We offer grants, fiscal sponsorship, and design support for people who care for local parks and green spaces across the city. Looking for seed funding or other forms of financial support? Interested in receiving help designing a publication or website for your community group? Learn about the various grants we offer as well as our fiscal sponsorship and design support resources.
Are you an NYC Green Fund grant recipient? Raise funds for your NYC park or open space and have the amount you raised doubled through an ioby crowdfunding campaign! The NYC Green Fund Crowdfunding Challenge provides up to $2,500 in matching funds to approved community projects that are hosted through ioby.
To be eligible for the NYC Green Fund Crowdfunding Challenge, projects must:
Eligible expenses include any cost required to implement a specific project, including, but not limited to:
Projects can be a continuation from your NYC Green Fund grant or they can be brand new. The projects will fall under several categories:
Examples of Ineligible Projects:
1. What is crowdfunding?
Crowdfunding is a way of raising money in small amounts from a large number of people, usually online.
2. What is match funding?
Match funding refers to funds that will be paid in equal amounts to funds received from another source.
3. What is the NYC Green Fund Crowdfunding Challenge?
The NYC Green Fund Crowdfunding Challenge provides up to $2,500 in matching funds to NYC Green Fund grant recipients for approved community projects that are hosted through an ioby crowdfunding campaign. Projects benefiting an NYC open space—including parks, community gardens, street trees, green streets, plazas, water bodies, NYCHA communities, and more are eligible to have their ioby crowdfunding campaign matched. If approved, the NYC Green Fund contributes one dollar for every dollar raised-up to $2,500!
In Our Backyards, Inc. (ioby) is a civic tech nonprofit that gives local leaders the ability to crowdfund the resources they need to build real, lasting change from the ground up. ioby’s crowdfunding platform, including one-on-one coaching and support, helps connect local leaders with support and funding from their communities. You must run an ioby crowdfunding campaign to participate in the NYC Green Fund Crowdfunding Challenge.
4. Who is eligible?
Recipients of an NYC Green Relief and Recovery grant in 2020, 2021, or 2022.
5. How much match funding can I receive on my campaign?
$2,500 is the maximum amount that can be applied to any campaign in the NYC Green Fund Crowdfunding Challenge. This cap helps ensure that multiple projects will have access to funding.
6. Will ioby always have match funding from the NYC Green Fund available for my project?
No, the NYC Green Fund Crowdfunding Challenge has a finite pool of funds available for groups to access. However, the majority of ioby crowdfunding campaign participants fundraise successfully without match funding on their campaign.
7. How does match funding work?
When you fundraise through an ioby crowdfunding campaign with NYC Green Fund match funding, donations to your campaign will be doubled instantly, so you move toward your goal twice as fast. If someone donates $25, your page will reflect a donation of $50! Your page will continue to accept donations after your goal is met and you can raise your campaign goal at any time. You are always welcome to raise more (unmatched) funds beyond the maximum match funding cap, and you can keep whatever match funds you earn even if you raise less than the cap.
8. If I’m approved for match funding, am I guaranteed to receive the maximum amount?
No, this is a challenge match, not a grant. Your team needs to raise a dollar to receive a dollar, and no amount of match funding is guaranteed in advance. For example, if you begin a campaign but then stop fundraising for several months, there is no guarantee that match funding will still be available later. Funds will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis to all participating campaigns, so that funding flows toward projects with the most urgent funding needs and active teams.
9. How do I get approved for match funding?
First, share your project idea via the brief form found here. We will confirm that your project idea fits within the eligibility criteria and discuss the legalities or permit requirements for your project with the appropriate staff. You will then be notified if your project is approved for match funding. Once approved you can begin fundraising!
10. How do I know if match funding is still available for my project?
Once you start an ioby crowdfunding campaign, you will be assigned a success strategist. Your ioby success strategist will alert you in the unusual case that match funds are running low and you may not be able to access the maximum amount.
11. When will I receive match funding?
Once you’ve been approved, donations to your ioby crowdfunding campaign will be doubled instantly as people donate to your page. When you decide to close your campaign, your ioby success strategist will help you with the simple check disbursement process. You’ll receive the total you raised, plus any match applied, as one lump sum—minus ioby’s super-low fees. Please allow two weeks from closing your campaign to receive your check.
12. Can I apply match funding to any donation?
Match funding is meant to make it easier for you to reach out to your networks broadly to ask for donations and not meant for doubling just one large gift. For that reason, $400 is the maximum amount that will be matched on any single donation.
13. Does ioby accept checks?
Yes. It’s not standard practice, but if you have a donor who prefers to give by check, they can send their check to ioby to be applied to your campaign. ioby’s standard processing fee (3%) applies to check donations. We won’t be able to match a check donation until we receive and process the check, whereas online donations are matched instantly.
