The Rose Foundation for Communities and the Environment is seeking applications for the California Wildlands Grassroots Fund to support efforts to preserve California’s wildlands.
Donor Name: Rose Foundation for Communities and the Environment
State: California
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 08/15/2023
Size of the Grant: $2,500-$6,000
Details:
California is blessed with tremendous natural beauty, biological diversity and economic opportunity. Yet, their remaining wildland heritage is in jeopardy from poorly managed growth and development. Californians have long recognized the importance of preserving their spectacular and precious wildlands. The California Wildlands Grassroots Fund (Cal Wildlands) was established to support the heroic efforts of activists to preserve California’s wildlands.
Cal Wildlands supports conservationists advocating for the permanent protection, including restoration and stewardship, of intact wildlands on both public and private lands to help preserve California’s wilderness and native biological diversity. Cal Wildlands defines “wildlands” as natural habitats, privately or publicly owned, that are (or have the potential to be) permanently preserved through legislation or deed restrictions, and are on a scale necessary to support significant native plant and animal life. Though many of their grantees’ projects are in rural areas, they may also support projects near urban or suburban settings, provided they feature connectivity to larger protected areas and/or are located along critical wildlife corridors.
Efforts to advance wildlands and open space protection through county general plans and other local planning mechanisms may be eligible for funding. Cal Wildlands also supports policy advocacy, litigation and regulatory watchdogging at the local, state and federal levels if the project objective is to protect wildlands.
Strategies
- The strategies Foundation support includes, but are not limited to the following:
- Grassroots organizing; organizational capacity building; participation in public meetings and hearings; public education; communications; legislative and regulatory advocacy; media campaigns; lawsuits; listing petitions; conferences and meetings; skills and leadership trainings; restoration and trail maintenance; scientific research, including citizen science; coalition building; and developing partnerships with government agencies, private entities, nonprofit organizations, and communities.
Funding Priorities
- Requests for discrete, project-specific support in which both the site and strategy are concrete and specific, e.g., saving the River Styx from hydroelectric development by getting stakeholders and community members to a hearing in Sacramento.
- Geographic or issue areas that have not received significant financial support in the past, including rural communities and other regions without easy access to financial and political support.
- Community-based advocacy and organizing efforts in which the campaign/project is steered by affected community members and interest groups.
- Effort is predominantly driven and staffed by volunteers.
- Project will establish or combat a critical precedent that will influence other wildlands protection efforts.
- Innovative strategies.
- Project seeks to build diverse constituencies for wildlands protection and engage non-traditional stakeholders, especially communities of color.
Funding Information
- Typical grants range between $2,500-$6,000.
- Maximum grant is $7,500.
Eligible Activities
- The activities foundation support includes, but are not limited to the following:
- Communications campaigns (including mailings, web-based communications and social media, paid advertising, etc.); strategic campaign planning and implementation; advocacy-related travel or other expenses; research; hiring technical, legal, or scientific experts or consultants; equipment purchase or rental; training; conferences; retreats; monitoring; mapping; and restoration and trail maintenance. Educational activities targeting legislators are allowable, but grant dollars may not be used for lobbying as defined by IRS 501(c)(3).
Eligibility Criteria
What and Who they support
- Because of the complex network of agencies, stakeholders, processes, and programs that affect land and habitat issues in California, wildlands protection efforts are challenging. That is why the Cal Wildlands Fund provides a broad range of support for activists and organizations working to protect wildlands and habitat throughout the state. The Fund supports:
- Small nonprofit organizations with annual actual expenses and income of $150,000 or less; and
- Individual activists (with a sponsoring organization) with a solid track record of protecting California’s natural landscapes, ecosystems, plants, and wildlife.
- Geographic areas and advocacy efforts that have not received significant foundation support.
Other Parameters and Requirements
- If your organization’s actual annual income and expenses are $30,000 or less, they strongly encourage you to request a grant of $5000 or less.
- If your organization’s actual annual income and expenses are between $50,000-$150,000, you may request up to $7,500.
- Organizations seeking the maximum grant size of $7,500 must be able to articulate a clear project and budget that justifies the full grant.
- The fund prioritizes project-specific requests, but will accept general support requests from strong organizations whose work is well aligned with the fund’s priorities. They will support stipends for organizers; portions of staff salaries linked with a project; consulting fees for technical experts; equipment purchase; and research costs.
- Foundation’s goal is to help as many organizations throughout the state as possible and, as a result, they are not always able to provide 100 percent of the funding requested.
- Environmental education programs must include a strong element of environmental advocacy to be considered.
- Foundation does not fund lobbying activities as defined by IRS 501(c)(3).
- Foundation does not fund beach clean-ups.
- Foundation does not fund film or video production or completion, although they will fund outreach or communications strategies that use films or videos as advocacy and organizing tools.
For more information, visit RFCE.
