Minnesota's Lottery-Funded Environment Trust Opens a $4M Grant Built for First-Time Applicants. Concept Notes Due January 7
November 6, 2026 · 7 min read
Granted Research Team · Editorial policy
For almost four decades, Minnesota's Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund has paid for environmental work with lottery money, and for almost four decades the money has mostly gone to applicants who already knew how to get it: universities, state agencies and established conservation groups that could get through a long, legislature-driven application process. The state's new ENRTF Community Grant Program is designed to change that. Its first round says so directly.
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources announced the program on November 6. The FY2027 Community Impact Funding Round (RFP 01) expects to award about $4 million in grants of $20,000 to $150,000. No matching funds are required, and applicants don't need prior state grant experience. The first stage is a short Concept Note, due January 7, 2027, at 11:59 p.m. Central. The submission portal opens December 1.
"Expanding access" is common language in state grant programs. This one puts points behind it, and that changes how a smart applicant should approach it.
Where the program comes from
The trust fund dates to 1988, when Minnesota voters amended the state constitution (now Article XI, Section 14) to dedicate lottery proceeds to environmental and natural resources work. Historically, a citizen-legislator commission recommended projects, and the Legislature funded them through an annual appropriations bill. The process worked for large, research-heavy proposals. Small community groups, Tribal programs with small staffs and township governments mostly couldn't use it.
When voters renewed the lottery dedication in November 2024, the amendment also required a community grants program with an emphasis on communities harmed by pollution. The Legislature set up that program in Minnesota Statutes, chapter 116X and assigned it to the DNR. Funding comes from session laws in 2025 and 2026. According to the RFP, the program exists "to expand the number and diversity of recipients benefiting from the ENRTF, with an emphasis on communities adversely affected by pollution and environmental degradation," and grants must benefit residents across Minnesota's regions.
"This program helps expand access to funding for projects that protect and enhance Minnesota's natural resources," DNR Commissioner Sarah Strommen said in the announcement.
Who can apply, and what it pays for
Eligible legal applicants are nonprofit organizations, Tribal Nations and Tribal governmental entities, and local and regional governmental entities. Ineligible applicants are state agencies, the University of Minnesota Board of Regents and for-profit businesses. Leaving out the university matters, because it has historically been one of the trust fund's largest recipients. That decision alone opens room for other applicants.
Individuals, informal community groups and unincorporated organizations can't apply directly. They can, however, serve as the substantive project lead under an eligible legal applicant, such as a fiscal sponsor nonprofit, a city or a Tribal government. The RFP keeps the legal applicant and the project lead as separate roles. That lets a neighborhood group run a project under a partner's legal standing.
Every project must fit one of five statutory activity areas, and applicants choose one as primary:
- Helping adversely affected communities respond to environmental degradation and related health concerns
- Environmental and natural resources education and awareness
- Preserving or enhancing natural resources
- Maintaining or improving existing state, regional or local trails (new trails and new trail segments are not eligible)
- Managing aquatic invasive species
There is also a firm exclusion: "Community Grant Program funds must not be awarded for a scientific research project." The RFP separates research from implementation. Using standard monitoring, water testing or data collection to support management, education or response work does not make a project research. A project whose main purpose is to produce new findings is excluded. Academic partners can still be involved, but the proposal has to be built around doing something, not studying something.
Implementation must be completed within 12 months, with up to two more months for startup and closeout, for a total grant period of 14 months. That keeps the program focused on discrete projects: a season of invasive-carp or starry-stonewort control, a trail restoration, a household lead or air-quality response effort in an affected neighborhood, a youth stewardship cohort.
How the two stages are scored
Most of the strategy sits in the scoring details.
Stage 1 (Concept Note), 100 points, minimum 50 to be considered:
| Criterion | Points |
|---|---|
| Expanding access and statutory priority | 25 |
| Environmental or natural resource need and expected benefit | 30 |
| Project idea and expected results | 25 |
| Project feasibility | 20 |
The first criterion is worth a quarter of the Stage 1 score. It looks at whether the legal applicant or the project lead has received direct ENRTF funding before, whether the community has had limited access to the fund, what barriers have kept it out, whether the project is "grounded in community knowledge, relationships or priorities," and whether the community is adversely affected by pollution. The application form asks about these through a checklist, then a 500-character explanation. The DNR says it may verify claims about prior ENRTF funding.
