2025 NYC Green Fund: Treetops Guidelines and Application

Generous private support for the NYC Green Fund is provided by The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust, Freedom Together Foundation, The Thompson Family Foundation, Con Edison, Leon Levy Foundation, Essex Avenue Foundation, Booth Ferris Foundation, The Charles H. Revson Foundation, The New York Community Trust, Altman Foundation, The Monarch Foundation, Albert Giving Fund, Treebed LLC, and Klein Family Foundation. The NYC Green Fund's Urban Forest Grants are brought to you by Con Edison. Additional support provided by The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust and Treebed LLC.

Vision
The NYC Green Fund is a pooled grant program intended to support an equitable and resilient network of parks and open spaces to benefit the well-being of all New Yorkers.

Program Description
The NYC Green Fund’s Treetops grants program provides funding for mid-size organizations that program, steward, and advocate for parks and open spaces across NYC’s five boroughs in order to support an equitable and resilient network that benefits the well-being of all New Yorkers. The NYC Green Fund Treetops grants program will support a range of projects, including open space stewardship, environmental action, organizational development, health and wellness, youth engagement, and arts and culture.

Organizations with annual operating budgets between $175,000 and $2,500,000 may be awarded one- or two-year grants of up to $50,000 annually. New projects selected in 2024 received an average grant award of $15,818, and the largest grant awarded was $35,000. Please review the Application Eligibility and Funding Limits and Types of Expenses sections below to confirm eligibility.

For organizations with operating budgets less than $175,000 annually, please review the NYC Green Fund’s Grassroots grant program on our Grants webpage.

Key Dates 
The application deadline is Wednesday, October 15, at 12:00 PM (noon) ET. Applications and reports must be submitted through the City Parks Foundation’s online grants management system. The application is available for submission here.

We are hosting a webinar on Wednesday, September 24, at 4:00 PM ET. Attendance is not required but strongly encouraged. The webinar recording will be available HERE until the deadline.

Treetops 2024 grantees must have an interim report or final report submitted to apply.

Applicants will be notified in December, and the grant period will commence upon signing the grant agreement. One- and two-year grant recipients are required to submit an interim report halfway through the grant period, and a final report will be required within one month of the grant period completion.

Application Eligibility and Funding Limits
Applicants must be authorized to complete the work included in this application and will obtain all permissions necessary prior to implementation.

Organizations with demonstrated experience working in NYC’s publicly owned and accessible open spaces, with annual operating budgets in the previous fiscal year between $175,000 and $2,500,000, are eligible to apply. Examples include but are not limited to:

• Parks or open space stewardship-focused organizations 
• Open space programming- focused organizations
• Organizations that advocate for open space improvements 
• Organizations offering green workforce development

Organizations may submit joint applications. An applicant may only be the lead on a single application, but may participate as a partner in other submissions. For joint applicants, the combined operating budgets of partners must be more than $175,000.

Eligible organizations may request up to 25% of the organizational annual operating budget in the previous fiscal year, with a maximum request amount of $50,000 annually for two years. Joint applicants can request up to 25% of their combined operating budget for the most recently completed fiscal year.

Grants will be awarded for one (1) or two (2) year commitments; year two commitments will depend upon funding raised for the NYC Green Fund in that second year.

• To be eligible for two-year funding, an organization must have received at least one CPF grant since 2020 and completed all required interim and final reports.
• Please include the second year of project details in your project budget, timeline, and activities if you are requesting a two-year grant.

The applicant or applicant’s fiscal sponsor must be exempt from federal taxation as a public charity as described in sections 509(a)(1), (2), (3), or (4) and Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.

Areas of Support  
Applicants may apply for funding in at least one and up to three of the following:

• Stewardship: Community-oriented care of open spaces, such as volunteer service projects;

  • Examples: planting and maintaining a native flower garden, maintaining a dog run, organizing a series of beach cleanups.

• Environmental action: Educational and awareness-building programs that provide people with the skills to take responsible actions to protect the environment;

  • Examples: hosting a series of programming such as teach-ins on the impacts of shore erosion, holding a forum on air quality, or organizing a training to mobilize local park champions.

• Organizational development: Support the organization’s ability to thrive, including activities incurring a one-time expense such as training, strategic planning, marketing, communications, financial management, HR systems, and transition or succession planning;

  • Examples: hosting conflict resolution training; purchasing accounting software; developing a 5-year plan; convening partners for a shared staff training day.

• Youth engagement: Job training for high school students and/ or talent development programs to support young adults (18- 24) entering the workforce;

  • Examples: supporting youth through paid internships, developing a mentorship program with STEM professionals.

• Health and wellness: Activities that promote physical, mental, and emotional health for park users, such as exercise, community connections, or meditation;

  • Examples: yoga series in the park, a free basketball league, ongoing nature walks, or convening community members for a wellness series in the park.

• Arts and culture: Ongoing arts and community-oriented cultural programming in an open space. (Note that one-off performances are not eligible, only multi-day series.)

  • Examples: a series of public theater performances, a summer movie night series, ongoing arts and crafts making workshops, or a multi-day music festival.

• Urban Forest Grants brought to you by Con Edison: Activities that promote urban canopy health, such as tree planting, tree stewardship (this can include events), tree guard installation, tree rescue, and educational events.

