- 5 categories
- 3 winners in each
- 5 lakh
- Rupees per award, to use however you see fit
- 2 years
- The minimum time you have been doing the work
The invitation
We are looking for people and groups we do not know yet. And there are those that deserve to be seen.
If you or your group have been protecting a water body, a patch of forest, documenting disappearing species, or building a relationship between your community and the place you call home, then this is for you.
The awards
India has many community groups doing grounded, nature based work: protecting a lake, restoring a forest patch, documenting disappearing species, building seed banks and defending a coastline. Most of them have no relationship with formal philanthropy. They run on local trust and knowledge.
The Nature Awards is first a recognition programme: it celebrates the groups it surfaces. It is also a way of finding them, through an open call that anyone can answer, reaching groups we do not know yet, with award money to make taking part worthwhile.
Winners receive 5 lakh rupees that they can use however they see fit for their work. Each award carries a citation. The special mention is a recognition, and carries a citation and a small token of appreciation.
Categories
- 01Individual Steward or Custodian
- 02Youth Steward or Custodian, under 30
- 03Community Group
- 04Academic or Researcher
- 05Media
Special mentionAn exceptional officialA recognition rather than an award. It carries a citation and a small token of appreciation.
Who can be nominated
We are looking for groups and individuals that are
- Working in a specific place. A lake, a neighbourhood, a forest, a coastline, with that place at the centre of what you do.
- Of the community, not just working for it. You, or your members and leadership, are from the place you are protecting.
- Based anywhere in India.
- Connecting ecology to culture, history or daily life. Bringing traditional knowledge, local stories or community memory into the work.
- Small and independent.
- Active for at least two years.
- Able to receive a bank transfer.
We cannot accept nominations from
- Anyone with formal affiliations to political parties, or primarily engaged in electoral or partisan work.
- Government bodies or groups.
- Groups that are chapters or field offices of well resourced national or international organisations.
- Anyone with unresolved legal cases that relate directly to their nature work.
- Registered NGOs, private limited companies and LLPs.
- Existing Rainmatter Foundation partners.
These exclusions exist to protect the integrity of the programme and the people and groups we support.
If you are unsure, write to info@rainmatter.org before applying.
Timeline
- Early NovemberLaunch
- 27 NovemberNominations close
- DecemberReview
- January 2027Winners announced
Nominate
After you nominate
A jury will review every eligible nomination. We may get in touch with you if we have any questions or need a clarification.
If you win, the only thing we ask in return is a note at six months and twelve months describing what you did, what you learned and what you noticed. We might ask to visit you and see your work at some point.
Why recognition
Rainmatter Foundation’s model starts with place: specifically, places where communities are already in a relationship with their ecology and making, or should be making, active choices to protect it.
Working as formal philanthropy creates a blind spot. Those furthest from philanthropy are often the ones whose work is most rooted in place and most trusted by the people around them. An awards programme can close that gap in a way grantmaking cannot, because it creates an open door that anyone can walk through.
When someone’s work is named publicly, we are vouching for it. We are saying this is what good looks like, and attaching a story to it. They gain legitimacy and feel less alone, and everyone watching gets a clearer picture of what place based nature work actually looks like in practice.
What does it do to a person or a community group, and to the people watching, when work they have been doing for years is held up and named as something that matters?
Note: Rainmatter Foundation is doing this for the first time this year. We are learning as much as we are giving. If you have feedback on the process, what made it easy or hard to apply, we want to hear it. It will shape the way this award runs in future years.