Green Roots: Funding London’s Community-Led Projects in 2025

A City Alive with Grassroots Action

Across four funding rounds, small grants reached communities in 22 London Boroughs, particularly in neighbourhoods with less access to green space. Projects reflected the incredible breadth of what community-led environmental action can look like:

• Greening school playgrounds so children can learn, play, and connect with nature every day
• Transforming vacant, meanwhile or underused land into vibrant community gardens and food-growing spaces
• Hosting guided nature walks, citizen science events, river clean-ups, and biodiversity workshops
• Using art, poetry, and storytelling to help people see and connect with nature in new ways
• Creating safe, welcoming hubs where volunteers and neighbours can gather year-round

Often, it was the simplest investments — a tool shed, outdoor shelter, access to water, shared equipment — that made the biggest difference. These practical improvements removed barriers to participation, enabled deeper community and volunteer involvement, and allowed communities to dream bigger about their shared spaces.

Hospital staff and visitors enjoy a nature-based art session at Newham Orchard – Photography: Michael Shilling

Reaching Those Most Often Left Out

A core strength of the small grants programme has been its accessibility, a simple application process (open in person, over a phone or video call, or through a short form), connecting and partnering with local groups and community organisations led and designed by underrepresented groups in nature-deprived boroughs, who are already doing brilliant work, alongside light-touch, low-burden grant reporting requirements, the programme better connected with people who are too often excluded from environmental funding.

In 2025, 90% of grant recipients voluntarily self-identified as belonging to one or more groups underrepresented in the environmental sector, including women and girls, older adults, and children and young people. Of these, 40% identified as being from communities experiencing racial inequity, economic or educational disadvantage, or as migrants or people with disabilities and additional support needs.

This is an area we continue to reflect on, question, and evolve. Our aim is to direct funding toward projects that are led and designed by under-resourced communities, respond to real community needs, and avoid tokenistic approaches driven by optics or metrics alone.

Many projects focused on wellbeing, inclusion, and tackling isolation – showing how nature can be a powerful tool for improving mental and physical health, strengthening social bonds, and creating a sense of place across the city.

SmALL, TRUST BASED GRANTS

For many Rangers, community members and leaders, a Green Roots grant was their first experience of receiving funding. Small grants are often a “vote of confidence” — permission to try something new, test an idea, or take a first step.

Grants enabled Rangers to create free, accessible events, often with simple takeaways like seeds or plants — lowering barriers, inviting participation, and reconnecting Londoners with nature in a city where free events becomes increasingly rare and radical.

These microgrants created space for experimentation and learning, while also supporting more established groups to extend their reach, scale environmental impact, and connect green spaces across boroughs. From pollinator corridors and greenways, food projects connecting surplus from community gardens with food banks, and rewilding schools for children who may have little exposure to green space at home, the impact of these small grants rippled far into communities.

Learning Together, Shaping the Future

As the programme grew, so did its collaborative approach. Ranger grant panels brought new perspectives on funding decisions, strengthening transparency, equity, and shared learning. Panel members themselves highlighted the value of involving newer Rangers and wider community members in future decision-making – pointing towards a more participatory, community-powered model of funding.

Looking ahead, there is strong potential to build on this foundation by offering tiered funding pathways — from seed grants for early ideas, to growth and scaling support for projects ready to expand or replicate across London. Many Green Roots projects are well-positioned to scale and connect with similar projects in other boroughs, as well as with broader green infrastructure plans across the city.

With the goal of democratising access to green skills and decision-making, investing in shared resources such as tool sheds, cargo bikes, and even practical template policies, insurance and courses, can significantly lower barriers to participation. This will be complemented by the 2026 Ranger Programme, which will offer skills workshops and peer learning opportunities to support Rangers at every stage of their journey

Larger pots of funding from a single source can also reduce the administrative burden on Rangers and avoid a stop-start approach, supporting communities to sustain energy and momentum and take projects further.

A Growing Movement

The success of Green Roots has spread largely through our growing Ranger community, made up of 160 local community groups, charities and individuals, through word of mouth, nominations, community conversations, newsletters, and shared celebration of what’s possible. Together, these projects show how Londoners are already leading the city’s transition towards healthier, greener, and more connected neighbourhoods.

As 2025 comes to a close, Green Roots stands as proof that when communities are trusted, supported, and celebrated, they can meaningfully shape London’s landscape for the better — shaping a London that truly lives up to its ambition of being a National Park City.

GRANTS DISTRIBUTED ACROSS LONDON BOROUGHS