Search Through Climate Change Grants in Maine in the U.S.

OSI partners with conservation organizations in the Northeast to assemble networks of protected lands most likely to preserve plant and animal diversity in a changing climate. The Fund supports projects in four focus areas in New England, the mid-Atlantic, and the Central Appalachians offering the greatest opportunity to conserve missing links for resiliency in the overall landscape.

Grant Opportunities

The Fund provides capital grants and loans to qualified non-profits for the acquisition of land or conservation easements on climate-resilient lands, capitalized with a grant from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. Through an in-depth review process, we selected four focus areas in order to target funds most effectively. A fact brochure with maps for each focus area can be downloaded:

Potomac Headwaters – West Virginia & Virginia

Highlands and Kittatinny Ridge – New Jersey & Pennsylvania

Middle Connecticut River – Vermont & Massachusetts

Southern New Hampshire & Maine Forests 

The Lawrence Foundation is a private family foundation focused on making grants to support environmental, human services and other causes.

The Lawrence Foundation was established in mid-2000. We make both program and operating grants and do not have any geographical restrictions on our grants. Nonprofit organizations that qualify for public charity status under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code or other similar organizations are eligible for grants from The Lawrence Foundation.  

Grant Amount and Types

Grants typically range between $5,000 - $10,000. In some limited cases we may make larger grants, but that is typically after we have gotten to know your organization over a period of time. We also generally don’t make multi-year grants, although we may fund the same organization on a year by year basis over a period of years.

General operating or program/project grant requests within our areas of interests are accepted. In general, regardless of whether a grant request is for general operating or program/project expenses, all of our grants will be issued as unrestricted grants.

About Pure Ocean

Pure Ocean is an international endowment fund based in Marseille and Lorient. Its main mission is to mobilize civil society in order to support ambitious and innovative scientific projects for the protection of biodiversity and fragile marine ecosystems.

Through an international call for projects, then an analysis carried out by the five eminent researchers who make up the scientific committee, Pure Ocean selects projects with a strong innovative dimension, whether technological, ecological or social.

Pure Ocean also raises public awareness of the situation of endangered ecosystems by highlighting solutions to protect them through conferences, the promotion of races and sporting challenges or the provision of “La Goutte Bleue” waste collection kits

4 Major Themes : The Pure Ocean Challenges (Based On The The United Nations 10 Ocean Decade Challenges)

• Understanding marine pollution and combating its origins
• Protecting biodiversity and restoring degraded marine ecosystems
• Strengthening the resilience of marine ecosystems and the people who depend on them in the face of climate change
• Improving our knowledge of the ocean-system

Special Features of the 2025 Call for Projects

This year, special attention will be given to :

• Developing marine conservation initiatives managed by local communities and indigenous peoples
• Exploring nature-based solutions for the preservation of blue carbon ecosystems
• Operating in key oceanic areas
  • the French littoral, Middle East/Asia and Africa coasts

The Foundation supports projects in coastal areas of Maine, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island and selected international locations.

For the last two decades, the Foundation has focused a significant portion of its financial resources on Southeastern Massachusetts, where its office is located. Here the Board seeks to understand how communities grow sustainably and equitably, how to increase educational opportunities, how rural and urban economies are intertwined, and how to best protect working landscapes and the people who rely upon these areas for their livelihoods. In funding in a few specific areas, the Board believes it will have the most impact.   

Environment

In Southeastern Massachusetts, Maine, and Rhode Island, the Island Foundation promotes the conservation of marine and coastal resources. For many years, the Foundation has given priority to North Atlantic right whale research, protection of coastal waterbird habitat, and preservation of coastal lands.

More recently, the Board has been interested in new initiatives that:

• link climate change, renewable energy, and regional planning and support those most impacted by climate change;
• support working landscapes (sustainable agriculture and community-based fisheries) and the people who rely on them for their livelihoods;
• help local conservation organizations strengthen their own capacity;
• connect community health, quality of life, and environmental conservation; and
• promote environmental justice and seek to include the voices of those most affected by environmental harms.

The Arbor Day Foundation

We plant trees because people need trees. Our health and the health of our planet are interconnected, and the simple act of planting trees benefits both. The Arbor Day Foundation works to connect opportunities, people, and organizations to plant trees and forests to help solve some of the most critical issues facing our planet.

Tree Campus Higher Education Program

No matter where you’re from, trees and green space are an integral part of the college experience. They make campuses more livable, healthy, and beautiful, benefiting students and the environment as a whole.

Tree Campus Higher Education was founded to foster that tradition of excellence. The program provides a simple framework for colleges and universities to grow their community forests, achieve national recognition, and create a campus their students and staff are proud of.

Why should my school participate?

• A commitment to trees can significantly reduce the amount of energy your campus, and community, needs to generate.
• Planting and maintaining trees absorbs carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, mitigating the effects of climate change.
• Green space provides important mental health benefits to students, faculty, and staff, as well as encourages physical activity.
• Involving students in tree-related service-learning projects helps educate the next generation about the importance of caring for the environment.

Recognition also builds pride among your campus and the wider community. We make it easy for you to share your designation, sending flags, press releases, logos and graphics, and other materials after your acceptance.

Roy A. Hunt Foundation

In the early 1900s, Roy A. Hunt worked his way up from mill clerk to president of Alcoa, the company his father helped found. After establishing The Hunt Foundation in 1951, he established the Roy A. Hunt Foundation in 1966 as an endowed resource so that future generations could be involved in charitable giving as a family. (The foundations merged in 1994).

Two generations of Hunt family members now serve as Trustees, annually granting approximately $3.4 million in the United States and abroad.

Since inception, our mission has been to support organizations that strive to improve the quality of life through proposals invited by the trustees and through the Foundation’s four main special initiatives. The Roy A. Hunt Foundation values the quality work of its partner organizations, strives to make an impact in many facets of the community – from building stronger networks for healthy, thriving neighborhoods to working toward a greener, cleaner environment – and believes in the importance of strong leadership, community-driven partnerships, and innovative ideas.

Environment

Vision: Living in Harmony

We envision a natural environment that is understood and respected as a web of interconnections of which human beings are a part, where people live in harmony within the Earth’s ecological systems, where biodiversity is preserved as an integral component of economic and technological progress, and where human impact on Earth serves to maintain sustainable processes.

Mission

To protect natural resources and ecosystems in the United States, we support sustainable solutions to altering root causes of environmental damage and encourage education for consumers and decision makers.

Objective

To promote strategic activities that create incentives for environmentally responsible decisions in the private sector.

