Coastal Fund (CF) Grant - Major Funding

The Coastal Fund (CF) Grant at the University of California, Santa Barbara, supports initiatives that connect people with coastal ecosystems through funding. With a budget sourced from student fees, the fund prioritizes projects benefiting the UCSB student community. Grants typically range from $3,000 to $15,000, with a total allocation of approximately $200,000 each quarter. The fund encourages collaborative proposals that enhance environmental protection and promote equitable student opportunities.

As a funding organization, Coastal Fund seeks to acknowledge and lessen many of the inequities and power dynamics that have historically existed in the philanthropic sector and ensure that benefits are widely felt by the UCSB student body. We do this by lessening the barriers to apply for and receive funding, providing personalized guidance to applicants (including those who may have never written a grant before), ensuring that approved grants create equitably paid, accessible opportunities for students, and so on.
Funding Guidelines
The Coastal Fund is bound by its mission to connect people and the environment by allocating funds to programs that celebrate, explore, and protect the coastal ecosystems in and around the University of California, Santa Barbara. We fund projects and programs that align with our core values of community, exploration, joy, opportunity, protection and trust. Applicants should demonstrate a strong connection between their proposal, the Coastal Fund mission statement and values, and our local coastal ecosystems.
Size of Award
While Coastal Fund does not set a limit on the amount of funding an applicant may request, applicants should note that we typically allocate approximately $200,000 amongst 25-30 approved applications each quarter and most projects funded through our Major Grant program range from $3,000 to $15,000. We often provide partial funding so that we can support more programs.

Eligibility

Who We FundCoastal Fund grant applications must be submitted in connection with a UCSB affiliated department, registered non-partisan nonprofit, or government agency.Registered UCSB student organizations may apply to Coastal Fund but cannot receive funding for stipends or student wages and may be subject to additional stipulations based on AS financial policy; student org requesters should email sarahs(at)as.ucsb.edu before applying to verify that their request meets requirements.Geographic ScopeCoastal Fund considers requests for coastal-related projects or programs based in the Santa Barbara region and watershed. We define this as the area between the northern boundary of the Dangermond Preserve and the southern edge of Santa Barbara County, and from the ridgeline of the Santa Ynez mountains to the northern Channel Islands, not including Catalina.We fund terrestrial projects that impact the coastal environment (for example, the protection of creeks that flow to our coast or vegetation restoration that mitigates fire damage and sediment flow) as well as projects at the shoreline, in the channel, and on the northern Channel Islands.Coastal Fund allows repeat funding for ongoing programs. For ongoing or repeating projects (such as an internship that occurs every quarter), applicants should submit a request once per year rather than requesting smaller amounts of funding each cycle. Applicants may submit more than one proposal per grant cycle and may have more than one grant active at once provided that each is a distinct and separate project or program. If we have a large number of proposals we may prioritize student applicants who have never received funding in the past; we do this in order to give as many students as possible the opportunity and CV-enhancing experience of receiving a funding award.

Ineligibility

Unaffiliated individuals cannot apply for funding. We do not approve new funding for an ongoing program until the previous Coastal Fund funding allocation for that program is complete, though applicants may apply for funding during the cycle in which they will complete the previously approved grant in order to prevent funding gaps (for example, an applicant who will spend all previously approved funds at the end of June may apply for the spring grant cycle April deadline, because the request will not be reviewed, approved and processed until June). We do not approve additional funds for an active and approved project unless under extreme extenuating circumstances. We believe that students should be compensated for their time working on funded projects, and we strongly discourage program models that require students to prove themselves or their commitment by volunteering before they are eligible for a paid position. Coastal Fund does not provide funding for events through Major or Minor grants.