Funding for neighbourhood projects

Starting question

Our neighbourhood group wants to paint a school playground, lay out garden beds or hold a neighbourhood party. Where do we get money for paint, plants and materials?

Up front: for small projects like these, the State of Berlin has two programmes, and which route applies depends on where your project takes place: inside a Quartiersmanagement (neighbourhood management) area (programme “Sozialer Zusammenhalt” [social cohesion], Aktionsfonds [action fund]) [2] or outside it (programme “Freiwilliges Engagement in Nachbarschaften” [voluntary engagement in neighbourhoods], FEIN) [1].

Steps

1. Find out whether your location is in a Quartiersmanagement area. This determines which programme fits: according to the Senatsverwaltung (Senate department), FEIN individual measures (Einzelmaßnahmen) are intended for projects “outside the areas designated in the Sozialer Zusammenhalt programme” [1]; the Aktionsfonds applies to projects in the neighbourhood (Quartier) that are decided on by an Aktionsfonds jury (Aktionsfondsjury) [2]. Whether a location is in such an area can be answered by the Bezirksamt (district office) or the Quartiersmanagement.

2a. Outside a QM area: FEIN individual measures. According to the Senatsverwaltung für Stadtentwicklung, Bauen und Wohnen (Senate Department for Urban Development, Building and Housing; retrieved 3 October 2026), the following applies:

• Eligible to apply are “residents and civil society initiatives” that do not work for profit [1].
• Funding covers material expenses, e.g. “paint for renovations, plantings or measures for a clean city”, relating to schools including after-school care centres (Horte), day-care centres (Kitas), leisure facilities for older people, other social facilities, sports facilities, green spaces and public or publicly accessible streets and squares [1].
• The applicants contribute “through the services provided on a voluntary basis” [1].
• “Funding amounts to at most EUR 3,500 per individual measure”; only expenditure actually incurred is eligible [1].
• “The formal application procedure is regulated differently in the districts.” [1] The Senate department's page links to contact points in the districts and to an information sheet (Merkblatt) [1].

2b. Inside a QM area: Aktionsfonds. According to Quartiersmanagement Berlin (retrieved 3 October 2026) [2]:

• “The Aktionsfonds jury decides on projects that neighbours propose and want to carry out themselves.” [2]
• “The calls to apply for funds from the Aktionsfonds are published in the neighbourhood.” [2]
• Examples are a neighbourhood flea market or a planting campaign, for which there may be “material costs for plants, tools and potting compost” [2].
• “The projects have a short duration and must be completed within the same calendar year.” [2]

3. Prepare the application. What exactly has to be submitted is set out, for FEIN, in the Senate department's information sheet [1] and, for the Aktionsfonds, in the call from the local Quartiersmanagement [2].

4. Plan for the proof of use. For FEIN, the Senate department provides forms for the narrative report (Sachbericht) [1].

Who is responsible

Next step

Open the FEIN programme page with contact points in the districts: https://www.berlin.de/sen/stadtentwicklung/quartiersentwicklung/programme/freiwilliges-engagement-in-nachbarschaften-fein/ [1]

Sources

The sources are in German; quotations in the text are our translations.