Priorities

Climate and Energy – To reduce the consequences of climate change in the United States, primarily through:

• Increasing the affordability and use of cleaner and renewable energy sources, and
• Reducing demand for carbon-intensive energy sources and carbon-intensive goods and services

Toxics and Waste – To reduce damage to the environment and human health caused by the manufacture, use, and disposal of consumer and industrial products. Typical strategies include green chemistry, sustainable design, sustainable manufacturing, and product stewardship.

Clean Water – To protect and restore the quality of freshwater, coastal, and nearby oceanic areas of the United States.

Types of Foundation Support

The Environment Committee will consider grant requests of between $25,000 and $75,000 for specific projects or programs that improve the environment at a multi-state, national, and/or systems level. Typical costs funded include project management, contracted services, education and outreach programs, applied research, and innovations that could lead to public policy solutions.

About The Award

The Burroughs Wellcome Fund aims to stimulate the growth of new connections between thinkers working in largely disconnected fields who might together change the course of climate change’s impact on human health. In the three years between Fall 2023 and Summer 2026, we will dedicate $1M to supporting small, early stage grants of $2,500–$50,000 toward achieving this goal.

We are mainly but not exclusively interested in activities that build connections between basic/early biomedical scientific approaches and ecological, environmental, geological, geographic, and planetary-scale thinking, as well as with population-focused fields, including epidemiology and public health, demography, economics, and urban planning. Also of interest is work piloting new approaches or interactions toward reducing the impact of health-centered activities, such as developing more sustainable systems for health care, care delivery, and biomedical research systems.

Another area of interest is preparation for the impacts of extreme weather and other crises that can drive large-scale disruptions that will immediately impact human health and the delivery of health care. Public outreach, climate communication, and education efforts focused on the intersection of climate and health are also appropriate for this call. This program supports work conceived through many kinds of creative thinking. Successful applicants include academic scientists, physicians, and public health experts, community organizations, science outreach centers, non-biomedical academic departments, and more.

Please see FAQs for additional guidelines.

The Neil and Louise Tillotson Fund supports projects in Coös County, NH and bordering communities in the United States and Canada that focus on community revitalization.

Championing the North Country

One of the largest permanent rural philanthropies in the U.S. is strengthening communities and spreading economic opportunity.

Grantmaking Goals

The vision of the Neil and Louise Tillotson Fund is “to serve as a resource for the people of Coös County and neighboring communities in New Hampshire, Maine, Vermont and southern Québec to forge their own pathways to well-being and cultivate a region that thrives.” The Tillotson Fund serves as a stable and consistent source of support for the people of the region to:

• Create and enhance opportunity;
• Preserve and uplift the historical and cultural assets that make the region unique;
• Hold the confidence and capabilities to foster strong communities and healthy rural landscapes.

What We're Funding

Individual and family well-being

Goal: Support individuals and families to meet their essential needs and achieve well-being.

• Meet essential needs for individuals and families.
• Strengthen systems of care.Community resiliency

Healthy workforce ecosystem

Goal: Strengthen the capacity of local employers to maintain and/or grow their operations, build and retain a dynamic workforce, stimulate innovation and entrepreneurship, ensure business continuity and plan for the future.

• Attract and retain the workforce.
• Establish workforce housing solutions.
• Help companies and employees build skills and systems for sustained success.
• Link employers and employees to financial supports.
• Increase access to affordable quality childcare.

Environmental stewardship

Goal: Address the impacts of climate change by investing in mitigation and adaptation strategies, stewardship of natural resources, and efforts that foster human connection to the natural environment.

• Be good stewards of the land, air, forests, waterways and wildlife.
• Encourage/support responsible tourism and recreation.
• Build and enhance sustainable food systems.
• Promote, sustain and scale energy efficiency, clean energy and green building.
• Implement climate smart forestry solutions.

Resilient communities

Goal: Support initiatives that build trust, belonging and connection and lead to stronger, more resilient communities.

• Empower youth.
• Convene, collaborate, celebrate.
• Build skills, knowledge and approaches to advance equity.
• Support community builders and change agents.
• Revitalize population hubs and preserve cultural and historical assets.
• Improve civic health.
• Strengthen municipal capacity and leadership.

Grant amount

Local Grants Program applications may request up to $20,000 for one, two or three years.

About the V. Kann Rasmussen Foundation

Founded in 1991, the V. Kann Rasmussen Foundation’s work is based on the premise that human activities lie at the core of most environmental problems, and human creativity and collaboration are at the heart of solving the problems these activities create. The environmental mission of the V. Kann Rasmussen Foundation is to support the transition to a more environmentally resilient, stable, and sustainable planet. We believe best practices for promoting sustainability will be most effectively developed through an integrated systems approach and one that furthers the involvement of an informed public in environmental decision making.

Nature-Centrism as a Lens for Organizational Behavior and Decision-Making

Over the course of 30 years the V. Kann Rasmussen Foundation has funded critical but low- attention areas, knowledge gaps, and cross-cutting environmental strategies that attract little or no investment from other funders. Looking back, almost all the environmental issues that VKRF has engaged in have led back to humanity’s disregard for nature’s inherent value and for the limits of our planet’s natural resources. VKRF supported conservation issues in its early years, and has addressed water pollution, toxicity, soil depletion, and climate change in its later years. Most recently, the foundation has worked on a toolbox for exploring and working with the complex and dynamic processes involved in many societal and natural systems simultaneously reaching irreversible tipping points. Through the lens of a systems perspective, it becomes even clearer how humans have damaged their own life support systems at all planetary levels. A recalibration of our relationship to nature is needed. A relationship where all life forms co-exist in balanced, rather than hierarchical, systems. Only a shift away from the separation from, and domination of, nature to an understanding of our deep connection to, and embeddedness in, nature can provide us with the solutions and blueprints for tackling the challenges we face today.

In its next rounds of grantmaking, the foundation will continue its recent work at the systems level, further exploring the consequences of, and solutions to, humanity’s anthropocentric departure from value structures based on our kinship with nature. We recognize that we stand on the shoulders of nature-centric thinking of previous generations, cultures, and knowledge systems. We also recognize the significant work of different schools of regenerative and nature-centric practices that is already being applied in many sectors and geographies.

The foundation believes that many of these already-existing frameworks for nature-centric worldviews have the potential to lead to new ethical paradigms, models for cooperation, co- existence, and resilience that will overcome humans’ alienation from nature and foster well- being of all life on our shared planet.

As an entry point for its upcoming grantmaking round, the foundation will explore whether a more mainstream adoption of a nature-centric worldview is possible, either within our current structures or in the future, when the escalating polycrisis prepares the ground for a broader re-examination of our current paradigm.

