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.

Since 2017, the Cornell Lab’s Land Trust Bird Conservation Initiative has awarded 85 projects over $1.2 million with more than 500 partners engaged through its annual grant program. The 2025 request for proposals will open the first week of January and will award around $260,000 to as many as 14 projects. Applications are due March 1, 2025, with funds dispersed at the end of May.

The 2024 land trust grant program will fund up to 14 grants via two tracks:

Capacity and Partnership Projects

Six grants of $10,000 each (increased from $5,000 in past years)
Projects should build land trust capacity by teaching or demonstrating how birds can enhance such things as strategic planning, habitat management, and mission fulfillment of land trusts and/or facilitate mutually beneficial collaborations and partnerships with the bird conservation community. Accredited and non-accredited land trusts and conservation organizations partnering with land trusts are welcome to apply.
 
Management and Restoration Projects

Eight grants of $25,000 each
Projects should actively manage, restore, and/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.

To learn more and apply for a grant, see RFP Information, an overview of past awards and grant awards and expectations. We anticipate these projects will have far-reaching benefits by protecting natural ecosystems through management and restoration and supporting land protection efforts via increased land trust capacity.