Take a look at some of the top grant opportunities open during the month of October 2018 in the areas of Environment and Wildlife Conservation.
Submit Applications for Weeden Foundation Grant Programs to Protect Biodiversity!
Deadline: 1 February 2019
The Weeden Foundation is accepting applications from organizations for its various funding programs in order to protect biodiversity. The Foundation works to protect old-growth forests, expand habitats for endangered species on public and private lands, and link key wildlife corridors.
The Weeden Foundation’s primary mission has been to protect biodiversity. Since its inception, the Weeden Foundation has supported international and domestic population stabilization projects based on the rationale that an increasing population causes greater impact on the environment and loss of biodiversity.
Funding Areas
- Domestic Biodiversity Program: Foundation grantmaking in the U.S. has historically concentrated on the Pacific Northwest, that is Northern California, Oregon, and Washington, and up to British Columbia and Southeast Alaska. This reflects a longstanding interest in coastal temperate forests, which also extends into the Southern Hemisphere of the Americas. Currently, their grantmaking in the region is focused on the California half of the Klamath-Siskiyou bioregion. Program activities include new wilderness protections, improving the ecological integrity of the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument, and restoring the Klamath River watershed.
- International Biodiversity Program: Since its inception, the Weeden Foundation has had a strong interest in conservation work internationally. Roughly 30% – 40% of total annual grant expenditure goes to projects outside of the United States, a percentage range that has not changed significantly over the past two decades. This global perspective came about partly through a recognition that most of the planet’s biodiversity is found elsewhere, coupled with an understanding that an American conservation dollar goes much further when spent on the ground in Chile or Russia. To the Weeden trustees, these opportunistic conditions far outweigh the risks typically associated with international grantmaking.
- Land Acquisition Program: The Weeden Foundation made its first grant to acquire threatened biologically diverse habitat in 1983, and over the next three and a half decades it has supported over 45 land acquisition/protected areas projects. While efforts were initially aimed at domestic sites, the Foundation soon came to realize that even with a growing investment portfolio its ability to support the purchase of critical habitat in the United States was severely constrained by high land values. As a result, the late 1980s saw a shift in emphasis to international target sites, mostly in Latin America.
- Population Program: Population growth, is pushing—or has surpassed—the limits of sustainability; it remains a major factor in the alarming decline of global biodiversity, and threatens the quality of life we seek for ourselves, our descendants, and all people of the planet. The Foundation currently supports high leverage international population projects with advocacy components to influence policy makers and opinion leaders. Additionally, their funds support the creation of approaches to raising awareness about family planning and reproductive health. Over the two past decades, the Foundation has supported such efforts in Nepal, Mexico, and throughout South America.
- Consumption Program: While the Foundation made several energy conservation grants more than twenty years ago, promoting sustainable consumption patterns in the U.S. has become a high priority in the past decade. This new emphasis is largely the result of a fuller understanding of the factors driving biological impoverishment, in particular the rapid pace with which the U.S. industrial corporations must exploit resources all over the globe to supply the insatiable American consumer.
Funding Information
The average grant size is between $15,000 and $20,000, and only under exceptional circumstances do grants exceed $20,000.
Eligible Projects
The Foundation funds projects that:
- advocate for increased federal funding of family planning services
- promote reduction of immigration levels (immigration currently accounts for the majority of U.S. population growth);
- investigate the impacts of population-driven sprawl on adjacent wild areas
Documentation
The following materials constitute a complete application package:
- financial statements (preferably audited)
- list of Board of Directors and their affiliations
- IRS tax exemption 501(c)(3) certification letter or an equivalency document for non-U.S. based organizations (obtained in-country)
- project budget
- organizational budget
- other sources and amounts of institutional support (past, present, and anticipated future); and
- qualifications of key personnel
How to Apply
- The Foundation requires that new applicants (not current grantees) submit a Letter of Inquiry (LOI) via email.
- Returning applicants (who received a grant the previous year) do not need to submit a LOI.
For more information, please visit Weeden Foundation.