This call for proposals focuses on nature-centric decision-making, in which nature’s inherent value becomes a central principle and informs institutions’ practices across their activities. VKRF is looking to identify grantees who are ready to make the recognition of interbeing, interdependence, and interconnectedness central to their strategy development, decision making, and day-to-day operations.

With this effort, VKRF hopes to prepare the ground for a significant scaling-up of nature-centric policies and practices that can lead to long-term resilience and integrity of the entire biosphere.

Types of Projects

Projects could include, but are not limited to:

• participatory research on governance frameworks for nature-centric decision making
• participatory social research on nature-centric cultural shifts, design principles, and management practices
• planning and learning processes that will facilitate an organization’s application of a nature- centric lens to its strategy and planning processes, day-to-day operations, and relationships with external partners and stakeholders
• building organizational capacity for buy-in of nature-centric strategies at the highest levels of organizational decision-making and governance
• peer learning in the form of workshops, convenings and conferences that will allow multiple organizations to co-create and share methodologies, approaches, tool-building, and practices that make a nature-centric lens prominent in behaviors and decision-making
• related visionary work exploring scenarios moving us toward a mainstream nature-centric future.

Objectives and Criteria

All proposals will need to be science-based and should meet the following criteria:

• Scope:
  • be visionary, experimental, and action-oriented when it comes to research and the changing of minds; and
  • consider life as relational.
    • The foundation is only interested in projects in which both human and non-human life are taken into consideration.
• Approach:
  • build on cross-cutting and/or transdisciplinary knowledge domains;
  • ambitious in the effort to scale and mainstream a nature-centric worldview; and
  • come to this topic with a nonjudgemental, curious, and collaborative mindset.
• Field-building:
  • advance the field beyond the results of the individual project
• Output and information resulting from funding:
  • must be open-source, accessible and available to be used free of charge by anyone in civil society and within the government sector, though the grantee will retain ownership of the copyright for any material produced.

Funding

The foundation will entertain projects with a one- to two-year timeline. Results and outcomes should be achievable within the grant period and the budget requested.

The foundation’s total grantmaking budget for this funding round is six million USD. We anticipate funding 12-15 projects.

The Nature Conservancy

The Nature Conservancy is a global environmental nonprofit working to create a world where people and nature can thrive.

Our Mission

To conserve the lands and waters on which all life depends.

Connectivity, Climate, Communities Fund

To make the highest possible impact on the climate and biodiversity crises, The Nature Conservancy (TNC) is committed to advancing solutions and supporting partners throughout the Appalachians to connect and conserve vital wildlife habitat, build resilience to the impacts of climate change, and generate new job and recreation opportunities for communities.

Approximately one-third of the U.S. population lives in or within 100 miles of the Appalachians, including an estimated 36 million people that rely on the region for sources of drinking water. The landscape contains the world's largest remaining expanses of temperate broadleaf mixed forest and provides habitat to a wide diversity of plants of animals, many of which are listed as rare, threatened, or endangered. Conserving this landscape is critical for nature and for the people that live and work there.

However as climate change drives ecosystem instability, plants and animals are shifting their ranges northward, and people are having to find ways to adapt to complex and intertwined challenges. TNC and many others have been working to conserve vital Appalachian habitats for decades. Now we must ramp up our efforts and coordinate with partners across the Appalachians for maximum impact.

To succeed in these efforts, TNC’s Connectivity, Climate, Communities Fund offers two grant programs for conservation and community organizations, municipalities, Federally Recognized Tribal Nations, and local and state agencies in the Appalachians who are working to protect and conserve this region:

• The Resilient and Connected Appalachians Grant Program
• The New York Climate Resilience Grant Program

Resilient and Connected Appalachians Grant Program

The Resilient and Connected Appalachians Grant Program provides grants of up to $100,000 for fee and easement acquisition projects throughout the Appalachians.

Equitable Conservation and Community Benefits

Conservation organizations are increasingly acknowledging the importance of incorporating social equity in their missions, partnerships, and projects and evolving how they work to have better outcomes for people and nature.

TNC defines community benefits as the positive outcomes that directly result from or are included within conservation projects as experienced by local communities and people. This is particularly important for historically marginalized communities, communities with limited access to nature, communities experiencing heightened impacts of climate change due to systemic underinvestment and poor infrastructure, and Indigenous communities. 

RCA program funding will support projects that demonstrate meaningful community engagement, work with those historically excluded from conservation, and lead to a fairer distribution of benefits for people and communities.

Some examples of community benefits include improved and greater access to nature, protection of drinking water sources, recreational and resource-based economic opportunities, flood mitigation, engagement in cross-cultural initiatives, or protection of lands that will meet community-defined conservation needs. We encourage projects with meaningful community benefits that are integrated with the land protection goals.

Project Evaluation

Projects will be evaluated  according to their capacity to deliver land protection outcomes aligned with the program goals, including:

• Location:
  • the project is located within TNC’s Appalachians Program boundary and is in or near a mapped focal area.  Projects outside of focal areas will also be considered.
• Resilience:
  • the percentage of the total project area that is part of the Resilient and Connected Network.
• Connectivity:
  • adjacency to protected lands or other attributes that will lead to landscape connectivity over time (e.g., the project is a necessary acquisition for advancing a local or regional plan that aims to protect a critical conservation corridor).
• Collaboration:
  • evidence of engagement with other organizations, community groups, or local governments (including, but not limited to, shared funding).
• Community:
  • project elements that directly engage and or benefit people, especially vulnerable or marginalized communities.
• Timeline:
  • the project will close within 12 months from the start of the grant agreement term.
• Feasibility:
  • likelihood that the project will close and the costs seem reasonable.

Rural Partnerships Program Grant

The Sewall Foundation works with our partners to create a thriving, healthy, and resilient rural Maine where communities envision and guide their future. We support collaborative backbone infrastructure and partnerships that co-create solutions to structural problems with the communities closest to the issues at hand and achieve outcomes beyond what any single organization could achieve on their own.

Priorities

For over a decade, the Sewall Foundation has focused on place-based rural grantmaking in the Katahdin Region and Washington County. Over the next three years, we will continue to prioritize work in the Katahdin Region and Washington County while also exploring ways to expand support by the specified year for additional regional, statewide, and cross-sector partnerships.

