The Royal Society for Nature Conservation ( RSNC), with eleven consortium partners, manage the £13.94 million programme and award grants to disadvantaged communities throughout England.

Priority is placed on helping disadvantaged communities and projects that actively involve local people in making a real difference to their environment and to their quality of life.   The projects should promote sustainability and local economic development and demonstrate they will have lasting benefits for communities.

Grants are available from the SEED Programme for projects requesting between £500 and £4,999 for smaller community projects and £5,000 to £100,000 for major projects.

The range of projects that may be supported should fall under one or more of the following project themes: Local food initiatives, waste minimisation, re-use and recycling, energy efficiency, biodiversity, consumption and lifestyles, sustainable transport, environmental education and community enterprise.

Applications for the SEED Programme are welcome from local community groups, voluntary organisations, not-for-profit community businesses and local authorities in partnership with community groups.  

For further information and an application pack contact the New Opportunities Fund Public Enquiries line on: 0 121 or visit RSNC’s website at www.rsnc.org .

Full details of the New Opportunities Fund programmes and grant awards are available on the website: www.nof.org.uk . All Lottery Distributing Bodies are accessible through www.lotterygoodcauses.org.uk