategic planning, marketing, communications, financial management, HR systems, and transition or succession planning. Grant recipients of this category may receive pro-bono design support from Partnerships for Parks’ art director for website, brochure, or marketing materials.
- Examples: flyers for events supported by the NYC Green Fund, conflict resolution training, accounting software, or working with a consultant to develop a five-year plan.
- Youth Development: Programs that inspire children under 18 and young adults (18-24) to pursue “green” jobs through hands-on service learning, paid work opportunities, and professional skills training.
- Examples: a career day for local elementary school students, paid internships at your organization, or a mentorship program with professionals in the environmental sector.
- Health and Wellness: Activities that promote the physical, mental, and emotional health of people using NYC’s parks and open spaces.
- Examples: yoga in the park, a free neighborhood basketball league, or weekly nature walks.
- Arts and Culture: Arts and community-oriented cultural programming in public open spaces.
- Examples: a celebration of traditional cultural dance, public theater performances, a movie night, arts and crafts making workshops, or a music festival.
- Urban Forest Grants brought to you by Con Edison: Activities that promote the health and development of NYC’s urban canopy through stewardship or educational programming.
- Examples: planting in or cleaning up a street tree bed, installing tree guards, hosting tree care education workshops, or providing members of your organization with professional development opportunities (such as Citizen Pruner certification).
Funding Information
Organizations whose total expenses were under $175,000 in the last calendar year may be awarded one for two-year grants of up to $40,000 per year. The average grant size in 2024 was $5,000, and the largest grant awarded was $36,800.
Eligible Expenses
Eligible expenses include:
- Equipment, tools, plant material, and supplies
- Consultants, vendors, contractors, or professional fees
- Staffing costs and stipends for volunteers
- Programming costs
- Impact assessment costs
- Marketing and outreach costs.
Eligibility Criteria
All grant applicants are required to meet the prerequisites below:
- Applications must be submitted by a member of a group/organization. Applications submitted on behalf of individuals are not eligible.
- Applications must be submitted on behalf of a 501(c)3 organization or a group utilizing a fiscal sponsor. Applications submitted by LLCs or 501(c)4 organizations are not eligible.
- Applicants’ total expenses for the most recently completed calendar year must be less than $175,000.
- If an applicant has received a grant from CPF or PfP since 2020, all interim and final reports must be submitted prior to applying for new funding.
- Applicants must possess demonstrated experience working in NYC’s publicly accessible open spaces and have a strong connection to the community/communities they are working in. Applicants’ proposals must support work in NYC’s publicly accessible open spaces, such as:
- Parks
- Playgrounds
- Community gardens
- Street trees
- NYCHA properties
- Public plazas
- Open Streets
- Waterfronts.
For more information, visit City Parks Foundation.
