Nature Communities

Open call & application guidelines

Key information

• Applications open: 14 October 2026
• Q&A online session: 28 October 2026, 17:30-18:30. Sign up
• Q&A online session: 11 November 2026, 12:30-13:30. Sign up
• Deadline: 2 December 2026, 23:59
• Selection panel interviews: January 2027
• Grantees announced: February 2027
• Easy read version of this page
• Apply here

About the open call

This first open call of Afield’s Nature Communities fund aims to support community-led nature projects in London. We believe that local communities are best placed to shape the joyful, biodiverse spaces they can enjoy.

Systemic under-investment means many inner-city communities face severe environmental, social, and economic injustice. In addition, residents in these inner-city areas usually face greater financial pressures, have less free time, and have access to fewer voluntary organisations tackling these challenges. This results in:

• a lack of biodiversity and habitat for all species
• poor human physical and mental health arising from lack of access to rich local ecosystems and poor air quality
• vulnerability to climate change, including flooding and summer heat
• a lack of opportunity to take part in and influence land stewardship, and to experience the interconnectivity of all species.

These outcomes are not felt equally: people from global majority and low income backgrounds, who are more likely to live in inner-city areas, are disproportionately affected and excluded from making decisions that shape their environment. These inequities are rooted in a long history of colonialism, racism, and extractivism.

We are particularly interested in applications from – or that benefit - people and communities experiencing environmental injustice, such as those from global majority and low income backgrounds.

To focus our fund where it can have the greatest impact, we commissioned a map combining data on access to green space; access to nature; indices of deprivation; and brownfield sites (where priority areas are highlighted in orange). This led us to focus this call on the London boroughs of: Barking and Dagenham, Brent, Hackney, Islington, Lambeth, Lewisham, Newham, and Waltham Forest.

To be eligible, applicants must live in or serve a community in one of these boroughs. Within each borough we will prioritise proposals located in areas highlighted in orange on the map. You can check if the location of your proposal is in an orange area by selecting the magnifying glass icon at the top right of the map and entering a postcode.

We aim to be a fair and considerate funder, and have tried to make the application process as simple and accessible as possible to minimise the time you need to spend on your application.

What we offer

We aim to fund six people who have creative, transformative ideas for long-term, community-led projects that benefit people, animals, plants, and fungi.

The fund intends to enable you to dedicate meaningful time to your project. You must be able to spend at least two days per week working on it. This may vary from week to week, but it should average two days per week overall.

Grantees will receive:

• a two-year grant of up to £60,000, with the opportunity to apply for follow-on funding in the third year. The grant will fund your time and other project costs such as events, materials, equipment, and services
• cohort-based support: this will include peer learning, workshops, and opportunities to connect with other community nature practitioners.

What we are looking to fund

We are looking to fund ideas or projects rooted in community and place, which are seeking to restore or create ecological richness, benefiting people, animals, plants, and fungi.

Strong proposals will demonstrate:

• a clear sense of place, rooted in your local geography, community and ecology
• that they are community-led: you will need to explain how the project has been, or will be, shaped by and benefit a community; if you have not yet worked with a community on the proposal, you should demonstrate how your connection with that community will enable you to do so
• joy: your project will create opportunities for delight, for example, by creating opportunities for connection between people and other species
• long-term thinking: a vision and plan that goes beyond the funded period.

Proposed projects might include (but are not limited to): community growing spaces, food forests, habitat creation and restoration, pollinator corridors, re-wilded verges, tiny forests, urban wetlands, rain gardens, community orchards, or other ideas that connect people to animals and plants, and vice versa. It is important that the proposed project is genuinely community led, supports local ecology, and is designed to be sustainable beyond the funding period.

Projects must take place in spaces that are accessible to the public and free of charge. Ideally this should be without restriction, although we may accept somewhere that is, for example, closed at night for security reasons, as is the case for many parks.

We will fund applications for projects at any stage: you could apply with a new idea or an existing project that you wish to develop further. This could be by expanding it, involving a new community, or trying something different.

We are particularly interested in applications that are from – or that benefit – people and communities with lived experience of environmental injustice. We are also interested in applications for risk-taking projects and ideas that might not be easily funded elsewhere.

Who can apply

To be eligible you must:

• be aged 18 or over
• have the right to reside in the UK
• live in or serve a community in one of these London boroughs: Barking and Dagenham, Brent, Hackney, Islington, Lambeth, Lewisham, Newham, Waltham Forest
• not be in full-time employment or education during your proposed project period, and be able to dedicate at least two days a week to your project
• be ready to start your project in February 2027.

You do not need formal qualifications, previous grant or project management experience, or affiliation with an organisation. We are actively looking for people whose ideas are rooted in their community and people who may not have applied for funding before.

If you haven’t yet identified a space for your proposal, explain what you are looking for and how you will go about the search.

We will not fund:

• organisations: this round is for individuals only, but you may apply as an individual that is linked to, or a member of, an organisation
• people who have already secured funding to deliver the proposed project
• projects that will generate profit (either for a profit-making organisation or for personal profit)
• proposals relating to a space that is not publicly accessible and free of charge.