14. Should the goal I set on my fundraising page include the amount of match funding I hope to receive?
Yes. For example, if you need $2,000 to implement your project, your public goal on your page would be $2,000 — you would only need to raise $1,000 of that goal, which would be doubled as you fundraise.
15. What if I use up the maximum match amount but want to keep fundraising?
Great! You may always continue to fundraise (unmatched) dollars after you’ve reached the match cap of $2,500. Your ioby crowdfunding challenge will stay active and continue to accept donations until YOU decide to end your campaign.
16. What if my project is small and I don’t need the full $2,500 of match funding?
That’s fine! You can still participate with a lower fundraising goal that fits the scale of your project. For example, if you only need $800 to implement your project, build an ioby crowdfunding campaign with a goal of $800, and work to fundraise $400 from your community, which will be doubled as you fundraise.
17. What if I don’t meet my goal?
We want everyone to be successful, and ioby’s training materials and one-on-one support are intended to give you and your team everything you need to pick an appropriate fundraising goal that you can meet. However, with ioby’s flexible finish policy, you can always keep what you raise, even if you fall short of your original goal.
18. What if I’m also planning to apply for a Capacity Fund Grant in Winter 2023?
You are welcome to apply for the Capacity Fund Grant and participate in the NYC Green Fund Crowdfunding Challenge at the same time, for the same or different projects.
Other questions? Contact the NYC Green Fund administration team at nycgreenfund@cityparksfoundation.org.
The NYC Green Relief & Recovery Fund responds to the most urgent needs facing the City’s parks and open spaces, while spurring policy-makers to address ongoing systemic challenges, and provide adequate funding to maintain and improve them.
Apply now for the 2022/2023 Systems Change grant by January 31, 2023.
Get funding for your community group’s ideas and efforts to improve New York City’s parks from our Capacity Fund Grant. If you are an active community group supporting an NYC Parks property in any of the five boroughs, you may be eligible to apply for a small grant of up to $3,000 for park projects and supplies including events, tools, and outreach materials.
The Partnerships for Parks (PfP) Capacity Fund Grant provides up to $3,000 to strengthen the outreach, membership, and program-planning capacity of community groups who care for their neighborhood parks in all five boroughs of New York City.
El programa Capacity Fund Grant (Subsidios para Financiar la Capacitación de la Comunidad) de Partnerships for Parks provee pequeños subsidios de hasta $3,000 para fortalecer la difusión, la membresía y la capacitación en planificación de programas de los grupos comunitarios que se preocupan por los parques de su vecindario en los cinco distritos de la ciudad de Nueva York.
The application process should not begin with submitting the proposal. Below are some ways to prepare:
Siga estos pasos cuando comience el proceso de solicitud:
El proceso de solicitud no debe comenzar con la presentación de la propuesta. A continuación se muestran algunas formas de prepararse:
Who is eligible?
We do not fund:
¿Quién es elegible?
No financiamos:
Funding decisions will be based on:
Las decisiones de financiación se basarán en:
Examples of eligible expenses include:
Ejemplos de gastos elegibles incluyen:
Examples of past grantees include:
Algunos ejemplos de beneficiarios anteriores incluyen:
¿Que más necesita saber?
January 2022 – View January 2022 Grantees here.
November 1, 2020 – View November 2020 Grantees here.
March 15, 2020 – View March 2020 Grantees here.
November 15, 2019 – View November 2019 Grantees here.
February 15, 2019 – View February 2019 Grantees here.
October 1, 2018 – View October 2018 Grantees here.
February 1, 2018 – View February 2018 Grantees here.
Generous private support is provided by The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust, Altman Foundation and the MJS Foundation. Public support is provided by the NYC Council through the Parks Equity Initiative. Presenting sponsor TD Bank.
The Green / Arts LIVE NYC small grants program is designed to encourage community park groups, artists, and community-based arts organizations to collaborate to present free performing arts programs in parks in under-resourced neighborhoods across NYC’s five boroughs.
Work with our art director to create a publication or website. More information will be available soon.
Partnerships for Parks (PfP), through City Parks Foundation, offers fiscal sponsorship to community groups supporting NYC parks and green spaces. Fiscal sponsorship allows community groups who do not have their 501c3 status to build their organizational and financial capacity without having to allocate valuable time and resources required of a nonprofit organization. We are not accepting applications at this time.
We bring New Yorkers together in their parks by offering free programs. Although our programming is temporarily suspended, parks remain open to find solace, to exercise, and to stay healthy. Please give now if you can so that we can be back in parks soon.