Priority work supported in the past includes:

• Affordable housing
• Broadband expansion
• Climate change planning and adaptation
• Community development
• Economic development
• Food systems
• Human health and social service systems change initiatives
• Natural resource-based economic opportunities (ex. regional trail systems, industrial mill site cleanup and redevelopment)
• Regional visioning or planning initiatives
• Two-generation (2Gen) approaches
• Wabanaki partnerships (land back, habitat restoration, economic development)
• Workforce development and training

Funding

• Available Funding: 2,885,000
• Generally, grant funding levels in this program area are:
  • Individual organizations: $10,000 to $60,000 per year
    • Increased funding amounts may be available to organizations that are acting as a hub for federal grants or that have special capital, operating, or project needs.
  • Collaborative efforts involving multiple organizations/groups: up to $200,000 per year
    • Occasionally, organizations may apply for both organizational and collaborative funds
  • Transformational opportunities: variable funding levels
    • These efforts address critical community and regional priorities and create sustainable, systemic changes. Generally, funding is limited to one to two years.

Environment Program

The Onion Foundation Environment Program aims to enable all Maine residents, especially in rural areas, to enjoy the state's natural resources and to develop the knowledge, skills, and motivation to protect Maine's environment. Rather than supporting land acquisition and capital projects, the Environment Program focuses its resources on the people of Maine, whose lives and behaviors will shape environment and climate change outcomes.

Increase Equitable Outdoor Access

Our goal: 

Increase access to the outdoors so that Maine residents feel comfortable in and connected to the natural world and can develop a strong ethic of care for nature.

To achieve this goal, we uphold three core priorities:

Encourage Maine land trusts and watersheds to develop equitable organizations, inclusive programs, and easy access to the outdoors.

Eliminate barriers to accessing the outdoors and nature that underserved groups currently face.

Support catalytic statewide or regional networks, initiatives, and infrastructure resources to strengthen and connect the outdoor access sector.

Maine Youth Climate Corps Grants

Volunteer Maine is accepting proposals for Maine Youth Climate Corps grants of up to $10,000. Participants (aka members) are between 14 and 17 years of age. The funding may be used to support members or staff during the youth corps' operation between the specified timeframe.

Youth Corps service projects need to focus on the "land and freshwater preservation" goal of Maine Won't Wait, the state climate action plan.

High-quality Youth Corps:

• have the members carry out the service,
• provide the members with training and education that benefits their service and their future learning or career aspirations, and
• increase community resilience by engaging community volunteers in the service activities.

Volunteer Maine’s mission is to build capacity and sustainability in Maine's volunteer and service communities by funding programs, developing managers of volunteers, raising awareness of sector issues, and promoting service as a strategy to address community needs.

Program Design

• The Maine Climate Corps program funded by this grant will conduct evidence-based direct service projects developed through community collaboration, including collaboration with Indigenous communities. The problem to be addressed and the proposed solutions should be determined by the host community.
• The program will: 
  • focus on responses to climate change that are aligned with the sponsoring organization’s demonstrated area of expertise;
  • implement service activities based on current, generally accepted science;
  • be deliberate in its actions addressing equity, justice, and accessibility;
  • ensure that individuals in service positions represent the economic and demographic diversity of impacted communities, including persons who are historically marginalized;
• Training, hard or soft skill development, and/or a meaningful credential(s) will be provided to Corps members. The program will ensure the members have the appropriate skills to effectively serve the community. 

Funding

Grant funds may be used for program staff/leadership expenses including payroll, benefits, training, etc and/or member expenses including, stipends, insurance, travel, training, wrap-around supports, etc. Any expenses to support the member’s successful participation and overcome barriers such as work boots, bus passes to reach the service site, etc, are eligible. 

The Davis Conservation Foundation’s broad purpose is to support the wise utilization, protection and advancement of our physical environment and the different natural forms of life that inhabit it, including wildlife, sea life and mankind as they are impacted by the environment. To accomplish this, the foundation supports organizations devoted primarily to:

• Projects/programs related to wildlife, wildlife habitat, environmental protection and outdoor recreation.
• Projects/programs that strengthen volunteer activity and outreach/community involvement in the above-noted areas.

DCF's Highest Priorities:

• Gulf of Maine
• Northern Forest
• Climate Change Adaptation, Mitigation and Resilience

Purpose and Background

The Department of Environmental Protection (Department or DEP) is seeking applications for projects to help communities develop Watershed-based Plans (WBP) as defined in this Request for Applications (RFA) document. A watershed-based plan provides assessment and management information and describes actions needed to restore nonpoint source (NPS) impaired water bodies or to protect water bodies threatened by NPS pollution. This document provides instructions for submitting applications, the procedure and criteria by which the Applicant(s) will be selected and the contractual terms which will govern the relationship between the State of Maine (“State”) and the awarded Applicant(s).

Pursuant to Maine statutes (38 M.R.S., Chapter 3, Article 1-F), the Department is charged with coordinating Maine’s Nonpoint Source Pollution Program to prevent or reduce NPS water pollution so that lakes, streams and coastal waters are protected and/or attain their clean water quality standards. Maine’s NPS Program is funded - in part - with grants from the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under Sections 319 and 604(b) of the Federal Clean Water Act (CWA). Applications selected through this RFA will be funded (subject to the availability of federal funds) under CWA Section 604(b) and Section 319. DEP also administers a separate RFA for CWA Section 319-funded implementation projects. A watershed-based plan accepted by the Department is a prerequisite to be eligible to apply for CWA Section 319 funds to help implement the plan.

The EPA awards funds to the Department pursuant to Section 604(b) to carry out water quality management planning under Sections 205(j) and 303(e) of the Federal Clean Water Act. Pursuant to the Act, grant funds may be used to determine the nature and extent of point and nonpoint source pollution and to develop management plans. EPA encourages states to give priority to watershed restoration planning and to incorporate climate change, environmental justice (EJ) and equity considerations into their water quality planning, as appropriate. Section 205(j)(3) requires States allocate at least 40 percent of 604(b) funds for pass-through grants to eligible organizations for water quality management planning. DEP administers the program and awards and monitors sub-grants for projects to determine the nature and extent of NPS and to develop management plans.

Environment Program

The Onion Foundation Environment Program aims to enable all Maine residents — especially those in rural areas — to enjoy the state’s natural resources and develop the knowledge, skills, and motivation to protect Maine’s environment. Rather than supporting land acquisition and capital projects, we focus our resources on the people of Maine, whose lives and behaviors will continue to shape environment and climate change outcomes.

Strategy II- Expand Nature Learning

Our goal: 

Provide high-quality, science-based nature learning opportunities that help Maine youth understand the role that robust natural systems can play in a healthy and vibrant life.

To achieve this goal, we uphold two core priorities:

• Develop and grow high-quality, standards-aligned nature learning programs for youth in specific underserved parts of the state.
• Support intensive and high-quality programs that provide youth with transformative, multi-day trips outdoors.

Our work under this strategy primarily supports nonprofit organizations that offer robust environment-focused educational programs to young people that center natural systems, science, and experiential elements.

