The Rose Foundation is currently accepting proposals for the Northern California Environmental Grassroots Fund.

The Northern California Environmental Grassroots Fund supports small grassroots groups throughout greater northern California that are tackling tough environmental problems including toxic pollution, urban sprawl, sustainable agriculture, climate change, environmental degradation of the rivers and wild places, as well as, of communities and health.

Objectives

The objectives are to:

• Strengthen and diversify the capacity of the grassroots base of California’s environmental movement.
• Provide grantees with training opportunities, as well as scholarship funds, to develop skills in budgeting, communications, strategic planning, computer software, working with volunteers and more.
• Enable communities that often fall through the cracks of traditional funding processes to gain crucial recognition and support.
• Offer fiscal sponsorship to allow groups that lack 501(c)3 status to receive grant funds.

Funding Information

While groups that have $100,000 or less in annual expenses are eligible, most of the Grassroots grantees tend to be very small groups – 60% have annual expenses of less than $25,000, and 80% have expenses of under $50,000. Maximum grant size is $5,000.

Eligibility Criteria

To be eligible for a grassroots grant, the applicant must meet the following criteria:

• Geographic Scope: Project impact must be in Northern California (Includes the entire Sierra Nevada Mountains, Bay Area, Central Valley, Central Coast, and North Coast)
• Organization Size: Annual income or expenses of $100,000 or less (for exceptions, see application)
• Issues Supported: Include, but are not limited to Environmental health and justice, land management and urban sprawl, habitat and wilderness protection, sustainable forestry, water resources, agriculture, sustainability, and pollution.
• Strategies Supported: General support for organizations with an environmental mission, or project support for strategies such as community-based advocacy, technical assistance, litigation, restoration projects, organizing expenses, grassroots campaigns, and environmental education.
• Tax Status: Applicants may be a nonprofit, be fiscally sponsored by another nonprofit, or ask for fiscal sponsorship from the fund.
• Frequency of Applying: Organizations whose proposals are rejected may re-apply after one year. Organizations that are funded may re-apply after one year if their evaluation form has been submitted and accepted.
• Duration of Support: Most grants are for a one year period. Since a goal of the Grassroots Fund is to support the development and creation of small, new nonprofit groups, after three years of funding, groups need to wait two years before reapplying.

For more information, visit Rose Foundation.