Thriving Communities Grants: New York City Environment

_NOTE: You may submit a proposal anytime. We build in a long lead time to review proposals and prepare grant recommendations for five board meetings each year. Program staff weigh many considerations in preparing grant recommendations and cannot promise that any proposal will be considered at a particular board meeting. The deadlines above indicate that applicants can expect a decision on their grant application as described here._

Thriving Communities

We make grants to groups that protect and create affordable housing, promote equity in the arts, improve civic engagement, and protect our environment. We support agencies working on these issues at the neighborhood level, as well as government and nonprofit institutions developing strategies. We also support efforts to improve the functioning of nonprofits and government.

New York City Environmental Grantmaking Program

Program goals: to become a climate-smart metropolis; create healthier, more livable communities; and protect urban ecologies.

Grants are made to:

• Become a climate-smart metropolis by:
• reducing greenhouse gas emissions;
• improving the energy efficiency of buildings and various industries;
• increasing the amount of electricity generated by renewable energy resources;
• supporting distributed (on-site) generation, establishing microgrids, and modernizing the grid; and
• encouraging climate resilience and adaptation to climate change particularly in vulnerable low-income communities.
• Create healthier, more livable communities by:
• preventing air pollution;
• reducing the risk of exposure to toxic substances especially for disadvantaged residents;
• reclaiming and redeveloping brownfields;
• creating, improving, and enhancing open space and improving access to the City’s waterfronts; and
• ensuring that environmental benefits and burdens are shared equitably.
• Protecting urban ecologies by:
• safeguarding the City’s critical watersheds;
• preventing pollution of the waterways: and
• preserving and enhancing wetlands, urban tree cover, and wildlife habitat.

Funding

Our grants usually range from $5,000 to $200,000; an average grant is around $90,000. Often, a grant from The Trust cannot fully support a project, so we want to know where the rest of the money will come from.

Eligibility

_You can learn more about this opportunity by visiting the funder's website._

• Most of our competitive grants go to public charities, or groups sponsored by one.
• While our focus is on New York, we support some organizations headquartered outside the City.
• Grantees (or fiscal agents) should have a board of directors with at least four members, and no more than one paid board member.
• We fund programs that promote change in policy or systems, build capacity of organizations, and expand and/or improve direct service.
• For grants to universities, hospitals, academic medical centers, and affiliated nonprofit fiscal sponsors (e.g. research foundations affiliated with fundraising vehicles of government agencies), overhead costs for grant administration may not exceed five percent of the total project budget.
  • Administrative costs related to carrying out the proposed grant activities, including space, supplies, and technology for project staff, are not subject to the five percent limit, and should be identified separately in the proposed budget.
• Our general practice is to make grants for one year.
  • You should be sure to make the case for multi-year funding in your proposal.

Ineligibility

• We generally do not fund environmental education projects.
• We do not make grants to individuals, or for general operating support, capital and building campaigns, endowments, equipment, deficit financing, or religious purposes.