According to the Census for Community-Based Environmental Learning, students in many of Maine’s rural and remote areas receive less environmental education than their peers in urban areas, and educators have fewer local, environmental, and community-based organizations with which to partner. Under this strategy, we aim to increase the number of high-quality nature learning opportunities available to Maine’s young people in rural areas to ensure all children and youth understand the role nature can play in a healthy and vibrant life.

Our Priorities

Characteristics of high-quality programs:

• Include high-quality curricula, pedagogy, and learning experiences, preferably linked to the Common Core State Standards and the Next Generation Science Standards, which aim for transformative learning
• Offer place-based, experiential learning elements
• Result in students gaining an understanding of natural systems
• Led by qualified educators
• Thoughtfully partner with schools and other networks to ensure continuous and complementary opportunities for learning, experience, and exploration
• Focus on one or more group(s) and engage in durable and relevant partnerships to drive and support the participation of the targeted group(s)
• Demonstrate a commitment to equity and accessibility

Maine is home to a network of best-in-class overnight environmental learning centers. These programs bring youth from across the state to their sites for longer, deeper experiences in Maine’s natural landscapes. They also provide statewide leadership in the nature-learning field by showcasing model programs, sharing emerging best practices, and advocating for their support. These programs complement the place-based experiential learning programs of Priority 1.

Current Status

As of December 2020, the Programme, which began in 1989, has enabled more than 1400 young and mid-career people from over 49 countries working for government, universities, research institution, civil society and the private sector to pursue their professional development and improve their career prospects. Twenty-seven percent of the fellowships have been awarded to people from Asia-Pacific, 35.6% to people from Africa, 27.3% to people from Latin America/Caribbean, 8.2% to people from developping consumer countries and 1.9% to people from developed consumer countries, who carried out their activities in producer member countries.  

The total value of fellowships awarded to date amounts to approximately US$7.9 million. Funding has been provided through the generous voluntary contributions from Japan (69%), U.S.A (17%), the Netherlands (8%), Australia (3%) and others (3%), including Finland, Sweden, U.K., Bali Partnership Fund-B and private companies. The programme supports mainly short-term activities, such as participation in international conferences, training courses and study tours. In addition, it also helps people to prepare manuals and monographs and provides small grants for post-graduate study.

 ITTO Fellowship Programme encourages capacity development of women foresters, and has supported 406 women to undertake fellowship activities, accounting for more than 30% of the total number of fellowships.

Impact Assessment of the Fellowship Programme

An impact assessment of the Fellowship Programme, conducted in summer of 2016, showed that the Fellowship Programme has made significant contributions to human capacity development in ITTO producer member countries. 155 fellows from 28 countries, who completed their fellowship activities between 2010 and 2014, responded to a survey questionnaire. In terms of their contribution to promoting reforestation/forest conservation in their home country, 82% of the respondents answered that they have made very large or moderate contributions. About 88% of the respondents indicated that they have been able to improve the productivity and performance of their home institution by developing new programs or innovative ways of working. 42% indicated that the knowledge and skills acquired through the Fellowship program has helped them to influence national forestry and environmental policy in their home countries. 61% of the respondents indicated that they are currently working on international forestry issues, particularly on climate change and REDD. 

Eighty five percent of the respondents currently hold either Ph.D. (42%) or Masters Degree (58%) in forestry and related disciplines, and more than 1/3 of the fellows received those degrees through the support of the Fellowship Programme. More than 60% of the respondents achieved a relevant job position or job promotion immediately after completion of their fellowships, and 73% of the respendents answered "totally related" or "strongly related" to the question whether any job promotion or new job position was due to the skills and knowledge that they gained from the fellowship. 

Through our Henry Arnhold Fellowship we find leaders with promising conservation and climate solutions and help them to design and deliver them at scale.

We’re impact and scale-obsessed. Each year we select 8-10 leaders and help them (1) design high-impact scalable solutions and strategies for better, faster, bigger outcomes; (2) build the organizations to deliver them at scale; and (3) become part of a growing community of innovators in conservation and climate.

The one-year fellowship is bookended with a design retreat, comes with $100,000 in funding, and ongoing support from our team and network.

Here are the components of the fellowship in more detail:

Design and Strategy

‍The fellowship is bookended by an intensive week-long workshop to dive in on design for impact and strategy for scale. It’s a rare opportunity to focus completely on new ideas and a systematic way to apply them.

Community and Connections

We bring together a cohort of leaders committed to social justice and ending extreme poverty, alongside some great experts, consultants, and our team. Fellows join a growing community of fellows at the forefront of climate and conservation work.

Resources and Support

The fellowship comes with $100K. Learning resources are regularly shared to keep everyone informed on the latest thinking and doing. We also hold open office hours year round.

What We Look For

We look for innovative leaders with a conservation or climate solution that works and has potential to go big. We look for impact-obsessed people pioneering effective ways to:

• protect nature and ecosystems (forests, rivers, oceans, mountains, grasslands)
• slow down climate change (drop emissions, use energy efficiently, capture carbon) or adapt to the new climate reality.

Their solutions focus on everything from tropical forests in the Amazon Basin to methane emissions in the Arctic, from grasslands in Africa to fisheries in the Indian Ocean and from sustainable finance in Australia to dam removal in Africa.

Design For Impact

Our Approach to Design

All our fellows have great ideas. And want to create big change for the better. Our design tools take them all the way from a great idea to impact at scale. Scale for us doesn’t simply mean growth, nor is it just a big number. And it isn’t about an organization “scaling;” it’s about scaling the impact you want to see in the world.

We’ve found that for an organization to get to “scale” and make a big dent in a big problem it has to go through some stages 1) smart R&D to arrive at a scalable model, 2) replication by your own organization to prove scalability, and finally 3) scale via replication by others that creates the exponential growth of impact. The first part of the fellowship focuses on how to turn an idea into a systematic and replicable model. It takes them through a series of steps to get to a detailed impact model, and then serves as the vehicle of an ongoing process of iterative redesign. And then we dig into how to shepherd it through the stages to scale. It’s a systematic approach to go all the way. You can take a look at some of the design content here.

The Workshop

The main event is usually a week-long workshop on the coast of California where fellows have the opportunity to think deeply about their path to create meaningful impact at scale. We bring together founders, experts, experienced doers, and our team. It's fast-paced, interactive, and fun.

The engagement also helps Fellows work through the organizational and financial models – how to deliver the impact model and how to pay for it. Fellows work directly with our team to incorporate new information, lessons, and ideas into their model.

Fellows get to listen, learn and support each other through:

• Design & scale sessions that build on pre-work
• Iteration on design for impact and strategy for scale
• Honed communications
• Small group topical conversations
• A series of curated one-on-one conversations

They emerge with more clarity on the dream and a roadmap to help get them there.

