California is blessed with tremendous natural beauty, biological diversity and economic opportunity. Yet, our remaining wildland heritage is in jeopardy from poorly managed growth and development. Californians have long recognized the importance of preserving our spectacular and precious wildlands. The California Wildlands Grassroots Fund (CWGF) was established to support the heroic efforts of activists to preserve California's wildlands.

The CWGF supports conservationists advocating for the permanent protection of intact wildlands on both public and private lands in order to help preserve California's wilderness and native biological diversity. CWGF defines "wildlands" as natural habitats, privately or publicly owned, that are (or have the potential to be) permanently preserved through legislation or deed restrictions.

What and Who We Support

Because of the complex network of agencies, stakeholders, processes and programs involved in land and habitat issues, wildland protection efforts are challenging. The CWGF provides a broad range of support to promote the ability of activists and organizations to protect wildernesses throughout the state. Specifically, the Fund focuses on:

• Small nonprofit organizations (with budgets of $100,000 or less) and individual activists (with a sponsoring organization) who show a demonstrated ability and commitment to conserve California's natural landscapes, ecosystems, plants and wildlife.

• Geographic areas and advocacy efforts that have not received significant foundation support.

The strategies we support include, but are not limited to:
Grassroots organizing, citizen participation in public meetings and hearings, public education, legislative advocacy, media campaigns, lawsuits, listing petitions, conferences and meetings, skills and leadership trainings, restoration, scientific research, coalition building and developing partnerships with government agencies, private entities, nonprofit organizations and communities.

The activities we support include, but are not limited to:
Mailings, paid advertising, advocacy-related travel, research, hiring technical, legal or scientific experts, consultants, equipment purchase or rental, training, retreats, monitoring, mapping, advocacy-related personal expenses (i.e. childcare).

Priorities for funding:

• Requests for discrete, project-specific support, where 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 area that has 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 wildland protection efforts.
• Innovative strategies.
• Project outreach and organizing target non-traditional stakeholders and interest groups

Other parameters and requirements:

• Typical grants range between $1,000-$3,500
• Maximum grant is $5,000
• Grant should not be greater than 30% of the organization's annual budget.
• The fund targets project-specific requests and does not typically provide general support (such as overhead costs including rent, staff salaries). We will support stipends for organizers; portions of staff salaries linked with a project; consulting fees for technical experts; equipment purchase; and research costs.
• Our goal is to help as many organizations throughout the state as possible and, as a result, we are not always able to fund 100% of each worthy project.

Note: Individuals may apply for CWGF support, but must be official 501(c)(3) or 501(c)(4) organizations. CWGF cannot make grants directly to individuals. If you have questions about this policy, please email Francisco Martinez at info(at)calwildlandsfund.org, or francisco(at)tides.org.