Seed Funding

This grant program is now closed. This page is retained for information only

Our seed funding programme offered grants to help Transition groups build capacity, increase impact in your local community and do something that might otherwise be impossible. Our grants were there to enable groups to work with your community to reimagine and rebuild more socially just and resilient future where everyone can thrive.

The final round was our largest ever, with £270,000 dispersed to support work for community-led change.

We are grateful to National Lottery players and The National Lottery Community Fund for the funding that makes these grants possible.

A group of gardeners from Transition Town WEllington with scythes to cut back the grass and allow wildflowers to thrive.

Build the Alternatives

Maybe you’ll use your grant to launch a new project like a community hub to develop a food growing and sharing scheme; to kickstart a local visioning conversation or for a fantastic event? Or it could help develop your group by supporting coordination or staff costs, help you build relationships and networks, or work in solidarity with under-resourced groups in your community. Perhaps you’ve always wanted to explore what a sustainable local economy might look like, and a grant could help create new livelihoods, a co-op or try a social enterprise.

We are really open to hearing your ideas, so even if they don’t come under these themes please do apply. Find out more about the amazing things unlocked by the last round of seed funding in our article below, and at our Seed Funding Stories event on 2 November.

Inspiration

MICRO GRANTS: £100 – £500

To cover small project costs such as facilitator fees, a zoom account, tools or travel.

FULL GRANTS: £500 – £5,000

To support you to set up new projects, cover core staff costs or launch community led social enterprises.

PARTNERSHIP GRANTS: £5,000 – £10,000

To support you to work in partnership with other Transition groups to achieve a shared goal. Could have a regional or a thematic focus.

People gather at tables in a community hall to discuss how to protect, celebrate and restore the River Exe.

How to Apply

This seed funding is for Transition groups or Hubs in England, Wales and Northern Ireland registered with Transition Network. (Our partners SCCAN offer their own funding programmes in Scotland.)

To register on the Transition Network site, please follow this link. More information on eligibility and the criteria for becoming a transition group is here.

We have tried to make this application process as simple and easy as possible, using short online forms, videos and screen readable content. Groups can make more than one application and can apply for more than one type of grant.

Please do read our All You Need to Know guide before applying. You can also view our Frequently Asked Questions here.

The deadline for applications is 11.59pm on 7 January 2024.

FIND OUT MORE

Seed Funding News

News, Seed Funding

Cultivating Just Transition: reflections on a learning journey

El Herndlhofer, Transition Together’s Just Transition Lead shares what happened when 30 Transition groups gathered monthly to learn and share in principles and practices for weaving social justice into their community efforts

El Herndlhofer
5 December 2024
7 minute read

News, Seed Funding

What should a city do? Community-led change in Belfast and beyond

Within two days and an eight-mile radius, Chris and Rich from our team visited community-owned greengrocers, a solar- and people-powered women’s centre, projects reinventing food banks, back alleys and community food growing. Welcome to Northern Ireland, where we discovered much to inspire communities everywhere.

Chris McCartney
25 October 2024
14 minute read

News, Seed Funding

Transition farm throwing open its gates

Transition Town Dorchester’s community farm has a vision of becoming ‘an outdoor village hall’ for the whole community. This week, a new partnership with Dorset Mind will help it become a space for connection, wellness and growing food where more people feel like they can belong.

Chris McCartney
17 April 2024
6 minute read

News, Seed Funding

“Facing the climate crisis is so much easier in good company”

Transition groups in Cornwall are building a network of climate cafes where people can safely explore the climate and ecological emergencies and the strong feelings it gives rise to.

Katharine Lewis
16 April 2024
3 minute read

News, Seed Funding

Bringing the planet to the heart of a Welsh town

Susan Holmes, chair of Carmarthen Together, shares about their new bilingual community environmental centre. It's fast becoming a hub for practical action, connection and skills, and an amazing feat, less than a year after they launched the Transition town.

Susan Holmes
6 February 2024
3 minute read

News, Seed Funding

A Passion for Working Class Permaculture

Steve Jones has a passion for bringing permaculture and Transition to working class communities. He tells Chris McCartney how the group is using food to bring people together across race and ethic difference, and helping grow access to fresh, affordable, local food on their estate.

Chris McCartney
1 December 2023
9 minute read

Seed Funding, News

Doing it for the Kids: Transition Chipping Norton.

Rob Hopkins hears how Transition Chipping Norton used seed funding grants to reboot their group, while also mobilising young people through an outdoor youth club, to help shape their community.