What we expect from grantees

The Nature Communities programme combines funding with cohort support and learning. We aim to support our grantees’ learning and to learn from each cohort.

Grantees are asked to commit to:

• dedicating a minimum of two days a week to their project (including cohort sessions)
• attending monthly cohort sessions facilitated by Afield over the two-year funded period: monthly for six months, frequency thereafter to be decided by cohort (half a day per month to be allocated from budget to cohort sessions)
• sharing their skills and learning with the cohort
• documenting their project’s progress and outcomes (to be featured on Afield’s website and social media where appropriate)
• engaging with Afield’s organisational learning, including evaluation activities
• reporting:
• quarterly light touch information sharing
• 6-monthly progress sharing and cohort review
• an annual evaluation interview
• informing Afield about any change in circumstances that affects grantees’ ability to deliver their project or to participate in the cohort after being awarded the grant
• set up a new UK bank account where the grant will be paid into.

The application form

The call for applications is open from 14 October 2026 to 2 December 2026.

Please read the application terms and conditions.

Alongside the online form, we provide a downloadable document with all the questions. You can use this to prepare your application before submitting it via the online form. The form is structured as follows:

• section 1 is about your eligibility to apply
• section 2 asks for your contact details
• section 3 is the core of your application. You may answer in bullet points rather than full paragraphs
• section 4 asks about the amount of funding you are applying for
• section 5 asks about diversity data
• you can save your answers as you go along by clicking ‘Save’ at the bottom of the form
• it will take you approximately two hours to complete the form.

The selection process

Step 1 — Longlisting

If we receive more than 30 applications, we will use Open Chance Selection (a random number generator) to longlist 30 applications for full consideration. We are a small organisation that cannot fully assess hundreds of applications. This approach allows us to give a meaningful number of applications our proper attention, including providing feedback.

The use of a random number generator is not perfect but we believe it offers a fairer outcome than attempting to assess large numbers of applications. Read more about our decision to use Open Change Selection.

Step 2 — Shortlisting

We will use the selection criteria below to shortlist 10 applicants from the longlist of 30. The 10 shortlisted applicants will be invited for a selection panel interview and to give a short presentation covering further details about their project. Each will be paid a fee of £300 to cover this work.

Step 3 — Final selection

The selection panel will choose the Nature Communities grantees from the 10 shortlisted applicants. The panel will be made up of four people with relevant experience, including community organising and ecology (selection panel members to be announced). The selection will be recommended to Afield’s board of trustees for final approval.

Step 4 — Applicant verification and grant agreement

Selected applicants will receive a grant offer subject to due diligence, which Afield is required to do by law, and will be asked to provide a reference. Once these steps are completed, both Afield and the grantee will sign the grant letter, and grantees will be given details of grant payments and onboarding.

Selection criteria

We will assess applications against the following criteria.

At the shortlisting stage, we will look at:

• the strength of your proposed project, its links to place and community, and how it will shape a rich, joyful and diverse community-led nature space
• evidence that your project will be shaped by a local community and address its priorities
• the extent to which your lived experience of environmental injustice - and that of the community your project aims to benefit - informs your application
• your experience and motivation to make the project work
• cohort alignment: what might you gain from working alongside other grantees, and what skills or experience will you bring to the group.

At the panel selection stage, we will look at the criteria above, plus the following:

• achievability: how realistic is the delivery of the proposal and its outcomes, and the roles of the people involved
• how will the project be sustained after the funded period?
• the role of creativity in the approach, activities, or outputs
• care and ecology: how will the proposed project support biodiversity, and care for animals, plants, and fungi as well as people?

We may apply positive action in line with the Equality Act 2010, based on evidence we have summarised of environmental injustice in relation to green space.

Using AI for your application

We understand that using AI can help improve the quality and speed up the process of writing your application, especially if English is not your first language, you are unfamiliar with writing applications, or find writing difficult. However, we ask you to use it carefully: AI can make specific, distinctive ideas sound generic. We suggest you edit any AI-assisted content so that we can hear your own voice and intentions clearly and are able to properly understand your idea. We are happy to read your answers as bullet points rather than paragraphs: what matters to us is the content of your proposal rather than your writing style.

If we believe your application has been wholly or substantially written by AI, we may decide to exclude it from the selection process. AI tools have a significant environmental impact, requiring large amounts of energy and fresh water to power their data centres. As an environmental charity we ask you to consider this in your use of AI during your application.

How we use your data in the application process

We will collect and store personal data that you provide during your application according to our privacy policy and applicable data protection law.

We encourage you to provide this demographic data, because we seek to monitor the diversity of our applicants, and to take positive action according to our selection criteria, as appropriate.

Accessibility and support

If you are not able to apply via the written application form, we can arrange for you to send your application in audio format. Please email us at applications@afield.org.uk to set this up.

We recognise that grantees with access needs may have additional costs. Grantees with access needs will be eligible for up to £1,500 per year to cover access costs in addition to their grant. If you expect your access costs to be above this amount, you may include reasonable access costs in your application budget.