A first-time applicant serving a pollution-burdened community starts Stage 1 with a structural advantage of up to 25 points. An established conservation organization that has received ENRTF money before can still win, but it has to make up those points on need and project design.
The RFP also says: "The DNR does not award points for professional grant-writing style, specialized evaluation terminology or polished formatting." Concept Notes are scored by DNR program staff using standardized instructions. The application is written so that a volunteer-run group can compete with a group that has a development director.
Stage 2 (Full Application), 100 points, minimum 70 to be funded:
| Criterion | Points |
|---|---|
| Project design and technical approach | 35 |
| Work plan, feasibility and implementation readiness | 30 |
| Results and performance | 20 |
| Budget and value | 15 |
Stage 1 scores do not carry forward, and the access criterion does not appear in Stage 2. The program uses access to choose which projects get a chance, then picks winners on execution. The DNR says more applicants will be invited to Stage 2 than will be funded, and that invited applicants will receive technical assistance during the full application.
The practical result is that a first-time applicant who advances on access points has to show a credible work plan, a defensible budget and measurable results in the second round. Applicants should prepare for both stages from the beginning and use Stage 2 technical assistance, because the access criterion does not appear in that round.
The fine print that trips up small applicants
Reimbursement is the default. Grantees pay costs up front and request reimbursement from the DNR. For a $150,000 award, an organization may need to carry tens of thousands of dollars for weeks. The commissioner may approve advance payments, but only if the recipient obtains a surety bond or uses an approved fiscal agent, and advances are "discretionary and not an applicant entitlement." If cash flow is tight, plan to raise it during grant development, and consider early whether a fiscal agent arrangement would work.
One shot per project lead. No more than one Concept Note from the same substantive project lead can advance to Stage 2. Submitting the same project through two organizations counts as two Concept Notes, and using a different fiscal agent does not create a second chance. A legal applicant, such as a county or a large nonprofit acting as sponsor, can have several projects advance if each has a different project lead. Counties and regional bodies can use that to support several community groups at once.
Selection is not an award. Work can begin only after a grant agreement is fully executed and the DNR authorizes it. Pre-award risk review varies with the award amount and applicant type. Costs incurred before execution won't be reimbursed. Based on the DNR's anticipated timeline (Stage 1 results in February, full applications from February through April, selections in spring), summer 2027 is the realistic start date. Projects that depend on the season, such as aquatic invasive species treatment, need to fit that schedule.
How competitive will it be?
The DNR has not said how many awards it will make. If every grant were the maximum, $4 million would fund about 26. If requests are spread across the $20,000 to $150,000 range, the number is more likely 40 to 60. That is a small first round for a statewide program with no match requirement and a simple entry point. Demand from organizations that have never been able to reach ENRTF money will probably be heavy. Applicants should assume the 50-point Stage 1 floor will be far below the score needed to advance.
These are the dates to put on the calendar now:
- Information sessions: November 17, November 19, December 8 and December 15, 2026, all noon to 1:00 p.m. Central
- Concept Note portal opens: December 1, 2026
- Last day for guaranteed answers to questions: submit by December 18 at 4:30 p.m. Central to receive a response by December 22
- Concept Note deadline: January 7, 2027, 11:59 p.m. Central
The RFP and program materials include appendices for each activity area. Read the appendix for your primary area before writing anything, because it sets the activity-specific eligibility rules even though it does not add separate points.
If your organization has never received trust fund money, this is the first ENRTF competition designed for you. A plain-language Concept Note that explains who you serve, what environmental problem you will address and how you will deliver results in 12 months is the whole first stage. If you want help shaping that idea into a fundable Concept Note before January 7, Granted can help you draft it.