Small Grant FAQs

Please note: Applicant organizations must reside within the U.S.

To qualify for the $25K grants, your organization must be an accredited land trust or partnering with an accredited land trust. If your organization is partnering with an accredited land trust, please be sure to explain how the land trust will be meaningfully engaged in the project.

For the $10K grants, any land trust (does not need to be accredited) or conservation organization developing programming specifically to support or build capacity for land trusts is welcome to apply. The latter would need to have land trust partners listed with their application.

The RFP closes at 11:59 p.m. on March 1.

A conservation organization may apply as a lead applicant with an accredited land trust as a partner for a $25K grant—or with any land trust as a partner for a $10K grant. In either case, explain in the application why your conservation organization is the lead (e.g., because you have more administrative capacity or are developing programming for land trusts). Also, be sure to explain how the land trust will be involved with the proposed activities in the grant and not just in name only.

If you’re a private citizen, please partner with a local land trust or conservation organization to be eligible for a grant. Identify a partner organization to work with you and have them apply as the lead applicant and be the recipient of the grant award. You can list yourself as one of the applicants/project staff after the lead organization.

We will support management on permanently protected public property with no potential for future development if it meets one or more of the following conditions:

1. It was once owned/secured by a land trust and then ownership was transferred to a public entity
2. It is managed/stewarded by a land trust
3. Proposed programming on the land directly involves land trusts and their partners or building capacity for a land trust

We do have some flexibility and this is not an exhaustive list, so please contact us with project-specific questions.

Yes, you can apply for both the $25K and $10K grant tracks. We encourage you to do so if you have strong projects for both and the capacity to draft two proposals, as you’ll have to fill out a separate application for each project. More than likely, if selected, you would only receive one award—but applying for both will increase your chances of receiving an award.

For the $25K grant track, the habitat management and/or restoration piece is of the highest importance. Including a three-pronged approach with monitoring and outreach supplementing the management, if possible, or a planning and prioritization component could help to elevate your proposal.

Outreach examples might include the creation of a management demonstration area, a workshop to showcase your management to other land trusts and practitioners, an event to introduce your community and easement holders to the importance of birds and how bird conservation influences your land trust work—really anything that showcases or teaches about your project.

Be creative and don’t restrict yourself to the examples we’ve provided. We have funded all size projects, but more acres impacted is a good thing. Some awardees do this by leveraging funds from other pots of money that are available during the grant period or cost sharing from partners, although cost share not required.

Yes, you are welcome to combine work on multiple projects or sites in one grant application.

Yes, applications for less than the full grant award will be considered.

Our grant award is for one year, but we will fund a year of a project that is already in progress. If you are applying for a multi-year project, please be clear about what activities and costs will be realized with grant funds within the grant year.

Yes, we welcome proposals from past awardees looking to build on work from a previous award or to begin a completely new project.

Please feel free to add these supporting documents to the end of your narrative. The narrative text and budget should not go over the allotted three pages, but these supporting materials can be on pages four and beyond.

Our budget categories are quite flexible, but funds should not be used just to purchase equipment. If you use funds for salary, be sure to address which activities the salary will be directed toward in your budget justification/description. Also, for the $25K grants we’d recommend putting funds towards management or restoration work unless you are cost-sharing the management work, and it is directly related to the project.

Please contact us if you have specific budget questions.

This type of budget allocation is perfectly acceptable for a $25K grant. The review committee likes to see applicants leverage funds and include cost share, and often these types of projects are able to manage/restore more acreage since they are bringing other funds to the table for this piece. We are happy to “fill gaps” and fund activities, such as monitoring, that are difficult to expense through other grant programs.

Be sure to show all your cost share in your budget and clearly outline what management/restoration will take place during the timeframe of the small grant project. Consider adding an outreach component of some sort too, as strong proposals typically have all three pieces: management, monitoring, and outreach.

Yes, you are welcome to include indirect costs but they can be no higher than 10%.

This program does not fund fee acquisition or easement costs. The $25K grants should be centered around management and/or restoration of property that is already permanently protected in fee or via easement or is now public but managed/stewarded by your land trust. You can also include work on an easement property that will close within months of the project start—in other words, its protection status is a sure thing.