Chesapeake Bay Land and Water Initiative Grant Program

The Land Trust Alliance and the Chesapeake Bay Funders Network launched the Chesapeake Bay Land and Water Initiative in 2016 to deploy an integrated and innovative approach to permanent land protection, stewardship, community engagement, partnerships and public policy that will preserve and enhance water quality across the 64,000-square-mile Chesapeake Bay Watershed.

A key component of the LWI is a small grants program that has awarded $813,815 through 39 grants since 2017. Awards of between $2,500 and $ 30,000 have funded projects, built capacity and expanded participation by land trusts in water quality efforts throughout the watershed. Consistent with guidance provided by the 2019 Intermediate Evaluation, the Alliance has recently focused LWI grants on supporting collaborative conservation partnerships that pursue water quality improvement through land protection.

More recent Alliance program assessments and evaluations re-emphasized the importance of collaborative partnerships. They also identify additional opportunities to catalyze water-focused land conservation. The 2022 Chesapeake Land and Water Initiative Program Summary and Assessment outlines a series of directives for future work that include 1) addressing climate change, 2) advancing community-centered conservation, 3) enabling collaborative leadership and 4) conveying financial capacity to do this work. Participants in the Alliance’s 2022 Water and Climate Short Course surfaced four primary needs that conservation organizations must meet to address water quality: 1) better partnerships with water-focused entities, 2) more accessible data and other decision-making tools, 3) sufficiently flexible financial resources to pursue water-related work and 4) advocacy and communications capacities.

In recognition of these wide-ranging needs, the Alliance is inviting proposals between $5,000 and $15,000 to conduct work that addresses water quality. Support from members of the Chesapeake Bay Funders’ Network enables us to offer $60,000 in 2023.

Applications will be accepted through June 8.

1. Log into and review your account in our online grant system. If anything needs to be updated or changed, please contact Katrina Howey. If you do not have an account in the system, please set one up by clicking on “Create an Account,” setting up your username and password for the site. (You will be asked some basic organizational and contact information.)

2. Once you have created your account and logged on, click “Apply” on the left-hand side.

3. Type in the access code 0309 in the small box on the left-hand side and press enter.

4. Provide written responses in our online system to the questions posed in the Proposal Narrative section. Concise answers are welcome, and we ask that you limit responses to the character limits provided — the fields will not permit additional characters.

   1. • Project/Collaborative Name

        100-character limit, including spaces

      • Amount requested

        20-character limit, no symbols or decimals

        Between $5,000 and $15,000

      • Total project budget amount

        20-character limit, no symbols or decimals

        Total to be spent on project activities during the project period (August 2023-August 2024)

      • Project summary

        2,000-character limit

        Summarize how your proposal will benefit water quality and each of the above Focus Areas, if applicable.

      • Outcomes

        2,000-character limit

        Describe outcomes you expect to achieve through this project as well as any intermediate deliverables, events or deadlines associated with it. Identify how you will measure its success in the Final Report (due September 15, 2024) and beyond.

      • Additional Information

        2,000-character limit

        If there is anything else you would like the Alliance to consider about your proposed project, please include it here. Additionally useful information may include biographical information for people working on the project, commitments from other project partners and other endorsements.

5. Please upload the following required attachments. We expect that requested budget materials will not require significant effort and time to generate. If you would like examples or templates for any of the attachments listed below, we would be happy to provide them. NOTE: There is a size limit of 2MB for each document uploaded.

   2. • Audit

        If your organization undergoes an audit, please provide a copy of your most recent audit, including a Statement of Revenue and Expense, a Statement of Financial Position and a copy of the Management Letter. If your organization does not do an audit or if your audit is not for your most recently completed fiscal year, please submit unaudited numbers for the most recently completed fiscal year.

      • Project budget

        Please delineate anticipated expenses associated with your project. Indicate expenses that will be covered by this grant as well as other overall expenses associated with the project, if any.

Grantees must respond to ad hoc information requests during the project period, including a mid-term check-in call in early 2024. Grantees must also submit a short summary on the progress and accomplishments attained through the project no later than September 15, 2024. Summaries may be submitted online by logging into the same system you used to apply for this grant. Failure to complete required reports may affect grantee’s ability to receive future grants from the Land Trust Alliance.

Upon application approval, the Alliance will send your grant agreement packet through Foundant, the same grant interface you used to apply, for review and signature.