WEAF Grants for Land Protection and Community Resilience

The Wild East Action Fund supports projects that accelerate the pace of conservation within the Appalachian Trail landscape.

Donor Name: Appalachian Trail Conservancy

State: Selected States

County: All Counties

Type of Grant: Grant | In-Kind

Deadline: 07/18/2025

Size of the Grant: $10,000 to $100,000

Grant Duration: Grant Duration Not Mentioned

Details:

The purpose of the Wild East Action Fund is to provide private, flexible financial support for a variety of conservation-related projects located within the A.T. Landscape.

Goals

The goals of the Wild East Action Fund are to:

Accelerate the pace and scale of land protection and conservation in the Landscape.
Increase the capacity of the partners to achieve strategic and targeted conservation outcomes.
Strengthen community and ecological resiliency to better address the impacts of climate change.
Champion an A.T. Landscape that encourages everyone to feel welcomed, respected, and supported.
Foster and support community and collaborative conservation outcomes in the A.T. Landscape.
Grow the network of partners dedicated to improving the A.T. Landscape for generations to come.

Categories

Three grant categories will be opened for project proposals:

Land Protection
- Land Protection grants will be awarded to projects that contribute to the protection and stewardship of the exceptional values of the A.T. Landscape for future generations. These values reflect, but are not limited to, the natural, cultural, historic, scenic, recreational, agricultural, and community assets found within and benefit the landscape. Competitive projects will use collaborative and/or community-driven conservation approaches, advance climate resiliency, protect clean water, and improve public access to outdoor recreation where appropriate.
Conservation Planning
- Conservation Planning grants are available to support the strategic conservation planning efforts of organizations, regional partnerships, or local governments or agencies that aim to catalyze local or regional land protection and nature-based solutions for climate change within the A.T. Landscape. Eligible projects can include, but are not limited to, developing strategic conservation or open space plans, preplanning needs such as data collection or analysis, building parcel prioritization/decision support tools for land protection, or creating natural resource stewardship/restoration planning. Competitive projects will use collaborative and/or community-driven conservation approaches, support public access to recreation opportunities, advance climate resiliency, and protect clean water where appropriate. It is important that conservation planning projects clearly demonstrate how efforts will result in or catalyze future landscape conservation, address climate change, and strive to strengthen community support for conservation.
Community Resilience
- Community Resilience grants are available for projects that support community resiliency in the face of weather-related impacts and a changing climate. They anticipate three types of resilient community projects to be competitive in this cycle; the most competitive applications will address more than one of the following themes:
  - Recovery, rebuilding, development of outdoor recreation, cultural, or historic assets.
  - Restoration, stabilization, recovery of natural resources, ecological systems, or open space.
  - Community building, place-making, or preparedness.

Funding Information

In 2025, Up to $400,000 will be granted through the Wild East Action Fund to qualified land protection, conservation planning, and community resiliency projects.
Land Protection grant requests up to $75,000 will be considered.
Conservation Planning and Community Resiliency grant requests between $5,000 and $20,000 will be considered.
All funding opportunities require a cash or in-kind match.

Eligible Projects

Eligible projects can include, but are not limited to, volunteer workdays/clean-ups/events, youth leadership and workforce training related to conservation or natural resource stewardship, public education or outreach campaigns or events, downtown recovery, beautification, revitalization, and resiliency planning or pre-planning activities, and recreational/cultural/historic asset improvements.
Competitive projects will advance climate resiliency, be collaborative and/or community-driven, support public access to open space and recreation opportunities, and/or address Hurricane Helene recovery.
It is important that applications clearly demonstrate how the project will help the community recover from the impacts of Hurricane Helene and/or strengthen a community’s capacity to respond, mitigate, or adapt to future risk and uncertainty associated with the increasing severity of weather events and a changing climate.
As much as possible, project outcomes should include, or strive to strengthen community support for, conservation actions and nature-based solutions to climate change.

Geographic Limitations

Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, Georgia.

Eligibility Criteria

To be eligible for the Wild East Action Fund, applicants must demonstrate a project focus and organizational mission that is aligned with the ATLP’s mission of connecting the wild, scenic, and cultural wonders of the A.T. Landscape.
The applicant’s project should occur within, serve the needs of, or explicitly benefit the A.T. Landscape.
Previous grant awardees are eligible to apply.
Previously awarded projects may re-apply for additional funding but will be less competitive.
To qualify to receive funding, organizations must be a Tribal, State, or Local government entity/agency or a qualified 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
Regional partnerships without501(c)(3) nonprofit status may have a qualified 501(c)(3) apply on behalf of the partnership.

For more information, visit ATC.