  • Examples: tree planting or tree bed clean-ups; coordinating with NYC Parks Tree Time to plant trees; hosting a series of tree care education workshops.

Urban Forest Grants brought to you by Con Edison 

This year, generous funding provided by Con Edison and The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust has been reserved for proposals focused on urban forestry and tree care work. Our objective is to increase NYC’s tree canopy from the current 22% to 30%, engage new and returning tree stewards, and assess the health of existing trees and tree beds.

Eligible work includes, but is not limited to:

• Tree planting and any tools required (Note: NYC Parks is in the process of planting trees in NYC Heat Vulnerability Index (HVI) areas 4-5 by 2027. As a result, we suggest planting in HVI areas 1-3, particularly along the border of zones 4-5.)
• Tree care and stewardship, and any tools required
• Foster public engagement through educational and stewardship events, including City of Forest Day, Earth Day, Arbor Day, etc.
• Tree guard installation (Price table, inquiry form)
• Tree health assessment and tree rescue 
• Education
• Giveaway events with trees or plants for tree beds 
• Staff training/ professional development related to forestry and tree care, such as Citizen Pruner certification or continuing education programs

We encourage applicants to refer to and coordinate with:

• Tree Time raises public awareness of the importance of urban forestry conservation and stewardship, promotes new technologies to enhance tree survival and improve management, and revitalizes historically and arboreally significant municipal trees. Tree Time helps with the installation of tree guards, tree planting, and sidewalk repair, working with qualified contractors who follow the city specifications and standards. Learn more and contact Tree Time here.
   
• NYC Parks Stewardship volunteers help with forest and wetland restoration, planting and street trees, harvesting and propagating native seed, and monitoring local wildlife. By becoming a steward of NYC’s green spaces, you can help ensure that our city’s natural resources are kept safe for future generations. Sign up for Super Steward training, review tip sheets for tree care and planting, and request to host a volunteer project here.
   
• Forest for All NYC is a broad and diverse coalition that implements the 12 actions in the NYC Urban Forest Agenda, a roadmap to protect, maintain, expand, and promote the New York City urban forest. The coalition’s vision: a healthy, biodiverse, robust, accessible, well-understood, and resilient urban forest to benefit all New Yorkers in a way that is just and equitable and that helps the city adapt to and mitigate climate change. Learn more at www.ForestForAll.nyc.
   
• Review the USDA Forest Service’s tools, including i-Tree, a state-of-the-art, peer-reviewed software suite from the USDA Forest Service that provides urban and rural forestry analysis and benefits assessment tools.

Types of Expenses
Eligible expenses include:

• Staffing costs, including fringe benefits (full-time/part-time/ seasonal/ internships/ apprenticeships/ etc.)  
• Consultants, contractors, or professional fees 
• Programming costs for ongoing arts programs or a series
• Equipment and supplies 
• Marketing and outreach costs
• Impact assessment costs

Non-eligible expenses include:

• Maintenance work conducted by anyone other than volunteers or interns. Maintenance work restrictions do not apply to tree-related maintenance work.
• Public-facing programs taking place in indoor areas or spaces that are not publicly accessible
• Public programs that require payment or membership to participate
• One-time activations/ programs that are not grounded in ongoing programming or stewardship goals 
• Electioneering
• Lobbying
• Litigation

Review Process
City Parks Foundation and program partners vet applications, and funding decisions are made by a grant review committee composed of NYC Green Fund donors.

Evaluation Criteria and Priorities

• Communities served 
  • Proposals planned for properties deemed parkland in NYC are prioritized, although all publicly accessible open spaces in NYC are eligible.
  • Priority will be given to open spaces located in and serving Environmental Justice Areas recognized by the Mayor’s Office of Climate and Environmental Justice and New York State. A map of the areas is available here.
  • Priority will be given to applicant organizations led by individuals who identify as Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (e.g., BIPOC Executive Director, or 51% BIPOC Board, or 51% senior staff).
     
• Strategic alignment 
  • The project aligns with the NYC Green Fund’s Treetops guidelines for the grant as outlined.
  • Priority will be given to proposals that include ongoing stewardship or programming of parks and open spaces.
     
• Feasibility: 
  • The intended outcomes of the proposal and reporting required for this grant are feasible considering the applicant’s resources, relationships, and experience.
    • For tree planting and care, we strongly suggest coordinating with partners and referencing materials on how to plant and care for trees. (See Urban Forestry section above.)
  • If the proposed project includes environmental alterations such as landscaping or new trees, the proposal must describe how the applicant will provide long-term care for the site.
  • If a partnership application, the proposal demonstrates that the partnership is mutually beneficial to all parties involved.
     
• Budget: 
  • The proposal should demonstrate a clear and pressing funding need.
  • For solo applicants, applications can only request up to 25% of their annual operating budget from the most recently completed fiscal year. 
  • For joint applicants, applications can only request up to 25% of their combined operating budget for the most recently completed fiscal year.

Grants Management
Grants will be made by City Parks Foundation (CPF), and all reporting information will be submitted to CPF. CPF manages the day-to-day administration of the NYC Green Fund, which is governed by a steering committee of funders.

For more information, visit CityParksFoundation.org or email NYCGreenFund@cityparksfoundation.org.