The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company has announced the opening of the GRO1000 Grassroots Grants award program. The program aids communities and not-for-profit civic organizations looking to improve their neighborhoods through the installation of pollinator habitats and community gardens and green spaces.

GRO1000 is part of ScottMiracle-Gro’s promise to support the creation of more than 1,000 community gardens and green spaces in the U.S., Canada and Europe by 2018, which will align with the company’s 150th anniversary. Scotts says that to date since the program began six years ago, more than 680 community organizations across the country, as well as dozens of major U.S. cities, have received program funding.

New in 2016 is “The Pollinator Promise,” which Scotts says is a yearlong effort from ScottsMiracle-Gro aimed at improving consumer education about pollinators and to promote the creation of backyard and urban habitats where they can thrive. Scotts says that the Pollinator Promise will fund the establishment of at least 50 pollinator gardens throughout the United States in 2016, as part of the company’s GRO1000 community garden initiative. ScottsMiracle-Gro will work with partners focused on increasing pollinator habitats to promote the availability of grants for gardens and green spaces throughout the country.

“Pollinators are vital to our planet’s agriculture and ecosystem. We want to do what is in our power to help create more habitats where these creatures can thrive,” said Jim King, senior vice president of corporate affairs at ScottsMiracle-Gro. “It is our hope that the creation of these habitats, along with our continued funding of community greenscapes through GRO1000, has a positive influence on gardeners, cities and nature’s pollinators everywhere.”

The 2016 GRO1000 Grassroots Grants application is available online. The deadline for application submission is February 22, 2016, at 11:59 p.m. EST. Grants, which range from $500 to $1,500, are awarded based on pollinator habitat creation, community impact, youth involvement, harvest donation and sustainability, among other factors. Winners will be announced following the first day of spring, March 21, 2016.

For more information on how to join ScottsMiracle-Gro’s pollinator effort, “The Pollinator Promise,” visit the newly developed website. The website also offers information on how to create a pollinator garden.

In the coming weeks, ScottsMiracle-Gro will also begin its annual GRO1000 Showcase Grants, which are awarded to four cities for the installation of innovative public gardens and green spaces within their communities. On January 22, ScottsMiracle-Gro and the U.S. Conference of Mayors will announce the winners of this annual award in partnership with Plant a Row for the Hungry, Garden Writers Association, and Franklin Park Conservatory and Botanical Gardens.