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: 08/09/2023
Size of the Grant: $75,000
Details:
King Conservation District’s (KCD) Seattle Community Partnership Grant Program is an offshoot of the Member Jurisdiction grant program, but only for projects in the City of Seattle. KCD and the City have partnered together to request proposals from community organizations only.
King Conservation District is a natural resources assistance agency that promotes the sustainable use of natural resources. 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. This grant program supports projects that improve natural resources and are co-created, led by, and benefit people most impacted by environmental and climate inequities Black, Indigenous, People of Color, immigrants, refugees, people with low incomes, youth and elders.
Projects must focus on at least one of the following KCD natural resource priority areas:
- Managing and preventing pollution from storm water runoff
- Water that runs off the road, roofs, and other surfaces pollute their waterways. Activities that prevent this include (but are not limited to) installing rain gardens, green roofs, cisterns (catch and store rainwater), bioswales (filtration and drainage systems), and more.
- Protecting and restoring creeks, shorelines, and wetlands
- This can include activities such as removing invasive weeds, replanting native trees, shrubs and groundcovers around waterways to improve wildlife habitat and water quality.
- Improving soil health
- This can include activities such as soil testing, amending community garden or urban farm soil to increase nutrients or remediate contamination, learning about and applying fertilizer, mulch and compost, installing on-site compost bins, and more.
- Restoring urban forests, or other native plant stewardship
- Activities can include (but are not limited to) planting conifers in a deciduous tree dominated area, planting a diverse array of native plants, restoring native plants to an area, removing invasive weeds.
- Building a sustainable, equitable food system
- This can include activities such as building/creating/expanding a community garden, growing food distributed to local community groups, and improving access to healthy, local food.
Natural Resource Improvement Actions: How will your project go about improving natural resources in the priority areas outlined above?
- Direct Improvement of Natural Resource Conditions
- Improve landscape and natural conditions through direct action that enhances water quality, protects and conserves soils, or implement ecosystem restoration and preservation projects.
- Education and Outreach
- Raise awareness, deepen knowledge, and change behaviors to practice exemplary stewardship of natural resources.
- Pilot and Demonstration Projects
- Test and/or improve concepts and/or approaches in natural resource management that can be replicated by others.
- Capacity Building
- Enhance the knowledge, skills, tools, support systems, partnerships, community connections, and technical resources to implement exemplary best management practices and deliver natural resource management actions equitably
Funding Information
Grants are awarded and administered by the King Conservation District and reviewed by the City of Seattle. This year, $410,000 in funding is available. Projects will be awarded no more than $75,000 and can take place over multiple years.
Eligibility Criteria
Organizations or community groups whose work centers, is co-created, and/or led by Black, Indigenous and People of Color, immigrants, refugees, people with low incomes, youth, and elders.
Only one application per organization is allowed, except if the organization serves as a fiscal sponsor for multiple projects.
Organizations or community groups must have a 501(c)3 nonprofit status or a fiscal sponsor with a 501(c)3 nonprofit status to be eligible to apply. The fiscal sponsor organization should submit the application. If the community group submits the application, a letter verifying their fiscal sponsor relationship, or the fiscal sponsorship agreement, must be uploaded to the grant application in the online grant portal. A letter template for fiscal sponsor confirmation is available on the website.
The fiscal sponsor confirmation letter must include the following information.
- Name of the fiscal sponsor organization
- Name of the applicant organization
- The fiscal sponsor’s EIN (the Federal Tax Identification Number)
- Signature of the fiscal sponsor contact.
Project Requirements
- Projects must occur primarily within Seattle city limits. However, field trips outside of Seattle are allowed.
- Grant awards are paid on a reimbursement basis after costs are incurred and receipts or invoices have been submitted. Ten percent of the grant award or final expenditures will not be paid until a formal close out process is complete. The close out process often includes a site visit to the project location.
- Reimbursement requests must be submitted with a Progress Report and can be submitted monthly using the online grant portal.
- Project check-ins by phone or email are required at least once per year.
- Matching funds are not required.
- Landowner Permission Letter: If your project takes place on government-owned land or land owned by someone other than the applicant organization, a landowner permission letter from the appropriate landowner, agency or department must be uploaded to the grant application in the online grant portal or the project will not be eligible for consideration. They strongly encourage applicants to begin the process of obtaining a landowner permission letter as soon as possible. A letter template for the landowner permission letter is available on the website.
For more information, visit KCD.
