The Capacity Building Grant Program seeks to support the capacity of organizations working at the intersection of natural resource and community well-being.
Donor Name: Chesapeake Bay Trust
State: Selected States
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 07/17/2025
Size of the Grant: $100,000 to $500,000
Grant Duration: 1 Year
Details:
Capacity-building projects should address challenges to improve an organization or local government’s long-term effectiveness. Applicants can focus on building their own internal capacity or building capacity for other organizations or local governments. Examples include:
- Contractual support for organizational effectiveness assessments.
- Support for conducting enterprise risk management, including scenario planning.
- Strategic plan development or refinement.
- Fundraising plan development.
- Technology or database assistance.
- Operational process improvements.
- Staff training.
- Board development.
- Shared technical assistance models. This category covers both technical assistance providers offering services to multiple nonprofits / local governments, or groups of organizations jointly seeking support for shared needs.
- Collaboration and mergers.
Funding Information
- Up to $1.6 million is anticipated for this funding round.
- Funding requests will generally not exceed $40,000 for non-profits and $150,000 for local governments.
Grant Period
Projects must be completed within 12 months of award receipt.
Eligibility Criteria
Requests are encouraged from nonprofit organizations and tribal or local governments that:
- Provide services within the Chesapeake watershed, including the DC, DE, MD, NY, PA, VA, and WV portions of the watershed, and the Maryland Coastal Bays and Youghiogheny watersheds in Maryland.
- Have a water and/or natural resource focus within their work aligned with the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement goals.
- Nonprofits must also:
- Have between 1 and 50 staff members.
- Employ at least one full-time staff member (35+ hours per week) or have a dedicated volunteer contributing 35+ hours per week.
- Have an active Board of Directors.
For more information, visit CBT.
