James E. Dutton Foundation Grants

The James E. Dutton Foundation provides financial support to organizations dedicated to wildlife, environmental preservation, and outdoor education. With a focus on positively impacting animal life and enhancing human experiences in nature, the foundation honors Jim Dutton's legacy by funding diverse projects. This includes aiding distressed animals, promoting conservation education, and encouraging stewardship of natural resources. The foundation primarily supports initiatives in Wisconsin and the Midwest, aiming for lasting benefits to both wildlife and communities.

The James E. Dutton Foundation is a charitable foundation providing financial support to organizations working on projects which benefit wildlife, animal causes, environmental preservation, and outdoors education.
Our Approach To Giving
Jim Dutton was passionate about protecting the environment as a home for wildlife and a refuge for people. Our primary goal is to fulfill the charitable intent of Jim Dutton and support organizations that benefit wildlife and/or animal related causes. We honor his memory by providing financial support to organizations, programs, or individuals working on projects related to environmental preservation, animal protection, and outdoors education.
We have supported many kinds of organizations. Some provide direct aid to wildlife or domestic animals in distress. Yet others study the relationship of man and the environment, or teach young children about biology, animal care, conservation, stewardship and a general appreciation of the outdoors.
All of the grants we make seek to positively impact the environment, domestic animals, wildlife, human life, or all.
Our Guidelines for Grantmaking
We measure our success as an organization on how well our grants:

• Positively impact the environment, wildlife, and animal life, orEnhance human life through nature-related activities and education.
• We base grantmaking decisions on how well we believe a proposal will accomplish these goals and how well the project fits with our mission statement.

We also use grant reports and feedback from grantees to aid us in our future grantmaking decisions. We consider the outcomes of previously awarded grants, based on the report we require all grantees to file after funds are disbursed. Grantees reflect on the most important activities the grant produced. They must state the positive impact the activities had on the environment, animals, and/or people and be clear about how they measure success.
Over the years the Foundation has observed a noted increase in both the quantity and quality of grant requests submitted for our review. As such, the Foundation has developed a policy to generally award grants to individual organizations no more than once every 3 years. If an organization has not been awarded a grant within 3 years and is unsuccessful with a current request they may continue to submit proposals for the Foundations review.

Eligibility

Although the Foundation has no geographic boundaries to it awards, the Foundation has primarily supported organizations in Wisconsin and the local Midwest area. It is the rare exception for the Foundation to award a grant outside of Wisconsin.