Green Roots Fund prospectus

Collaboration and partnership working between organisations is encouraged. We welcome proposals from partnerships that build on the strengths of different organisations.  

A collaboration might be with: 

• private sector partners, such as with Business Improvement Districts 

• other not-for-profit organisations, such as landowning organisations and charities.  

The lead organisation will take overall responsibility for the delivery and management of the project. They must be a public or civil society sector organisation and clearly identified in the application. 

Supporting partners may be involved in more than one application per round. However, they will need to show that they can deliver on all successful applications. 

If you’re not sure whether your organisation or partnership is eligible to apply, please contact us on: [email protected].

The Green Roots Fund seeks to deliver against the following objectives:

1. Enhancement of green and blue infrastructure in London. This means projects should:
   • make London’s neighbourhoods healthier, more nature-rich and climate resilient
   • contribute to ensuring that all Londoners feel the benefits of more good quality and better-connected nature that is resilient, valued and accessible. 
2. Inclusion and involvement of Londoners in green and blue infrastructure. This means projects should:
   • contribute to ensuring that all Londoners can access green and blue infrastructure and its benefits
   • undertake work that makes Londoners feel welcome and comfortable in green, blue and natural spaces, and involve more diverse sets of groups in management and decision making.

Decisions around the funding objectives will be delivered through the following principles:   

1. Evidence driven decisions. This means we'll use robust evidence to demonstrate need and prioritise projects, ensuring public investment is spent on projects that collectively deliver high impact for London.    
2. Collaborative stewardship. This means we'll expect grantees to share learning and work together with communities and others to maximise impact. We also expect you to ensure appropriate measures are in place to sustain the impact in the longer term.

Your project could include implementation works such as: 

• creation, improvement and/or restoration of green space, waterways, wetlands or other habitats 
• rewilding 
• tree planting 
• species reintroduction 
• climate adaptation measures such as projects for flood prevention and urban cooling.

Or it may be focused on enabling works such as: 

• community science, activation and outreach 
• community micro-grant schemes 
• roll out of innovations in maintenance and management 
• feasibility studies 
• staff and volunteer training 
• baseline surveys 
• design work.

These are not exhaustive lists and your project could focus on other activities. The strongest projects are likely to include both implementation and enabling works.

Projects may be delivered in: 

• one or more locations
• existing green, blue or natural spaces
• areas where there is currently little or no green infrastructure and you want to create it. 

All projects should seek to involve Londoners in planning, decision-making or managing funded activities, either in the short or long term. 

Projects should include provision for sharing learning to help all Londoners work towards the creation of a greener, more climate resilient city.

The Green Roots Fund will not support:  

• projects and activities that will not benefit members of the public
• projects that are not related to green or blue infrastructure
• projects that cannot be completed and reported on within two years
• private individuals
• routine maintenance
• one-off habitat management activities with no plan in place for appropriate long-term management
• activity that has already taken place or that is a continuation of existing work
• works that are legally required of landowners or managers
• activity outside Greater London
• buying land (acquisition)
• core costs (for example existing staff or rent) that are not project specific.

Priority themes will be set for each funding round.  

These themes will reflect the most up-to-date sector priorities and seek to drive impact against priority needs.   

We'll share priority themes around three months before each application deadline.  

Applications that respond to these themes are likely to score highly in assessment, but projects that are not linked to a priority theme will still be supported if they meet the Green Roots Fund criteria. 

The process will still be competitive, and high-quality applications will stand the best chance of success.   

Current priority themes

All projects will need to provide or secure at least 10 per cent match funding from alternative sources. This can be:

• in cash – for example, from another grant or from your own funds, or
• in kind – for example, donated materials, staff or volunteer time. 

You do not need this fully secured when you submit your application. But we’ll need written confirmation of the funding before we release any payments.

You can use Green Roots funding itself as match funding against other funding to support larger and more ambitious projects.

