River Cleanup Watch video

Rally your community to clear trash from a local river, protecting drinking water and wildlife while bringing neighbours together for a hands-on environmental action day.

River Cleanup turns a serious environmental problem into a rewarding day of community action. Volunteers come together to clear rubbish from a local river, working alongside neighbours, local businesses, and conservation partners. Backed by American Rivers, a respected national conservation organisation, the idea gives communities a proven, low-cost way to protect the waterways that supply thei...

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River Cleanup turns a serious environmental problem into a rewarding day of community action. Volunteers come together to clear rubbish f...

Read more

Join the communities already benefitting from starting a River Cleanup

You'll get guides and resources on how to bring this idea to life.

There is no funding available for this idea in United States, but these resources will still help to make your project happen!

Not in United States? Change your region
Start a River Cleanup

How to start a project on ChangeX

  • 1

    Create your project page

    Click the green start button to register and set up your project page. It’s quick, free and easy.

  • 2

    Complete a 30 Day Challenge

    Complete simple steps in 30 days to get your project off the ground.

  • 3

    Activate your project

    Follow the 5 Step Guide and your action plan to bring the project to life.

  • 4

    Share impact

    Share impact by posting a summary and photos and completing a survey.

Great for

  • Someone who is passionate about protecting the environment
  • Someone who has good organisational and leadership skills
  • Someone who is committed to strengthening their local community
  • Someone who enjoys spending time outdoors and organising group activities
  • Someone who is comfortable approaching local stakeholders

River Cleanup project essentials

5 Step Guide

  • Choose Your River and Date
  • Recruit Your Volunteers
  • Secure Sponsors and Publicity
  • Plan Waste Disposal
  • Run Cleanup Day

Time

Suggested: At least two hours a week in the run-up to your cleanup day, plus the day itself.

Resources

More information on how to get started and any resources shared by the River Cleanup

42 River Cleanup projects have already been started

See where

Meet the Social Innovator

With 3 million miles of rivers in the United States, many of us live within a mile of a river or stream. Unfortunately, each year millions of tons of trash end up in our nation's rivers. Trash is more than just an eyesore. It's harmful to wildlife and contaminates rivers, which provide 60 percent of our drinking water. Join American Rivers' National River Cleanup® to help keep our waters clean and healthy for people and wildlife. Start planning your cleanup today!

Madeline Bule, National River Cleanup® Manager, American Rivers

Our impact so far...

  • >1000
    Locations
  • 1
    Countries

42 River Cleanup projects have already been started

See where

Members

Frequently Asked Questions

  • Why a 30 day challenge?

    The 30 Day Challenge was developed by our Team based on our experience working with communities. We’ve learned that the first weeks are critical to build momentum and get off to a good start with any community project. Teams who complete these steps within the first month are much more likely to successfully complete their project!

    The Challenge is a series of simple steps that each applicant has to complete to get their project off the ground and unlock funding, if there is funding currently available for that idea in your region. Steps include watching a video and/or reading content, telling us more about your project, forming a team so that you have support, having your first team meeting, sharing a team photo, and sharing a project action plan.

  • What can funding be used for?

    Once funding is received it can be used to cover direct set-up costs of the new community project. For example space rental, insurance fees, seeds and planting materials, tools, training fees; pretty much any materials you might need for a project that benefits your community.

    Funds cannot be used for the costs of work that has already been carried out, costs unrelated to the setup and maintenance of the new project, payments to group members for their work on the project. Funds can’t be used for the promotion of religious causes, non-charitable activities, sponsorship or fundraising events. Please read the terms and conditions for further details.

  • How do I know if there is funding available?

    On idea pages, if there is funding available for the idea in your region you will see “Funding available” and the region listed in the turquoise box. When you first login you will also see a green banner at the top of the screen saying “live funds near you” if there is funding available in your region. The ChangeX homepage will feature those live funds near you.

    A note on the waitlist: when all the funding has been allocated to applicants, new applicants will go on a waitlist. If some applicants that are in the fund don’t successfully complete the 30 Day Challenge their funding will be released and can be then allocated to those on the waitlist. To see if you are going on a waitlist check the main fund page, ideas fully allocated will have the note “Join the waitlist” instead of “Apply to start”.

  • What is ChangeX?

    ChangeX is a platform that connects communities to proven ideas and funding.

    By empowering local changemakers with proven ideas from social innovators and accessible funding from our partners, we aim to build healthier, more inclusive and sustainable communities. Our work is aligned to the UN Sustainable Development Goals and together with our partners, we aim to impact 1 billion people globally by 2030.

    • Communities: Get the funding, resources and support you need to start impactful projects in your community.
    • Social innovators: Connect with local changemakers, access funding to scale your idea, and impact more communities globally.
    • Funders: Fund the themes and regions they care most about, with measurable impact, and at global scale.

    We believe that by bringing the best social innovations and the world’s changemakers together in a shared community, we can accelerate the spread of innovations across the world and have a bigger impact. Together we aim to unleash the potential of changemakers by enabling collaboration, by sharing knowledge and resources, by connecting changemakers across different disciplines and innovations and by opening up access to the world’s best proven social innovations to everyone.

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