Wild East Action Fund - Conservation Planning Grant

The Wild East Action Fund, administered by the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, provides competitive grants to support conservation projects in the Appalachian Trail landscape. With up to $400,000 available, the fund prioritizes community-driven conservation strategies, emphasizing land protection, conservation planning, and community resilience. Eligible applicants include nonprofit organizations and government entities within the A.T. landscape, aiming to enhance climate resilience and promote public access to recreational opportunities.

NOTE: Here are the other associated grants in regards to this opportunity.
Here is the Community Resilience page.Here is the Land Protection page.
The Wild East Action Fund supports projects that accelerate the pace of conservation within the Appalachian Trail landscape.
Since 2018, the Wild East Action Fund has supported a variety of land protection and conservation capacity-building projects that have accelerated the pace and scale of conservation within the Appalachian Trail landscape. This funding opportunity is available to conservation organizations, including nonprofit partners and public agencies, that support the mission of the Appalachian Trail Landscape Partnership (ATLP).
In celebration of ATC’s 100th anniversary and the ATLP’s 10th anniversary, ATC is excited to host a Wild East Action Fund cycle!
The Wild East Action Fund is a private, competitive grant opportunity, administered by ATC, supporting the ATLP mission to connect the wild, scenic, and cultural wonders of the A.T. landscape. The Wild East Action Fund seeks applications that aim to accelerate the pace and scale of A.T. landscape’s conservation and resiliency.
ATC has identified needs and strategies, at multiple scales, to effectively support the acceleration of conservation and resiliency within the A.T. landscape. The program’s three grant categories are designed to catalyze new and existing conservation partners’ knowledge, abilities, and expertise to address many of these dynamic needs:

• Land Protection
• Conservation Planning
• Community Resilience

The Wild East Action Fund supports projects that contribute to the protection of lands and waters within the A.T. landscape, enhance capacity for strategic conservation activities, build community support for a conserved and resilient A.T. landscape; and champion an A.T. landscape that encourages all people to feel welcome, respected, supported and valued.
Purpose - Building organizational, partnership, or community capacity/buy-in for future strategic conservation actions.
Conservation Planning grants are available to support the strategic conservation planning efforts of organizations, regional partnerships, or local governments or agencies that aim to catalyze local or regional land protection and nature-based solutions for climate change within the A.T. Landscape. Eligible projects can include, but are not limited to, developing strategic conservation or open space plans, preplanning needs such as data collection or analysis, building parcel prioritization/decision support tools for land protection, or creating natural resource stewardship/restoration planning. Competitive projects will use collaborative and/or community-driven conservation approaches, support public access to recreation opportunities, advance climate resiliency, and protect clean water where appropriate. It is important that conservation planning projects clearly demonstrate how efforts will result in or catalyze future landscape conservation, address climate change, and strive to strengthen community support for conservation.
Funding
Up to $400,000 will be granted through the Wild East Action Fund to qualified land protection, conservation planning, and community resiliency projects. Conservation Planning and Community Resiliency grant requests between $5,000 and $20,000 will be considered.
All funding opportunities require a cash or in-kind match. Match ratio will be considered on a case-by-case basis, evaluated on the circumstances of the organization and project context. The match should be secured or demonstrate with confidence that it will be secured during the grant period.
Funding for the Conservation Planning and Community Resilience grant categories are made possible through the Appalachian Trail Conservancy’s A.T. Resiliency Fund.

Eligibility

To be eligible for the Wild East Action Fund, applicants must demonstrate a project focus and organizational mission that is aligned with the ATLP’s mission of connecting the wild, scenic, and cultural wonders of the A.T. Landscape. The applicant’s project should occur within, serve the needs of, or explicitly benefit the A.T. Landscape. To qualify to receive funding, organizations must be a Tribal, State, or Local government entity/agency or a qualified 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.Funding for this category is only available for projects occurring within the A.T. Landscape in Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia.Previous grant awardees are eligible to apply. Previously awarded projects may re-apply for additional funding but will be less competitive.Regional partnerships without501(c)(3) nonprofit status may have a qualified 501(c)(3) apply on behalf of the partnership.Allowable Expenses: Funding is broadly constrained to costs associated with the development of conservation planning, process documents, and tools. Funding requests can be used for, but are not limited to, staff time, contract support, and direct costs associated with facilitation, planning, communication, and coordination necessary for project completion.

Ineligibility

Funding Restrictions: Grant awards cannot be used for organizational overhead/administration, scholarships, lobbying efforts, supporting political groups, refinancing/servicing existing debt, marketing materials, venue or food costs.