| *If your work or project falls within our program areas and not under the areas we do not fund, we ask that you still submit a letter of inquiry to the Foundation prior to sending a full proposal. The Foundation does NOT: award grants for endowment or capital fund projects; support large organizations with well-established funding sources, except to assist them in launching promising, new projects for which funding is not readily available; allow any portion of a grant to be used for university overhead or indirect costs; award general support grants, except to small organizations with entire missions that coincide with an area of interest to the Foundation; or award grants to individuals, but does provide support for an individual's project if it is sponsored by a domestic or foreign educational, scientific or charitable organization. The Weeden Foundation’s geographic and programmatic interests have many facets reflecting the diverse convictions of its directors. However, a few general themes pervade. Central to these is the conservation of unique western terrestrial and aquatic habitat. Much of the abuse in the Western United States occurs on public lands, reservoirs of biodiversity and a legacy for all Americans, even when they occur on private land they frequently violate the public trust through externalities such as air and water pollution. Foundation habitat protection grants have concentrated on the Pacific Northwest, that is Northern California, Oregon, and Washington, and up into British Columbia and Southeast Alaska. This reflects a longstanding interest in coastal temperate forests, which also extends into the Southern Hemisphere of the Americas. In addition, some grants have been awarded to projects in the intermountain west, notably the northern Rockies. Currently, the Foundation has few grants specific to the state of Montana. However, aside from Montana, the intermountain west is of secondary interest to the Foundation and grants here are the exception rather than the rule. Targeted habitats include mature forest ecosystems, riparian corridors, and riverine/aquatic environments of demonstrated ecological significance. Target recipients are frequently those groups that (a) have a strong base of activist support, (b) provide unique services or information (legal, scientific, technological, or skills-based), or (c) serve as organizational models by providing genuinely unusual and effective approaches to natural resource conservation, coupled with a willingness and enthusiasm for sharing and promoting those approaches. Given the Foundation’s diverse interests and notwithstanding the above, it is sometimes easier to state what is of little interest to the trustees. These include: marine conservation issues, large national environmental groups, preservation of what is frequently called the "working landscape", museums, capital construction, animal rights, growth management, toxic contamination, films and videos, wildlife rehabilitation, government-based projects, faith-based organizations, solid waste, energy (with the exception of dams), universities, student fellowships, and basic scientific research.
International Biodiversity Program Since its inception the Weeden Foundation has had a strong interest in conservation work internationally. Roughly 30%- 40% of total annual grant expenditure goes to projects outside of the United States, a percentage range that has not changed significantly in over a decade. This global perspective came about partly through a recognition that most of the planet’s biodiversity is found elsewhere, coupled with an understanding that an American conservation dollar goes much further when spent on the ground in Chile or Russia. To the Weeden trustees, these opportunistic conditions far outweigh the risks typically associated with international grantmaking. General approaches and targeted natural systems for international grantmaking are not substantially different from those in the domestic program and include mature forest ecosystems, riparian corridors, and riverine/aquatic environments of demonstrated ecological significance. There is also a strong orientation towards facilitating the designation—and enhanced management—of protected areas, including national parks and private reserves. Exclusions from Weeden Foundation international grantmaking include: marine conservation issues, large international groups, agroforestry, museums, capital construction, growth management, toxic contamination, films and videos, wildlife rehabilitation, faith-based organizations, government-based projects, solid waste, energy (with the exception of dams), universities, student fellowships, and basic scientific research. In addition, the Foundation has strong geographical preferences as described below. Within Latin America, the Foundation is most active in supporting groups in Chile, where threats to native forests and wild rivers are substantial. Most grants are made directly to Chilean non-profits, but where appropriate or necessary the Foundation supports cross-fertilizing partnerships with U.S. environmental groups. Major industrial threats to Chilean wildlands come from U.S.-based wood fiber corporations, international aluminum and mining companies, and multinational hydroelectric consortioms. The Foundation also has an interest in the tropical lowlands of Bolivia, where in 1987 in partnership with Conservation International, the Foundation financed the first debt-for-nature swap giving protection to approximately 3.7 million acres of tropical forests and grasslands. In addition, since 1993 the Foundation has owned El Refugio Huanchaca, a private conservation holding comprising 125,000 acres of dry tropical forest and savanna adjacent to Noel Kempff Mercado National Park. The site is currently a base for arboreal, mammal, and ornithological research. Lastly, since the late 1980s, the Weeden Foundation has had a strong regional interest in Russia, particularly central Siberia. At the time it was created and on into the early 1990s, the program supported a number of natural resource planning and capacity building efforts in the Lake Baikal region and the Amur River basin, more recently it has focused on the Altai region of south central Siberia. The small, semi-autonomous Altai Republic boasts Russia’s second highest mountain range (home to several Red Book species), headwaters of its longest river, and extensive pine forests that are the genetic precursor to Siberia’s massive expanse of related softwood species. Given Russia’s current economic crisis and the shortage of reliable financial institutions in Siberia, funding in the Altai region is currently restricted to organizations working closely with U.S. partners. It should be noted that funding outside of these two priority regions of Chilean Patagonia and the Altai Republic is rare.
