Greengrants

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Global Greengrants Fund is a charitable foundation that makes small grants (typically $500 to $5,000) to grassroots environmental groups around the world to help people protect the environment, live sustainably, preserve biodiversity and gain a voice in their own future. In 2006 Greengrants made close to 600 grants in 83 countries, bringing their total since 1993 to over 3,000 grants in 120 countries.

[edit] Process

To identify prospective grantees, Greengrants relies on a volunteer network of grassroots leaders to help make informed decisions about critical needs and connect with those groups that will most benefit from funds. The advisors also help to reduce the high costs of making small grants internationally. The Greengrants network of advisors now includes over 120 scientists, teachers, journalists, attorneys, economists and activist leaders, comprising thirteen regional boards that represent the Andes, Central America, China, East Africa, India, the Pacific Islands, Russia, Southern Africa, the Southern Cone of South America, and West Africa. In Brazil, Mexico, and Southeast Asia, the advisory boards recently transitioned to become independent organizations that continue to make grants while also raising additional resources to increase support for grassroots groups in their regions; they are now members of the Greengrants Alliance of Funds.

Each board develops a grantmaking strategy that best fits the regional context and the advisors’ experiences. The advisors identify appropriate moments for strategic grants to grassroots groups. Global Greengrants Fund has supported a wide array of projects and groups over the years, from organic agriculture in India, to women's cooperatives in Indonesia, to environmental awareness in Nigeria.

[edit] Winners

Three of the six winners of the 2006 Goldman Environmental Prize, considered the "Nobel Prize of environmental activism," were Greengrants grantees, bringing the total to 18 since the Prize's inception in 1990. The Council on Foundations awarded Greengrants founder and director Chet Tchozewski the 2004 Robert W. Scrivner Award for Creative Grantmaking.