Eco-Living Fund Grant

The Eco-Living Fund Grant, managed by the Charlottesville Area Community Foundation, seeks to promote sustainable living through projects that encourage zero-footprint and net-positive practices. Eligible applicants include tax-exempt organizations and government agencies within the foundation's service area. Grants support initiatives that demonstrate measurable outcomes in resource conservation and community engagement. The fund aims for projects that not only enhance environmental sustainability but can also serve as models for broader change, potentially saving costs for participants.

Grants aimed at steering people’s daily life habits toward zero-footprint or net-positive impact on the natural world.
Guidelines
The Eco-Living Fund is a donor-advised fund based at the Charlottesville Area Community Foundation. The donor to the fund, who wishes to remain anonymous, reviews proposals on an annual basis and makes funding recommendations to the Governing Board of the Charlottesville Area Community Foundation.
The Eco-Living Fund supports efforts to steer the daily life habits of people away from environmentally unsustainable practices, and toward zero-footprint or net-positive impact on the natural world. Funded projects:
are designed not simply to improve the environmental-friendliness or sustainability of a particular building or facility, but rather to permanently change many, many buildings' performance and/or people's daily life habits to be better for the planet; andhave specific, concrete actions which have quantifiable results of people living and/or buildings performing more sustainably; andare designed, tracked, documented, and reported in ways that they can be showcased to serve as positive change models for other organizations and communities; and(bonus which is particularly encouraged though not required) result in people, businesses or institutions saving money.
Successful proposals will include all of the first three (3) of the above characteristics, not just one or two of them.
Among the pool of applications received, winners will be those that have the greatest bang-for-the-buck: the greatest number of people permanently changing their daily life habits, and/or the greatest number of buildings getting their consumption of resources reduced, per grant dollar.
Examples of relevant projects include leveraging funds from this grant in ways that result in water or energy systems of numerous houses or buildings being replaced with efficient ones; or that result in people exercising (walk, bike) instead of driving; and/or awareness or education on public policies which would achieve the goals of this fund. These are examples only and do not represent the full scope of grant applications that will be considered.

Eligibility

Applicants must be tax-exempt 501(c) (3) organizations or government agencies. Grants are limited to projects in the Charlottesville Area Community Foundation service area, which includes Charlottesville and the counties of Albemarle, Buckingham, Fluvanna, Greene, Louisa, Nelson and Orange.