ComEd designed the ComEd Green Region Grant to assist local communities in these efforts by providing funding for some expenses towards these goals.
Donor Name: Openlands
State: Illinois
County: Selected Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 03/13/2026
Size of the Grant: $1000 to $10,000
Grant Duration: Grant Duration Not Mentioned
Details:
The Chicago metropolitan region is rich in diversity – both in landscapes that include native prairies, wetlands, woodlands, and a vast network of streams and rivers, as well as in the 10 million people who call this region home.
Openlands is partnering with ComEd to administer the ComEd Green Region Grant. Recognizing that open space in communities is crucial to the quality of lives, ComEd has committed to supporting public agencies, non-profits, schools, school districts, and housing authorities of northern Illinois in ComEd’s service territory with their ongoing efforts to protect or improve public spaces for the benefit of all.
2026 Special Grant Focus
- ComEd and Openlands are committed to Pollinator Conservation
- Three-fourths of the world’s flowering plants and about 35 percent of global food crops depend on animal pollinators – such as bees, butterflies, moths, birds, bats, beetles, and other insects – to thrive. In fact, some scientists estimate that one out of every three bites of food that they eat exists because of pollinators. Threats posed by habitat loss, disease, parasites, climate change, and environmental contaminants have all contributed to the global decline of many pollinator species.
- For the ComEd Green Region Grant Program, a pollinator conservation project is one that shows a demonstrable benefit to the pollinator population.
- ComEd and Openlands are committed to building climate resiliency through local stewardship
- Recent international research and reports on climate change tell them that they are at a tipping point and action must be taken to ensure a sustainable future.
Funding Information
Grants will be for amounts up to $10,000 and may be used to pay for up to two-thirds of eligible activities.
Eligible Activities
Priority is given to projects that demonstrate a) significant impact on the surrounding community by increasing the public’s access to open space and encouraging their engagement with the project; and b) active partnerships within the community. Additional preference may be given to projects that support a special focus area that has been designated for the grant cycle. Eligible activities include:
- Developing or updating open space plans. Expenses may include consultant fees, costs associated with obtaining public input (hall rental, advertising, etc.), and publication costs.
- Improving applicant-owned open spaces, including planning costs. Funds may be used for habitat improvements such as installing or improving natural areas such as prairies, woodlands, wetlands, associated buffers, and other native natural communities. The plans also may include the installation of capital improvements for passive recreation, such as trails, boardwalks, kiosks, and observation platforms. Parking lots are not eligible for funding. Expenses related to capital improvements may include consultant fees for landscape architects, park designers, botanists, restoration specialists, engineers, etc.
- Acquisition (by purchase or donation) of parcels of land to be used for open space. Expenses may include land cost, legal or consultant fees, survey, environmental assessments, appraisals, etc.
- Acquisition (by purchase or donation) of conservation easements (also known as “development rights”) on parcels of land to be used for open space. Eligible expenses include legal costs to purchase development rights, consultant fees, survey, environmental assessments, appraisals, etc.
Eligibility Criteria
- Eligible applicants include non-profit organizations, schools, school districts, and housing authorities with a letter of support townships, counties, park districts, conservation districts, forest preserve districts, and municipalities-including municipal entities such as water reclamation districts- within ComEd’s service territory in the following counties: Boone, Bureau, Carroll, Cook, DeKalb, DuPage, Ford, Grundy, Henry, Iroquois, Jo Daviess, Kane, Kankakee, Kendall, Lake, LaSalle, Lee, Livingston, Marshall, McHenry, Ogle, Rock Island, Stephenson, Whiteside, Will, Winnebago and Woodford.
- Non-profit organizations, schools, school districts, and housing authorities need a letter of support meeting these criteria to apply.
For more information, visit Openlands.