Background

We support non-profit organizations committed to making an impact in addressing environmental problems, engaging in conservation and resource protections, and tackling social concerns. Through these small and mid-scale grants, we aim to support like-minded organizations with missions that align with the work of the Wright-Ingraham Institute. The Wright-Ingraham Institute has been awarding grants since 2012. In that time, we have awarded more than $400,000 to over 65 organizations.

Focus Areas

Our grants are designed to help address problems in three main areas.

Climate Change

Today, efforts to cope with the climate crisis are estimated to be costing the global economy approximately $3 trillion annually. We support organizations that are actively solving problems of how to bring clean air and water to global communities, how to prevent or stem natural disasters and meteorological events, and how to best promote sustainable practices and support renewable sources of energy.

Land Issues

Our grants strengthen organizations that are looking at different ways to apply concepts of sustainability, including ways to reverse the loss of fragile ecosystems that connect people and animals with land, or that work at the nexus of food, fuel and shelter. Additionally, we seek to better understand how human systems and natural systems intersect one another.

Wildlife Conservation

We support organizations that are working courageously on ways to conserve and preserve important wildlife habitats, as globalization continues to seek to develop every corner of the globe.

Elizabeth Wright Ingraham Grant

The Elizabeth Wright Ingraham Grant is dedicated to the founder of the Wright-Ingraham Institute. This grant is awarded to an organization exploring how human systems interact with natural systems, for example, how to create living spaces that utilize land responsibly.

Amount: $10,000

Background

We support non-profit organizations committed to making an impact in addressing environmental problems, engaging in conservation and resource protections, and tackling social concerns. Through these small and mid-scale grants, we aim to support like-minded organizations with missions that align with the work of the Wright-Ingraham Institute. The Wright-Ingraham Institute has been awarding grants since 2012. In that time, we have awarded more than $400,000 to over 65 organizations.

Focus Areas

Our grants are designed to help address problems in three main areas.

Climate Change

Today, efforts to cope with the climate crisis are estimated to be costing the global economy approximately $3 trillion annually. We support organizations that are actively solving problems of how to bring clean air and water to global communities, how to prevent or stem natural disasters and meteorological events, and how to best promote sustainable practices and support renewable sources of energy.

Land Issues

Our grants strengthen organizations that are looking at different ways to apply concepts of sustainability, including ways to reverse the loss of fragile ecosystems that connect people and animals with land, or that work at the nexus of food, fuel and shelter. Additionally, we seek to better understand how human systems and natural systems intersect one another.

Wildlife Conservation

We support organizations that are working courageously on ways to conserve and preserve important wildlife habitats, as globalization continues to seek to develop every corner of the globe.

Richard T. Parker Grant

The Richard T. Parker Grant is dedicated to an alumnus of the Wright-Ingraham Institute’s Running Creek Field Station program, and is supported by a generous, family-bestowed gift derived from the Richard T. Parker Trust. This grant is awarded to an organization conducting research in the fields of science, wildlife, and/or environmental education.

Amount: $10,000

The Heising-Simons Foundation’s Science program solicits proposals for support of meetings, workshops, conferences, summer schools, research collaboration gatherings, and other events related to astronomy, cosmology, fundamental physics, and climate change science.

Through its funding, the Science program has three main goals:

• Enable basic scientific research,
• Connect key stakeholders, and
• Communicate scientific results.

Events facilitate connections between attendees; allow for the communication of progress and findings; and push science forward through discussion, collaboration, and shared learning. Communities are built through interaction, and events can provide a vital space to network and encounter diverse perspectives. For those early in their careers or that have identities that are underrepresented in their field, certain events can offer the opportunity to find a mentor or a sense of belonging and scientific identity. 

EQIP

The Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) is NRCS’ flagship conservation program that helps farmers, ranchers and forest landowners integrate conservation into working lands.

EQIP provides technical and financial assistance to agricultural producers and forest landowners to address natural resource concerns, such as:

• Improved water and air quality;
• Conserved ground and surface water;
• Increased soil health;
• Reduced soil erosion and sedimentation;
• Improved or created wildlife habitat; and
• Mitigation against drought and increasing weather volatility.

How It Works

NRCS works one-on-one with producers to develop a conservation plan that outlines conservation practices and activities to help solve on-farm resource issues. Producers implement practices and activities in their conservation plan that can lead to cleaner water and air, healthier soil and better wildlife habitat, all while improving their agricultural operations. EQIP helps producers make conservation work for them. Financial assistance for practices may be available through EQIP.  Some producers may also qualify for advance payment.

Benefits

Some of these benefits include:

• Reduced contamination from agricultural sources, such as animal feeding operations.
• Efficient use of nutrients, reducing input costs and reduction in nonpoint source pollution.
• Improved soil health, which mitigates against increasing weather volatility, improves drought resiliency and can positively affect climate change.
• Implementation of climate-smart practices that improve carbon sequestration and reduce greenhouse gas emissions while building resilient landscapes.

