Community Tree Grants

Our Community Tree Grants supports community greening, innovation and stewardship initiatives across the country by offering funding and technical support to help start, upgrade, or achieve your greening goals through tree and shrub planting.

This includes supporting local planting projects as well as developing and rolling out urban forest best management practices and innovative urban design solutions.

Each year we help schools, community groups, Indigenous communities, and municipalities across Canada to increase their green infrastructure.

Our three Community Tree Grants are:

Greening Canada’s School Grounds

Our Greening Canada’s School Grounds grants help strengthen the relationship between students and nature.
Who is Eligible: Tree Canada supports greening projects wherever learning takes place, including on educational institution properties such as elementary schools, primary schools, high schools, universities, colleges and training centers across Canada.
Grant Amount: $3,500 in funding is available per project.

Edible Trees

Our Edible Trees grants help connect people with local food sources and builds community by planting trees and shrubs that produce fruits, nuts, seeds, berries, and pods
Who is Eligible: Funding is available to educational institutions, Indigenous communities, community groups or gardens, food banks, community housing projects, municipalities, or other groups interested in planting edible trees on publicly accessible sites.
Grant Amount: $3,500 in funding is available per project.

Treemendous Communities

Our Treemendous Communities grants encourage and support community tree planting projects that create long-lasting benefits. We accept a wide range of project proposals such as heat island mitigation projects, biodiversity corridors, stormwater retention, invasive species control, riparian planting, park and street tree plantings, and more.
Who is Eligible: Tree Canada supports greening projects wherever people live, work or play. Treemendous Communities funding is available to Canadian municipalities, Indigenous communities, business improvement associations, non-profits and community groups.
Grant Amount: From $3 500 to $10 000 per project.

Yes, you are welcome to apply to more than one of our grants. Your applications may be as similar or as different as you would like. Applying to multiple grants does not affect your chance at being selected. However, please note it is unlikely you would be accepted for two separate grants in the same year.

Applicants can expect to hear from Tree Canada regarding their application no earlier than March of the next year. Our timeline is as follows:

• October: Application period opens
• December: Application period closes
• December – February: Applications are reviewed and scored based on merit, application strength, and creativity.
• Starting in March: Projects are selected to receive funding for planting in spring (April-June) and fall (September-November) of that year.

We are looking for applications that clearly describe the proposed project.

We understand that not every applicant will have technical expertise, for example, to pre-select tree species or comment on the health of the planting site. Regardless, a strong application will have the following:

1. The description and intended impact of the project. What are you trying to do, and why is it important to your group or community? What is the environmental or social need?
2. A general idea of where you want to plant, and a preferred planting season (if any)
3. How your project will be accomplished. Please specify if additional support (technical, financial) is needed.
4. Thoughts on how you will maintain the long-term health of the trees. We want your project to be sustainable and will work with you to ensure your trees are given the best shot at thriving. Tree Canada created this video to provide some basic tips for tree maintenance.

View an example of a strong application that was selected for funding in 2022.

We want to visualize what your site will look like after the project is completed. This includes all site features including buildings, hard surface areas such as roads or parking lots, pre-existing trees/green space, and the planting area for your project. Please note this does not have to be highly technical, complicated, or made on any special software!

Here are two examples of clear and descriptive landscape plans. One is simpler and one is more technical, but both are equally suitable.

• Example 1
• Example 2

As a non-profit organization, Tree Canada relies on the generous support of corporate sponsors and individual donors to fund our programs.

View a list of our sponsors that make Community Tree Grants possible. Successful applicants will be notified of their project’s sponsor once it is approved to receive funding.

Project sponsors are often interested in volunteering to plant trees as part of their contribution to the project. We will favour project applications that can accommodate some level of participation from the sponsor’s volunteers.

If your project is selected for funding, Tree Canada will reimburse eligible project costs up to the full grant amount once your planting is completed and all supporting documents are submitted.

For multi-year projects, funding will be provided once the full grant amount has been spent and all supporting documents are submitted.

Supporting documents include: a report form (provided by Tree Canada), receipts/invoices for eligible project costs, and pictures of the planting site and event.

Wherein the grant recipient cannot pre-pay project expenses, Tree Canada will provide payment directly to suppliers (nursery, garden centre, etc.)

View a list of eligible expenses within our Community Tree Grants.