The King Conservation District (KCD) Seattle Community Partnership Grant Program is a grant opportunity for community-led projects that improve natural resources and advance racial justice in Seattle.
Donor Name: King Conservation District
State: Washington
City: Seattle
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 07/14/2025
Size of the Grant: $10,000 to $100,000
Grant Duration: 2 Years
Details:
King Conservation District is an agency that promotes the sustainable use of natural resources through education, technical assistance, and grants. Across the United States and here in Seattle, race is the most significant predictor of whether a person lives near contaminated air, water, or soil, which impacts their health and wellbeing. The Seattle Community Partnership (SCP) grant program supports community-led initiatives that improve natural resources and are developed, led by, and benefit people most impacted by environmental and climate inequities. These communities include: Black, Indigenous, People of Color, immigrants, refugees, people with low incomes, youth and elders.
Project Priorities
Projects must focus on at least one of the following KCD natural resource priorities: Managing and preventing pollution from stormwater runoff:
- Water runoff from roads, roofs, and other surfaces pollutes the waterways. Solutions can include (but are not limited to) rain gardens, green roofs, cisterns (catch and store rainwater), bioswales (filtration and drainage systems), and other green infrastructure.
- Protecting and restoring creeks, shorelines, and wetlands: Activities can include removing invasive weeds and replanting native trees, shrubs and groundcovers around waterways to improve wildlife habitat and water quality.
- Improving soil health: Activities can include soil testing, adding nutrients or remediating contamination of community garden or urban farm soil, learning about and applying fertilizer, mulch and compost, and installing on-site compost bins.
- Restoring urban forests, or other native plant stewardship: Activities can include (but are not limited to) planting conifers in a deciduous tree dominated area, increasing native plant diversity, restoring native plants to an area, and removing invasive weeds.
- Building a sustainable, equitable food system: Activities can include creating or expanding a community garden, growing food distributed to local community groups, and improving access to healthy, local food.
- In addition to the focus topics listed above, proposals must also specify which natural resource improvement actions will be taken to implement the project:
- Direct Improvement of Natural Resource Conditions: On-the-ground work to improve water quality, protect and conserve soils, or preserve and restore ecosystems.
- Education and Outreach: Raise awareness, deepen knowledge, and encourage responsible exemplary stewardship of natural resources.
- Pilot and Demonstration Projects: Test or refine natural resource management concepts and/or approaches that can be replicated by others.
- Capacity Building: Strengthen knowledge, skills, tools, support systems, partnerships, community connections, and technical resources for effective and equitable natural resource management actions.
Funding Information
- This year, $700,000 in funding is available.
- Projects will be awarded no more than $75,000 and can take place over multiple years.
Grant Period
Eligible Project Period: January 1, 2026 – December 31, 2027.
Eligible Cost
The following are common costs that are eligible for grant funding:
- Salaries and benefits for paid employees of the organization.
- Travel, meals, and mileage while traveling, van rentals, and other transportation.
- Office supplies and software necessary for project implementation.
- Field, project or program supplies such as tools, plants, or other materials.
- Food or meals for the community, including food for volunteers.
- Contracted or professional services such as non-employees, consultants or contract labor.
- Equipment rentals are preferred for most equipment except for irrigation equipment, greenhouses, sheds and other farming/gardening equipment as determined by KCD.
- Indirect costs that support overall operations but cannot be directly attributed to a specific project, such as administration fees, insurance, or rent. Indirect costs in project budgets should not exceed 25% of salaries and benefits. Fiscal sponsor fees do not count as indirect expenses.
Eligible Projects
- Projects must occur primarily within Seattle city limits. However, field trips outside of Seattle are allowed.
- Landowner Permission: If your project is on land that you do not own—including government, city, county, or private property—you must submit a landowner permission letter with your application. Obtaining landowner permission can take weeks, so they strongly recommend starting as early as possible. If you need help contacting government agencies or departments, let us know.
- Partnerships: If you have a partnership with another agency or group that is critical to project implementation, a partnership commitment letter should be submitted.
Eligibility Criteria
Eligible applicants must have a 501(c)3 nonprofit status, or have a fiscal sponsor with 501(c)3 nonprofit status, or be willing and able to secure a fiscal sponsor with 501(c)3 nonprofit status within four (4) weeks of grant award and before project begins.
For more information, visit KCD.
