The Green Infrastructure Grant Opportunities (GIGO) Program funds projects to construct green infrastructure best management practices (BMPs) that prevent, eliminate, or reduce stormwater runoff into Illinois’ rivers, streams, and lakes.
Donor Name: Illinois Environmental Protection Agency
State: Illinois
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Grant | Reimbursement
Deadline: 11/05/2025
Size of the Grant: More than $1 million
Grant Duration: 2 Years
Details:
For the purpose of GIGO, green infrastructure means any stormwater management technique or practice employed with the primary goal to preserve, restore, mimic, or enhance natural hydrology. Green Infrastructure includes, but is not limited to, methods of using soil and vegetation to promote soil percolation, evapotranspiration, and filtering or the harvesting and reuse of precipitation.
Funding Information
- Illinois EPA’s Notice of Funding Opportunity includes $5,000,000 in funding for projects that will improve water quality in Illinois. GIGO has a set maximum total grant award of $2,500,000 with a minimum grant award of $75,000.
- GIGO is a reimbursement program.
Grant Period
Project length is two years 24 months.
Eligible Projects
Eligible projects will construct BMPs to decrease stormwater runoff prior to release into rivers, streams, and lakes, and include:
- Reconnection of a stream with its floodplain (e.g., two-stage ditch, daylighting);
- Treatment and flow control of stormwater runoff at sites directly upstream or downstream of an impervious area that currently impacts river, stream, or lake water quality through stormwater runoff discharge; and/or
- Treatment and flow control of water generated from impervious surfaces associated with urban development (such as roads and buildings).
Eligibility Criteria
Individuals, Small Businesses, Others, Government Organizations, Education Organizations, Public Housing Organizations, Nonprofit Organizations, For-Profit Organizations are eligible to apply.
- GIGO funds are available to any Grant Accountability and Transparency Act (GATA) Pre-Qualified entity that has legal status to accept funds from the State of Illinois. These may include local watershed groups, land conservancies or trusts, public and private profit and nonprofit organizations and institutions, units government (county, municipal, township, or state), universities and colleges, park districts and other local land managing agencies, soil and water conservation districts, and conservation organizations.
- GIGO applicants must have the financial ability to initiate the project, pay expenses, and then request reimbursement from the Illinois EPA, while continuing to finance their normal operating expenses.
- GIGO applicants must have the authority and ability to implement the proposed project or propose to subcontract portions of the project to the appropriate entities for implementation.
For more information, visit EPA.
