Our New Confluence Program Seeks to Fund Historically Racially Marginalized Groups Working to Protect Natural Places
Four Groups will be Awarded Multi-Year Grants Totaling $400,000
Conservation experts, business leaders, and grantmakers are inviting historically racially marginalized groups to apply for funding to protect natural places across the USA and Canada via a new initiative called the Confluence Program. Groups do not need a charitable status to apply, and the application deadline is October 24, 2021.
By the end of this year, the seven-person Confluence Program advisory committee will award four multi-year grants to groups that self-identify as being led by Asian, Black, Brown, Indigenous, Latinx, and other People of Color working to protect a natural place. Each grantee will receive $50,000 in 2021 and another $50,000 in 2022 for their effort to protect land and/or water and elevate the voices and perspectives of the people working to protect that place.
In partnership with the advisory committee, we designed the program to intentionally connect to historically racially marginalized people for the protection of natural places. The program name “Confluence” represents the merging of private businesses making up our 260-member network and the diversity of organizations doing conservation work.
In 2022 and 2023, we’ll provide additional support to Confluence grantees through resource-sharing and communications. This phase of the program will be designed to meet the specific needs of each group.
“Change comes when we effectively work at it. The openness of The Conservation Alliance to do things a little differently with this grant program will certainly create new opportunities for affinity groups and community orgs alike,” said Teresa Baker, Program Committee Chair and In Solidarity Project Founder.
To qualify for funding, groups and projects must meet three funding criteria:
- Groups must self-identify as led by historically racially marginalized people (Asian, Black, Brown, Indigenous, Latinx, and other People of Color).
- Projects must protect land and/or water in their efforts to foster a planet where natural places, wildlife, and people thrive together.
- Projects must elevate voices and perspectives of people working to protect a natural place.
“In the environmental movement, there are systems and structures in place that have historically amplified some voices while excluding others,“ said Brady Robinson, Executive Director at The Conservation Alliance. “A successful conservation movement is a coalition of everyone—where the people we’re partnering with and advocating alongside represent the diversity of our country in every way possible.”
The Confluence Program is a first step in our commitment to justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion. Learn more about the Confluence Program here.
