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The Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) is launching year two of the Composting for Community Mini-Grant Program to support new or existing local community composters in New England coastal states and – for the first time – New York City. The Mini-Grant Program focuses in particular on historically underserved communities, including Native Nations and neighborhoods affected by discrimination and exclusion. We invite applications from projects originating in these communities, including BIPOC-led or BIPOC-serving organizations.
This opportunity is made possible with support from 11th Hour Racing for the second consecutive year. You can read about last year’s 10 grant recipients here.
In addition to funding, awardees will receive virtual hot composting training, a travel stipend to attend the 9th National Cultivating Community Composter Forum in Sacramento, California, in February 2026, and access to ILSR’s Community Composter Coalition, a network of community composters that builds connections, spreads lessons learned and inspires new operations.
With declining federal support for climate action and environmental justice, it’s vital to invest in local initiatives making an impact to combat climate change, divert food scraps, and build healthy soils in their communities. While Several New England states have enacted legislation to divert food waste from disposal, they mainly target large food waste generators. To meet these regulations, there are abundant resources available to assist supermarkets and other food waste generators but there continues to be a notable lack of support for schools, community gardens, and urban farms in historically excluded neighborhoods to establish a local circular economy. Similarly, although New York City has proved a leader in supporting local composting, the tumultuous rollout of curbside composting, the pressures of industrial competition, and the limited scope of municipal funding mean many in the city’s vibrant ecosystem of community composters remain under-resourced. This program partially addresses these disparities by providing limited resources and guidance to fill this gap.
We will abide by our Equity Principles Guide to steer our decision-making and help ensure equity, justice, and inclusion support our mini-grant funding decisions.
Organizations rooted in and/or working in historically underserved communities and neighborhoods affected by discrimination and exclusion, including BIPOC-led or BIPOC-serving programs, and Native Nations.
Projects must fund new or existing local community composting initiatives.
Funded projects must reside within:
Example groups include community gardens, congregations, educational institutions (e.g., schools), farms, food co-ops, food scrap collection service providers, for-profits, governmental institutions, Native Nations, non-profits, worker-owned co-ops, and more.
The application will open on June 16th, 2025, and close on July 25th, 2025.
First: Review the scoring rubric that will be used to evaluate your application.
Then: Submit an application via Google Forms. All applicants will be asked to submit a budget.
Candidates should allot about 20 to 30 minutes when applying. The Google Forms application will automatically save your responses. However, you must log in to start and return to the application.
For technical difficulties or questions about the mini-grant program or application, please email [email protected].
Approved projects must be completed within one year of receiving and acknowledging the award and guidelines for implementation.
If selected as an awardee, you will be asked to provide the following documents:
Founded in 1974, the Institute for Local Self-Reliance is a national research and technical assistance organization that constructs the foundation and framework for communities to take charge of their local resources, economies, and environmental future. We focus on keeping economic and political power as close to the people as possible, where they have the responsibility and authority to make the decisions that impact their lives.
ILSR’s Composting for Community Initiative catalyzes distributed and diverse local composting across the country to cut food loss, enhance soils and watersheds, support local food production, and protect the climate while addressing community prosperity and equity. We are amplifying distributed solutions that encompass composting at home, community gardens, urban and rural farms, schools, and micro facilities operated by non-profits, cooperatives, and social enterprises. Too often, cities and states favor mass industrial compost production and sweep aside the rich array of locally-based options.
ILSR’s current work plan for our Composting for Community Initiative is designed to support and grow a diversified, decentralized composting sector that rises to meet the pressing need for recycling wasted food while creating rich soil for local gardens and farms, enhancing the ability of soil to act as a carbon sink, providing educational opportunities, and sustaining good jobs. Our broader initiative has three key goals:
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