Maine Initiatives

• Conservation Planning Activities (CPAs), Design and Implementation Activities (DIAs), and Conservation Evaluation and Monitoring Activities (CEMAs)
  • Technical service providers (TSP) or other third-party service providers (Providers) for NRCS can carry out planning, design, implementation, and monitoring tasks for NRCS conservation program purposes (previously known as Conservation Activity Plans (CAPs)). NRCS has reorganized and renamed CAPs into three new categories—Conservation Planning Activities (CPAs), Design and Implementation Activities (DIAs), and Conservation Evaluation and Monitoring Activities (CEMAs). NRCS broke these activities out to clarify which phase of the NRCS conservation planning process the TSP/Provider will be supporting.
• Climate Smart Agriculture
  • Agricultural producers play a critical role in fostering a healthy environment through climate-smart management practices that conserve natural resources, build healthier soils, sequester carbon, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions including carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N2O). When row crop producers adopt conservation practices such as no-till or plant diverse cover crops, for instance, they’re building healthier soils while also sequestering carbon from the atmosphere.
• Irrigation Assistance
  • Under the 2008 Farm Bill, priority will be given to water conservation or irrigation efficiency applications that will reduce water sue or where the producer agrees not to use any associated water savings to bring new land under irrigation production.
  • Maine NRCS will set aside at least $1,000,000 each year in financial assistance funding for eligible applicants across the state.  These dollars will be used to fund projects that address irrigation efficiency and assist producers to comply with Maine Department of Environmental Protection Chapter 587 In-Stream Flows and Lake and Pond Water Levels regulations.
• On-Farm Energy Initiative
  • The EQIP On-Farm Energy Initiative enables the producer to identify ways to conserve energy on the farm through an Agricultural Energy Management Plan (AgEMP), also known as an on-farm energy audit; and by providing financial and technical assistance to help the producer implement various measures and practices recommended in an on-farm energy audit.
• Organic Agriculture Initiative
  • Maine has received funds for an organic initiative to encourage more organic agriculture production.
  • Successful applicants will receive funding to implement conservation practices that have been identified as needed to improve natural resource conditions.
• National Water Quality Initiative
  • The National Water Quality Initiative will work in priority watersheds to help farmers, ranchers and forest landowners improve water quality and aquatic habitats in impaired streams. 
  • NRCS will help eligible producers implement conservation and management practices through a systems approach to control and trap nutrient and manure runoff. 
  • Qualified producers will receive assistance for installing conservation practices such as cover crops, filter strips and terraces.
  • In Maine, two watersheds were selected to participate in this initiative:  The Cross Lake Watershed in northern Aroostook County and the Sheepscot River Watershed in Lincoln County.
    • The Cross Lake Watershed includes Daigle Brook, Dickey Brook and Cross Lake subwatersheds.
    • The Sheepscot Watershed includes Sheepscot River and Dyer River subwatersheds.
• Pollinators
  • Whether you are a farmer who relies on native bees for pollination, or a forestry producer interested in conservation, consider applying for funding through an NRCS cost-share program today.
• EQIP State Aquatic Restoration Pool
  • The state aquatic restoration pool provides the opportunity for stream connectivity and or instream habitat projects.
  • This pool is available statewide and focuses on perennial streams lacking appropriate base conditions.
  • The state pool is focused on implementing solutions to two core resource concern practices, with select other supporting practices that may be executed in conjunction with the core practices.

Adelard A. and Valeda Lea Roy Foundation Grant

The AV Roy Foundation has historically supported a broad range of organizations working in the areas of arts and culture, churches, education, environmental education, food access, health, land trusts, museums, and social services. The Trustees prioritize grants serving greater Boston and underserved rural and urban communities in Massachusetts, with some additional grantmaking in other areas of Northern New England.

In an effort to ensure that applications to the Foundation closely match current giving priorities, the Trustees will give priority to Massachusetts and Northern New England applicants focused on the following:

• Environment: requests focused on land conservation, in particular projects close to completion and projects resulting in easements held by accredited land trusts; environmental education; and climate change
• Health and Welfare: basic human needs (with priority given to food security and housing); hospice and home health care
• Arts and Culture: in particular, arts access and education for disadvantaged, elderly, or youth populations, and historic preservation
• Education: schools serving youth from low income backgrounds, including independent schools
• Churches providing basic needs support and other social services programming, as well as capital needs for facilities or historic preservation

Funding

Grants typically range from $2,500 to $10,000. In 2023, the average grant was $3,800. The Trustees anticipate a slightly higher average grant size this year, and fewer grants in total.

Building Resilience in Agriculture

Today, about half of the world’s habitable land is used for agriculture, and about a third of the population’s livelihoods rely directly on agriculture. Yet, agricultural systems around the world are vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, and unless farming communities have the tools to be resilient and adapt, these impacts can lead to global and local disruptions in livelihoods, ecosystem health, culture, and the supply of food.

Based on climate models, agricultural systems will face increasing challenges related to weather, climate, pests and diseases, deteriorating soil quality, and other changing conditions. These agricultural systems rely on the stewardship and innovation of farming communities worldwide. Farming is an occupation and livelihood where people have been innovating to adapt and thrive ensuring food security and supply since time immemorial. While the toolbox of solutions to address risks and build resilience is vast, approaches might be in the earlier stages of piloting, or are applied on local scales because the expertise is maintained by traditional and Indigenous knowledge systems.

Opportunity Overview

This funding opportunity is made possible through an impact-driven collaboration between the National Geographic Society and Pepsico.

This funding opportunity will support innovative projects that apply science and innovation in a real-world context, focused on feasible, nature-positive solutions. The projects should have measurable outcomes on the resilience of farms, farming communities, and natural ecosystems in the farming landscapes to the realities of changing climates and extreme weather events. The projects will demonstrate, measure, and support practices and approaches that are regenerative. The project’s main goals must aim to make farms, farming communities, and natural ecosystems more resilient and demonstrate two or more of the following outcomes:

• Soil Health: Build the health and fertility of the soil to support a healthy and productive ecosystem above and below ground.
• Climate Mitigation and Adaptation: Increase resilience to climate change impacts, sequester carbon, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
• Watershed Health: Improve watershed health through reducing nutrient runoff and the quantity of water needed for farms and communities to thrive.
• Biodiversity: Protect and improve biodiversity across agricultural landscapes – examples include forest conservation and restoration, bees and other pollinators for crops as well as improving the soil microbiome.
• Improved Livelihoods: Improve livelihoods in locally contextualized ways, ensuring farmers’ access to training, decision making and resources to implement sustainable agricultural practices and achieve improved farm performance.

Background

The Morton-Kelly Charitable Trust was established in 1988 by Joan Morton Kelly and her mother, Mildred Duncan Morton, to facilitate their philanthropic activities.

Foundation Program Areas

The overarching interest of the Morton-Kelly Charitable Trust is to connect people and place through the arts, culture and the natural environment in Maine. Program Areas reflect how communities, organizations and individuals can cultivate creative expression and a sense of responsibility towards one another and to the lands and waters around us. Proposals may be for operating support or specific projects and may be of local or statewide benefit. Across all programs, community connection is paramount.

Program Areas of interest to the Trust are Arts, Culture and Historic Preservation and Environmental Initiatives.

Arts, Culture and Historic Preservation

The Trust is interested in community arts and cultural programs, cultural facility improvements, historic preservation projects and celebration of the diverse cultural heritage of Maine.

Arts and culture programs and organizations help foster vibrant communities, creative expression, inspiration and build community connections. Community cultural centers and preservation of historic sites and resources can enhance downtown and community revitalization efforts and be a cornerstone of community arts and cultural life. The Trust is also interested in programs that expand cross-cultural understanding of the unique and layered histories of Maine and contemporary expressions of culture and heritage.

