Cornell Land Trust Bird Conservation Initiative Grant

Land trusts across the U.S. are providing benefits to birds. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology created the Land Trust Bird Conservation Initiative to work with land trusts determine the best ways to maximize the mutual benefits that birds and land trusts can provide to each other.

The Initiative also provides an annual grant program to help increase the footprint and impact of bird conservation on private lands by providing funding and technical support to land trusts and their partners through bird monitoring implementation, management and restoration of habitat on private lands, and increased capacity for community outreach and partnerships.

Over seven years the Cornell Lab’s Land Trust Bird Conservation Initiative has awarded 73 projects over $1 million dollars with more than 400 partners engaged. The 2024 Request for Proposals will open the first week of January and will fund up to 14 grants.

Applications are due March 1, with funds dispersed at the end of May.

The 2023 land trust grant program will fund up to fourteen grants via two tracks:

Capacity and Partnership Projects

Six grants of $5,000 each
Projects should build land trust capacity by teaching or demonstrating how birds can enhance strategic planning and mission fulfillment of land trusts or facilitate mutually beneficial collaborations and partnerships with the bird conservation community. Accredited and non-accredited land trusts are welcome to apply.
 
Management and Restoration Projects

Eight grants of $25,000 each
Projects should actively manage, restore or steward land in a way that enhances habitat and promotes bird conservation, with special emphasis on priority species or those identified in State Wildlife Action Plans. Applicant organization should either be an accredited land trust or partnering with an accredited land trust.