Climate action microgrants

Following the success of our popular Great Big Green Week microgrants, we have created a funding pot to support similar projects and activities on an ongoing basis. 

Two to three grants will be awarded per month over the next year.

Aim of the scheme

Our climate action microgrants will award between £100 and £500 to community groups, schools, individuals or non-profits to run events, activities and initiatives that promote positive behaviours in the community around climate change and sustainability.

We want to help spark and support locally-led climate action initiatives, providing small scale funding to help your local green initiative get off the ground or grow an existing project. 

Eligibility

Anyone living or working in the borough of Richmond upon Thames can apply for a microgrant. You can apply as an individual, a community group or non-profit organisation.

Your project

We want to support projects that will help even more residents to engage in sustainable behaviours and learn about climate action. These include, but are not limited to, activities, projects and initiatives that:

• Engage and teach the wider community about the environment
• Reduce emissions on an individual or borough wide level 
• Reduce pollution
• Improve air quality 
• Encourage sustainable behaviour change and skills such as repair, upcycling, energy saving at home and other related areas
• Improve or encourage biodiversity and local natural conservation.
• Help people and nature adapt to climate change
• Reduce how many new items we buy and use 

We are especially interested in supporting projects and ideas that demonstrate a wider community benefit – from involving your neighbours to supporting disadvantaged members of the community.

Requirements

You must ensure you have the relevant permissions to undertake your initiative. Some places will require permission. If your project is on council-owned land or spaces, we can advise on whether your idea is feasible and try to help you get permission.

All events must produce minimal waste and adopt our sustainable events best practices.

If your project involves work with vulnerable adults, or children (under 18s) without the presence of their parent/guardian, we expect you to have DBS checks and the involvement of someone with safeguarding training.

We encourage you to use local suppliers for any purchases. We also recommend that you rent any appliances or tools, instead of buying. Consider using the new Library of Things in Twickenham. 

You will need to:

• Commit to complete your project within six months of receiving the funding 
• Agree that we can use photos or videos of your project so we can inspire other people to do similar things. We will not publish your name, location, or pictures of people without consent
• Complete a simple monitoring form once the grant has been spent, to help us improve the scheme in future, inspire others with stories of successful projects and demonstrate how funding has been used locally. A member of the climate change team will help you to complete this

Project ideas

Example projects could include a project to plant or re-wild a community space, a repair or re-use initiative, a sustainable street festival, a nature trail, an event to chat about climate action or an art and photography session celebrating our local environment.

Check out last year’s Great Big Green week programme for more ideas and inspiration of how grants have been used in the past. 

Planning your application

To increase your chance of success:

• Make sure you’ve thought about your idea and how it matches one or more of the themes listed above. The more detail you provide the better.
• The more people you involve from your area, the better. Your application will be strengthened if you can show that local people already support your idea, or how they will be included or engaged.
• Be clear about how the money will be used

You can apply more than once, but if you already have a project funded, you need to finish this before you can apply again, and priority will be given to partners and projects who have not been funded before.

Deadlines

Applications will be assessed on a monthly basis during the year-long pilot scheme. Funds will be released shortly after the applicants are notified that their application was successful.

Application dates

Deadline	Notification of outcome
Friday 27 September 2024	Week beginning 14 October 2024
Friday 25 October 2024	Week beginning 11 November 2024
Friday 22 November 2024	Week beginning 9 December 2024

The Climate Microgrant programme is now closed for 2024. Register your interest by emailing climatechange@richmond.gov.uk to receive an update in 2025.

How to apply

Applications for 2024 are closed.

After you apply

Your application will be received by the Climate Change team. Each month a panel of members of the team and from across the wider Council will convene to assess that month’s applications and allocate funding. 

If your application for a grant is successful, we will contact you to explain the next steps to follow.

We will also let you know if your application was not successful on this occasion. We will encourage you to try again if certain changes would improve your chances of success.

Contact

If you would like to discuss your idea, have any questions about the application form or would like support filling it out, email climatechange@richmond.gov.uk.