Rob Hopkins
30 November 2023
11 minute read

Seed Funding, News

“Runner Beans Not Runways” Forest, art and community in Heathrow’s flight path

For 11 years, Grow Heathrow activists transformed a former market garden into a space for community, food growing and resistance to airport expansion. But what’s happened since the site was shut down and activists evicted? Rob Hopkins discovers how Transition seed funding is nurturing new shoots of community power and imagination in the villages that lie in the path of a proposed new runway.

Rob Hopkins
9 November 2023
7 minute read

News, Seed Funding

How seed funding nourishes community action

As we announce the latest round of seed funding, find out how these small grants are unlocking big change in communities and showing how a fairer, more resilient future is not only possible, it’s already being created.

Chris McCartney
19 October 2023
8 minute read

News, Seed Funding

United by the flow of the River Exe

Last month, the River Exe came alive with song, nightswimming, stories and a wild salmon run for the first Festival of the River Exe. Transition co-founder Rob Hopkins hears about the three Transition groups who collaborated to protect, restore and celebrate their local river, harnessing public outrage at the state of our water and transforming it into local action.

Rob Hopkins
4 October 2023
7 minute read

News, Seed Funding

Orchard, forest, a fruit tree for every home: communities planting trees for the future

Creating a new forest may seem a big ambition for a community group. In his latest blog, Transition Together’s Rob Hopkins talks to some of the Transition’s movements most prolific tree planters about how and why they’re seeking to make their communities shadier, leafier and fruitier.

Rob Hopkins
27 April 2023
9 minute read

News, Seed Funding

Creating space for community imagination

How can your community reimagine and reclaim its future? Rob Hopkins explores how creating inclusive spaces, and asking 'What If' questions can unlock our collective imagination.

Rob Hopkins
9 January 2023
8 minute read

Seed Funding

Seed Funding stories: Vertical Farming in Guildford

Zero Guildford set up its climate hub a year ago - and their eye-catching vertical farming towards produce salad and veg indoors to supply its community fridge. Funded by a Transition seed funding grant, watch the video to find out how the towers are sparking conversations about local food production.

Chris McCartney
17 October 2022
1 minute read

News, Seed Funding

How to re-imagine a city

Transition Southampton used seed funding to work in three very different parts of the city. Rob Hopkins spoke to the group to find out how they used enticing ‘What If?’ questions and built on existing connections to grow the capacity of local people to imagine a different future of their own neighbourhoods and what emerged from the project.

Rob Hopkins
3 October 2022
9 minute read

Seed Funding

Seed Funding stories: Solar Gennie

No more polluting generators for outdoor festivals and community events in Belper, thanks to the local Transition group's mobile solar powered generator. Find out how they did it.

Chris McCartney
29 September 2022
1 minute read

Seed Funding

Seed Funding stories: Hubren

Amy Sciafe introduces her seed funded project, the Hubren community resilience space, in this short video.

Chris McCartney
20 September 2022
1 minute read

Seed Funding, News

Portland 4 the Planet sow seeds of local change

As Transition Together’s seed funding goes live, Rob Hopkins caught up with Portland 4 the Planet about the fabulous shoots which emerged from their grant last time round. They told him: “There are so many people out there just searching for something to do that’s positive, that’s going to make a difference. It has been a very positive experience here. It has been amazing to see how it is helping people”.

Rob Hopkins
6 September 2022
7 minute read

Seed Funding, News

Seed Funding goes live: From tiny seeds, Transition groups grow bountiful harvests

We always knew it. Small seeds can lead to many, varied and bountiful crops in the hands of the Transition community! Now, thanks to funding from the National Lottery Community Fund, we are launching a new round of funding available to groups, and we're bursting with excitement to see what you are going to do.

Chris McCartney
28 July 2022
8 minute read

News, Seed Funding

“Hope with its sleeves rolled up” blooms in Wellington

A disused but valued patch land is being transformed into a forest garden providing food, herbs and building materials for the local community. Rob Hopkins chatted to Anita, Helen and Steve from Transition Town Wellington who are behind the project, to hear how a £3,500 seed funding from Transition Bounce Forward helped them craft a new vision with local people for the neglected but historic site. We hear a lot in climate science about ‘positive feedbacks’, how one [...]

Rob Hopkins
12 April 2022
8 minute read

Seed Funding, News

Transition Wilmslow’s gardens grow and grow

Transition Wilmslow in Cheshire was one of 87 Transition groups to receive a seed funding grant from the Transition Bounce Forward project in 2020. Rob Hopkins caught up with Althea, Garry, Andrew and Pippa from the group to find out how their new community garden - and their dream for a network of market gardens - was growing…

Rob Hopkins
16 February 2022
7 minute read