Growing Greener Communities, One Grant at a Time
The RiverRidge Environmental Trust funds community environmental projects across Northern Ireland – protecting local landscapes, waterways and wildlife.
In partnership with the Community Foundation for Northern Ireland, we award grants of up to £1,000 to grassroots groups near our sites in Mallusk, Coleraine, Derry-Londonderry and Portadown. We’ve now funded more than 20 local organisations, backing up to 14 projects each year.
From protecting curlews and bees to creating community nature gardens and restoring the waterways around Lough Neagh, our grants prove that lasting environmental change starts locally – and as the Trust grows, so does our ambition, with larger grants planned ahead.
In Partnership with the Community Foundation for Northern Ireland
Championing communities across Northern Ireland
We’re proud to deliver the RiverRidge Environmental Trust in partnership with the Community Foundation for Northern Ireland, whose expertise and dedication have been central to its success. Their deep understanding of local communities, careful stewardship of every grant, and genuine passion for environmental change ensure that funding reaches the grassroots groups who need it most – and makes the greatest difference. We’re grateful for their continued partnership and for the vital work they do in strengthening communities right across Northern Ireland.
Notable Projects Include:
Belfast Hills Partnership
Equipment for practical conservation
Crumlin & District Angling Association
Monitoring and improving the Crumlin River
Dedicated to angling and conservation along the Crumlin River, this association works to protect fishing rights, enhance habitats and sustain the natural environment, while running educational programmes for young people and women who are underrepresented in the sport. In recent years the club has been at the forefront of the response to the Lough Neagh crisis, bringing together angling clubs around the lough and its feeder rivers for training, capacity building and shared learning, and successfully raising local water quality issues with the Office of Environmental Protection.
A £1,500 grant funded water monitoring equipment to track and improve water quality along the length of the Crumlin River – which rises in the Belfast Hills and flows through Dundrod and Crumlin town on to Lough Neagh. The in-situ equipment gathers continuous data over weeks for analysis, removing the need for daily site visits, and the club is now training other clubs across the catchment in its use – extending the benefit far beyond a single river and supporting the wider fight to protect Lough Neagh.
Supporting Environmental Projects Across Our Communities
The RiverRidge Environmental Trust is proud to support grassroots groups delivering meaningful environmental change across Northern Ireland. Please see below lists of groups that received funding in 2025 and 2026 rounds of the Environmental Trust.