The Trust’s Arts and Culture Program Area welcomes operating support or project proposals that meet any of the following goals:

• Access to the arts, creative expression and community cultural programs
  • Priorities include:
    • Access to arts experiences of all kinds, arts education for all ages, and performances and programs that serve Maine communities and residents.
    • Visual and performing arts programs in Maine museums, public libraries, historical societies and other cultural organizations.
    • Both urban and rural programs that reflect local needs and bring community members together, including lectures, exhibits and special events.
    • Projects and programs that serve diverse populations and cultural experiences including Black, Indigenous and people of color in Maine.
• Facility improvements for community cultural centers and historic preservation projects that contribute to community vitality
  • Cultural facility improvement priorities include:
    • Structural, health, safety, public access or energy efficiency improvements.
    • Technology upgrades and other renovation needs.
    • Small venues in rural or underserved areas where few other resources are available, and which contribute to community revitalization.
• Historic preservation projects that contribute to community vitality
  • Priorities include:
    • The restoration and conservation of significant historic structures such as those listed on the National Register, or have documented importance through Tribal Historic Preservation Departments or are a known community landmark.
      • The Trust will support structural improvements and building systems (such as electrical service) rather than maintenance, painting or short-term repairs.
    • Preservation projects may also include restoration of significant material cultural resources.
    • Applicants are strongly encouraged to provide a letter indicating that the Maine Historic Preservation Commission or appropriate Tribal Historic Preservation Office is aware of the project, and that work is being conducted to appropriate preservation standards.
• Celebrate the diverse cultural heritage and multiple histories of Maine
  • Priorities include:
    • Programs that build community connection, celebrate the diverse cultural heritage of Maine communities and elevate the unique experiences of Black, Indigenous and other under-represented groups.
    • Efforts that build bridges within communities to elevate cultural histories of place, expand awareness, cultural connection and share learning.

Environmental Initiatives

The Trust is interested in environmental initiatives that protect ecological values, water quality and ecosystem health through land conservation, stewardship, education and research programs. The Trust is interested in supporting organizations that promote positive relationships with nature including scientific, ecological and cultural perspectives. The Trust is also interested in expanded efforts to conserve culturally significant lands for Wabanaki communities.

The Trust’s Environmental Initiatives Program Area welcomes proposals for operating support or projects that meet any of the following goals or related priorities:

• Provide equitable access to outdoor experiences and nature-based education
  •  Priorities include:
    • Programs that offer outdoor experiences and nature-based education for youth and community members to inspire care and responsibility for the environment.
    • Programs that provide safe, inclusive spaces for youth and others to develop appreciation for nature, science and the social and cultural dimensions of land and place.
    • Programs that benefit BIPOC and underserved communities.
• Enhance environmental stewardship.
  • Priorities include:
    • Support of the growing stewardship responsibilities of conservation groups in light of development pressures, climate change and greater public use of conserved lands and waters.
    • Support of staffing, programs and partnerships for stewardship, education and community engagement.
• Advance new approaches for land conservation
  • Priorities include:
    • Partnerships, tools and relationships for conservation that emphasize equity and inclusion.
    • Land conservation that protects biodiversity or provides access to lands and waters for recreation, education and restoration.
      • Organizations requesting funding for land acquisitions should include a funding plan for the project.
    • Building capacity for the protection, stewardship and management of culturally significant lands for Wabanaki lifeways and culture.
• Promote restoration and improvement of water quality in coastal and inlandwatersheds
  • Priorities include:
    • Applied science and research for the restoration and management of ecosystems, especially the coastal and inland waters of Maine.
    • Relevant research and education for water quality and habitat improvement.
    • Addressing climate change impacts on coastal and aquatic resources.
    • Initiatives that use science, policy and community engagement to improve and restore natural resources and ecosystems.

Funding

Up to $20,000 in grant funding may be requested.

About Us

Old places are where our lives, memories, and stories began. They connect us to the past, anchor us to the present, and lead us into the future. These places inspire us to create a stronger nation, because they belong to all of us.

For more than 70 years, the National Trust for Historic Preservation has led the movement to save America’s historic places. A privately funded nonprofit organization, we work to save America's historic sites; tell the full American story; build stronger communities; and invest in preservation's future.

Moe Family Fund for Statewide and Local Partners

The Moe Family Fund for Statewide and Local Partners supports current dues-paying members of the National Preservation Partners Network (NPPN) with grants focused on strengthening preservation organizations and addressing pressing issues in the preservation field. This year, grant-funded projects will fall in one of three categories:

• Advocacy
• Capacity Building
• Climate Change

While recognizing there are interconnections between these categories, applicants must select one main category for the project. Applicants can describe overlapping aspects with a second category in the application.

Applicants are encouraged to embark on projects and activities outside the existing scope of their work, but the Fund also will support initiatives that take existing programs to a new level. Projects may stand alone or be part of a larger initiative.

Selection Criteria

The selection committee will select grant recipients by considering, among other factors, the following criteria:

• Degree to which the proposed project will address one of the three identified categories
• Creativity and innovation above and beyond the organization’s existing programs, or the extent to which an existing program is being taken to a new level
• Evidence that the activity or project would probably not be undertaken without this seed money
• The projected outcome of the project and the potential for catalytic effect
• Potential for demonstrable short-term and long-term impact
• Replicability and transferability, i.e., potential for the project or activity to be a model for other Partner organizations
• The project’s budget and the applicant’s proven ability to secure a match
• Potential to leverage additional funds for the project
• Realistic timeline for the project
• Qualifications of the key personnel, including consultants
• Demonstrated ability of the applicant to complete preservation projects

Funding

Through the Fund, a maximum of $50,000 will be awarded with a limit of $10,000 per grant award.

Background

We support non-profit organizations committed to making an impact in addressing environmental problems, engaging in conservation and resource protections, and tackling social concerns. Through these small and mid-scale grants, we aim to support like-minded organizations with missions that align with the work of the Wright-Ingraham Institute. The Wright-Ingraham Institute has been awarding grants since 2012. In that time, we have awarded more than $400,000 to over 65 organizations.

Focus Areas

Our grants are designed to help address problems in three main areas.

Climate Change

Today, efforts to cope with the climate crisis are estimated to be costing the global economy approximately $3 trillion annually. We support organizations that are actively solving problems of how to bring clean air and water to global communities, how to prevent or stem natural disasters and meteorological events, and how to best promote sustainable practices and support renewable sources of energy.

Land Issues

Our grants strengthen organizations that are looking at different ways to apply concepts of sustainability, including ways to reverse the loss of fragile ecosystems that connect people and animals with land, or that work at the nexus of food, fuel and shelter. Additionally, we seek to better understand how human systems and natural systems intersect one another.

Wildlife Conservation

We support organizations that are working courageously on ways to conserve and preserve important wildlife habitats, as globalization continues to seek to develop every corner of the globe.

Sustaining Grants

These grants are awarded to a range of organizations working in wide variety of areas related to the overall mission of the Wright-Ingraham Institute. Special preference for these awards is given to Colorado-based institutions.

Amount: $5,000