Playground equipment grants in New Jersey

The NJDEP Green Acres Program gives grants and zero interest loans to towns and counties. Playgrounds are named as eligible, along with fields, courts and trails. Your grant share depends on who you are:

• Standard towns: 25% grant.
• Counties and nonprofits: 50% grant.
• Urban Aid towns: 75% grant.

Green Acres can lend the rest as a 20 year loan at 0% interest. County and town open space funds, other public money and gifts can also fill the gap. Audubon Borough shows how this works. In 2026 it won a $125,000 grant and a $375,000 loan for a new playground at Audubon Family Park.

There is no fixed cap for the coming round. The 2026 application lists past caps instead. From 2021 to 2025, a standard town could get $600,000 to $700,000. A densely populated county could get $1,800,000 to $2,100,000. Plan a project you can finish with one award. Plans that need a later round to proceed are ruled out.

Towns and counties that build a Completely Inclusive Playground get 25 more points of grant. A town that would get 25% gets 50% instead. Urban Aid towns can reach 100%. The old Jake's Law pilot has ended, and this bonus took its place in the park development round.

The playground must meet the state's DCA rules in full, or it gets no bonus. The Green Acres fact sheet spells out a few of them:

• A fence must go all the way around the play area.
• At least 20% of the play area must be shaded.
• A quiet play area must be part of the design.

Bonuses do not stack. An inclusive playground in an overburdened community still gets only one 25 point boost. The 2026 project list shows what this buys. Ewing Township won $939,692 for an inclusive playground with shade, fencing and a sensory garden. East Windsor Township won $622,500 to replace an old playground at Etra Lake Park.

Towns, counties and some nonprofits can apply. School boards cannot, and neither can housing or utility authorities. A nonprofit must be a 501(c)(3) that counts as a charitable conservancy under state law. That means its purpose includes keeping land open or natural. Most churches and PTAs will not fit that test.

The better path is to team up with your town. The town applies, and your group raises part of the match. A playground on school land can qualify. It must be fully open to the public outside school hours, including weekends, dawn to dusk. A play space used only by an after school program will not be considered. Our school playground guide and church playground page cover shared sites.

Nonprofit park projects can now be anywhere in New Jersey, not only in cities. In 2026 every eligible nonprofit got the grant it asked for. Groups with three or more open Green Acres projects cannot apply for new ones.

Start early. Public input must end at least 15 days before a town's public hearing. For nonprofits, it must end 15 days before the deadline.

The Local Recreation Improvement Grant (LRIG) is the one state grant a school district can apply for on its own. Counties and towns can apply too. The Department of Community Affairs names playground equipment as a cost it will pay. The recommended top award is $75,000, though DCA may go higher when demand allows.

The FY2026 budget set aside $10 million. Applications were due in the SAGE portal by 5:00 p.m. on February 13, 2026. On April 13, 2026, DCA announced grants to 154 local governments, 65 of them first time winners. School boards were on the list. Boonton Town Board of Education got $68,700, and Asbury Park Public Schools got $65,700.

There is no set match, but a local match scores higher. So do distressed towns and financial need. The grant pays you back after you spend, with no advance. The applicant must own the land where the work happens. The next round has not been posted yet.

Smaller towns that do not get HUD money directly can try the Small Cities CDBG program. Its Public Facilities Fund had $4,772,195 for state fiscal year 2026. DCA expected about 12 awards, with a top request of $400,000. The project must mainly help people of low and moderate income.

Towns pay a match of 10% to 50% of the grant. The share depends on the town's rank on the state's Municipal Revitalization Index. The guide does not name playgrounds, so ask the CDBG team before you plan around it. The 2026 deadline was March 19, 2026.

Federal Land and Water Conservation Fund money reaches New Jersey through the Outdoor Recreation Legacy Partnership. Green Acres is the lead agency. Awards run from $300,000 to $15 million, with a dollar for dollar match. A Green Acres grant or local open space money can cover your half. Playgrounds are on the list of eligible work.

This money is for urban areas of 25,000 people or more. Towns, counties, park commissions and special districts can apply, but nonprofits cannot. The 2026 round closed when proposals were due to Green Acres on July 27. The National Park Service is expected to pick winners by May 1, 2027. Each year for the next five years, the federal deadline is November 1.

For federal and private grants, see the grant list. Town and county parks can also browse park playground equipment before the January 2027 round opens.