However, where our funding is less than 60 per cent of the total project budget, we'll need:

• 75 per cent of other funding confirmed when you submit your application
• 100 per cent of other funding confirmed when you sign a grant agreement with the Greater London Authority (GLA).

You should calculate the value of volunteer time as follows: 

• use the London Living Wage for “unskilled” volunteering. This is classed as a task that can be carried out with basic or no training 
• use a typical hour or daily rate for the task or profession, for volunteering time that relies on specialist skill.

Grant funds can support a range of costs that contribute to the delivery of the project, for example:  

• materials
• plants
• small items of equipment
• staff costs
• travel and subsistence
• contractors and consultants
• marketing and publicity
• grants provided to end beneficiaries
• event costs
• volunteer expenses
• volunteer time
• tree care
• tree aftercare
• monitoring, evaluation and reporting.

When applying, you should consider how long your project will take from start to finish and include that timeframe in your application. This should include:

• preparatory work
• securing any permissions
• project implementation
• reporting.

You will need to submit project milestones, which will be your project plan, setting out key activities in your application.  

Project activity should not start until a grant funding agreement has been signed; we cannot fund any activity that takes place before we have decided to fund your project. You should plan to start your project at least three months after the application deadline.

We can support projects for up to two years.

If your project involves physical work to one or more sites, we require project outputs to be maintained for a minimum of two years. This is to ensure your project’s benefits are maintained into the future.

If your project requires permits, such as those from statutory agencies, or other permissions these should be:

• secured at the time of application, or 
• on track to be secured by the time a grant agreement is signed (around three months after the application deadline). 

We’ll ask about your plans to secure permissions in the application. You should clearly identify securing of permissions within your project risk assessment.

You must have evidence of landowner permission when you apply.
 

It’s important that projects do not have a negative impact on the environment. You should strive to meet the highest possible sustainability standards to support delivery of target outcomes relating to:

• climate change mitigation
• energy
• water
• materials and waste
• air quality
• adaptation
• biodiversity.

As a minimum, you should include:

• avoiding the use of harmful chemicals such as herbicides
• not using peat or peat-based products
• ensuring timber is from a sustainable source
• reducing the need for fossil fuels where possible.

We want to see interventions that are resilient to climate change and not a contributor.

These questions will check whether your organisation is eligible for this funding. It also lets assessors carry out due diligence checks, such as reviewing organisational accounts or cashflow.

They are not scored, but all organisations must meet the eligibility criteria depending on the grant amount requested.

If you’re applying as a partnership, the lead organisation should complete this section, as they will receive and be responsible for funding.

They’ll also need to tell us about any project partners. So who else is involved and what their role is in project delivery.

We will assess this section, and your project plan, budget and risk register against the Green Roots Fund criteria.

• Ambition and impact – explain how you’ll deliver on the Green Roots Fund objectives
• Need and opportunity – explain why your project is needed
• Inclusion – explain how you’ll include a diverse range of Londoners
• Deliverability and long-term legacy - share key documents and explain how your grant will deliver on the proposed impacts.

Each criteria forms 25 per cent of the assessment.

First you’ll need tell us some basic information about your project, including where it will take place.

If your project proposes to work with children, young people or volunteers, you’ll need to evidence that you have a valid safeguarding policy in place.

Equalities monitoring questions are optional and not assessed. We ask to understand who is applying for our funding and ensure equitable access.

You may include a small number of short documents to support your application. These should be limited to things we require, such as landowner permission and partners confirming their involvement.

We will not read extensive documents such as feasibility reports, etc. Please do not include them. You should reference them in your application and summarise their findings where relevant to the assessment criteria. We’ll request them if they are needed in our decision making.

All projects should allow for data collection and submission to allow us to monitor progress of your project. Our project monitoring will be proportionate to the grant amount.

When putting together your budget, you should consider how you’ll manage project monitoring. You may want to consider including an allowance of 3-5 per cent of your grant in staff time to cover monitoring.