The Weeden Foundation made its first grant to acquire threatened biologically diverse habitat in 1983, and over the next decade has supported on average two to three land acquisition projects per year. While efforts were initially aimed at domestic sites, the Foundation soon came to realize that even with a growing investment portfolio its ability to support the purchase of critical habitat in the United States was severely constrained by high land values. As a result, the late 1980s saw a shift in emphasis to international target sites, mostly in Latin America. In addition to the debt-for-nature swap and private reserve acquisition in Bolivia, the Foundation has funded projects in Chile, Paraguay, Costa Rica, Peru, Ecuador, Belize, and Namibia. However, preferential priority for future acquisition lies in those countries where the Foundation is most active. Land acquisition proposals are evaluated based upon the following criteria: documented strategic importance to regional biodiversity, local and regional conservation context, leverage, degree of threat, community impacts, and long term stewardship or other appropriate exit strategies.
Population growth, both within the U.S. and abroad, is pushing—or
has surpassed—the limits of sustainability; it remains a major
factor in the alarming decline of global biodiversity, and threatens
the quality of life we seek for ourselves, our descendants, and all
people of the planet. The Foundation supports high leverage population
projects with advocacy components to influence policy makers and opinion
leaders. Additionally, our funds have supported the creation of educational
materials, site-specific demonstration projects (frequently near biological
reserves), and innovative media approaches to raising awareness about
family planning and reproductive health both in the U.S. and abroad.
Over the past decade, the Foundation has also supported efforts in Nepal,
Mexico, and across Latin America to promote reproductive rights and
create better access to reproductive health services.
While the Foundation made several energy conservation grants
more than fifteen years ago, promoting sustainable consumption patterns
has only recently become a high priority. This new emphasis is largely
the result of a fuller understanding of the factors driving biological
impoverishment, in particular the rapid pace with which U.S. industrial
corporations must exploit resources all over the globe to supply the
insatiable American consumer. U.S. consumption levels—of wood fiber, fossil fuels,
and minerals—far outweigh other industrialized nations with comparable
standards of living and greater life expectancies. This tells us our
use of these resources is inefficient, and that the costs of production
are either being subsidized, externalized, or most likely both. We have been lucky to embrace the issue at a time when several
new provocative and related efforts are emerging. Among these, the Foundation’s
interests are centered upon a new and rapidly growing movement to challenge
and redirect American consumer and consumption habits. In particular,
the Foundation has chosen to build upon its historical interest in native
forest conservation by supporting projects aimed at promoting greater
efficiency in the use of wood products, particularly paper. This includes
encouraging a concerted shift away from wood fiber as a resource where
other equally adequate and less damaging substitutes exist. Currently,
the Foundation is focusing on the area of sustainable paper consumption
and production. Grantmaking in this area aims to expand the market for
environmental papers through consumer-targeted education and efforts
directed at the book & magazine publishing industries and corporate
& government procurement practices. Recently, the Foundation established a new consumption program
interest that recognizes the importance of integrating the concept of
sustainability into K-12 education. The initial grants have incorporated
the ecological footprint and similar tools to achieve a fuller, more
integrated curriculum that connects population growth, over-consumption,
environmental degradation, and biological limits. The Foundation is
particularly interested in projects that are designed to “scale-up”
quickly through cost-effective, high-leverage mechanisms such as teacher
development training. As with the Foundation’s other grant programs, there are several categories within the consumption program area that rarely receive fuding. These include: capital construction, museums, films and videos, government-based projects, student fellowships, basic scientific research, large national environmental organizations, recycling and solid waste programs, and toxics. In addition, the Foundation retains its general favoritism for projects in the western United States and international focus areas, Chile and the Altai Republic.
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