All projects should consider doing an evaluation. This should be proportionate to the grant value. You can run your evaluation internally by existing staff or externally by an independent third-party.

For projects over £200,000, we strongly advise getting an external evaluation. You could increase the monitoring budget to 7 per cent to accommodate both evaluation and monitoring.

Project monitoring will be based on the milestones and outputs proposed in your application. But all projects will need a monitoring review at least every six months.

In the application, you’ll need to select the relevant indicators and provide a target for each one. You’ll also be able to add custom outputs beyond the list for your project delivery. You'll need to measure and report against the indicators selected during project monitoring.

Greenspace data and records

You will need to provide any habitat data or species records generated through the project to London's local environmental records centre, Greenspace Information for Greater London (GiGL).

GiGL can help you with every step of the process, from generating data, through to analysis and publication of your project's results.

Please contact them early in the project planning process to discuss:

• how they can support you
• the data standards and formats they require you to use
• what data and information they already hold that may be useful to your project
• the associated costs of their involvement, so you can factor them in to your application.

For a more in-depth guide to the questions we'll ask, please download our application form template and guidance.

After each deadline, GLA officers and technical experts will assess grant applications against the criteria.

We’ll also consider the balance of projects at each funding round. This is so we fund varied projects for lots of different people and groups across Greater London.

We expect high demand for this funding. The GLA will not be able to fund all good projects that meet the criteria.

Successful applicants will be notified in line with the published decision date.

At this point, you will get a dedicated GLA grant officer. They will work with you to complete the grant funding agreement. You will have a dedicated grant officer for the duration of your project.

Sharing best practice

All grant recipients will be expected to share their knowledge, learning and best practice to accelerate the creation of a greener, more climate resilient city.  

We expect applicants to communicate their projects with us, for example through producing social media content and providing quotes and case studies for press and promotion. Projects delivered on the ground will be expected to provide signage indicating funding support.

Support for successful grantees 

Grant recipients are expected to attend workshops and sharing sessions with our support partner (to be appointed).

Acknowledging our funding 

Grant recipients are expected to publicly acknowledge that the Mayor of London is financially supporting their projects.

This should include on:

• site signs
• posters
• online, in social media or other communications. 

We’ll provide guidance on how to use our logo and will need to approve all materials before production. You should include costs for items such as signs in your budget.

Payment terms

Successful applicants who receive an offer of funding must sign a grant agreement before the project can start.   

Grant payments will be made in three stages:  

• 50 per cent on signing the grant funding agreement and completing project specific conditions, if applicable
• 40 per cent once you have evidenced that you have spent 80 per cent of the first payment, and on completing appropriate agreed milestones
• 10 per cent when you have finished your project and we have received project completion documentation. 

If your project includes aftercare costs for significant tree planting, we will pay this with the final 10 per cent when we have received the required confirmation. The middle payment will be adjusted accordingly.

We know that there is likely to be a high demand for Green Roots funding and we will not be able to fund all good applications. You'll be notified if you're unsuccessful. There will be no appeals process and no formal feedback for applications.

We aim to keep the application form open between deadlines, so you can work on your application at a time that suits you.

The form may close temporarily after an application deadline for system updates. All complete applications will be removed from the system for assessment.

It will re-open again after this, so you can continue working on any draft applications ahead of the next round's application deadline date.

We will announce priority themes for each round three months before the deadline.

If you have a project in mind or you’re working on an application, this is a good time to review your plans against the priority theme, finalise your application and submit. 

If your project is not yet well developed, please continue to work on your submission and wait for another funding round. We expect strong competition for the Green Roots Fund. It’s worth taking the time to develop your proposal to stand a better chance of success.

If you submit an application soon after a funding round closes, please be aware that we won’t assess it until the next funding round closes. You may want to leave it in draft, then review and submit shortly before the deadline, in case anything changes.