GRANT APPLICATION PROCEDURES AND GUIDELINES
Please read through the entirety of the grant-making guidelines listed below.
HONOR THE EARTH GRANTMAKING PROGRAM
Honor the Earth, in partnership with the Tides Foundation, awards grants solely to organizations that are led and managed by Native peoples. Priority is given to grassroots, community-based organizations and groups with a lack of access to federal and/or tribal funding resources. Honor the Earth does not grant to individuals. Grants range from $1,000 to $5,000.
NOTE: we have a new e-mail address: HonorGrants@honorearth.org
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GEOGRAPHIC RESTRICTION
Honor the Earth only issues grants to Native organizations in the United States & Canada.
NONPROFIT STATUS
Honor the Earth awards grants only to organizations with 501(c)(3) status or an equivalent. You will be asked to provide proof of this nonprofit or tax-exempt status when applying for a grant. We acknowledge the challenges that smaller, newer groups have in obtaining 501(c)(3) status. However, Honor the Earth adheres strictly to this requirement in order to facilitate transparency and accountability. If you wish to apply but do not have 501(c)(3) or similar status, a fiscal agent may be used.
WHAT WE FUND
Honor the Earth’s Building Resilience in Indigenous Communities Initiative is the only funding that will be granted as part of its 2010 funding cycles.
Please read the description below before applying.
BUILDING RESILIENCE IN INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES INITIATIVE
Honor the Earth’s 2010 grant-making will fund work that builds resilience in Indigenous communities. Please see the description of the resiliency work that will be funded and submit application materials that reflect these guidelines. Note that the cover sheet forms have changed to reflect this resiliency-specific funding; be sure to download a copy of the updated forms and ensure proposals reflect the specific type of work this funding includes.
GRANT GUIDELINES
Resilience Theory is a discussion about how communities and societies will adapt to climate change. We understand that we must mitigate climate change and adapt, or we will be in a very difficult place as Indigenous peoples. Honor the Earth’s Building Resilience in Indigenous Communities Initiative will grant to organizations working to increase Indigenous communities’ capacity to prevent and adapt to climate change in ways that preserve and restore Indigenous cultures.
Funding for the Building Resilience in Indigenous Communities Initiative will focus on two goals:
1. To support and forward the development of culturally-based, Indigenous solutions to climate change based on re-localizing food and energy economies;
2. To foster restoration of traditional knowledge as a key adaptation and mitigation strategy to ensure a safe and healthy future for our children and the next seven generations.
Honor will grant funds to organizations and projects working in two areas:
1. Implementing renewable energy and energy efficiency/weatherization improvements to advance community dignity and energy sovereignty and
2. Creating food security utilizing Indigenous varieties and organic production.
All projects must include ongoing efforts aimed at restoring Indigenous wisdom and sustainability in Indigenous territories.
1. Funding for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy
Along with huge coal, uranium and other energy reserves, it turns out that tribes possess immense renewable resource potential. The winds that sweep the reservations and ranches of the Great Plains, the sun that bakes the Southwest, and the grasses and grains of the prairies -- all of these bioregional resources lend themselves to safe, just, and locally-controlled power production.
Centralized, polluting power production has served to centralize political power, to disconnect communities from responsibility and control over energy, and to create a vastly wasteful system. Renewable energy has the opposite effect. This transformational movement democratizes power production and seeks energy sovereignty. As the power comes from the Creator, renewable energy is a necessary adaptation tool for building resilience.
Saving energy is as critical as producing our own power. Reservation communities suffer from the long-term problem of “fuel poverty,” where approximately one-fourth of individual income is spent on fuel. A good portion of this energy income is spent on heating, and families cannot afford the rising cost. With energy efficiency and renewables, utility expenditures could be significantly reduced and the remaining funds could stay in the community.
Honor the Earth seeks to fund organizations/projects that improve weatherization and efficiency in buildings in Native communities and/or develop renewable energy projects that are contextualized within an ongoing program that restores and/or preserves culture.
Please indicate on your application if your project is youth-focused.
2. Funding for Traditional Food Economies
Our traditional seeds and foods were produced in a pre-fossil fuels world. That means that our traditional foods do not need fertilizer or irrigation systems and do not need to be transported across the country. Our traditional foods need to be restored to feed our people. Re-localizing our traditional food economies will build resilience in Native communities.
Along with the fact that traditional foods are not addicted to petroleum, research has shown that an indigenous diet of minimally processed, locally produced foods has a positive affect on Native peoples’ health in contrast to the “reservation diet” of white flour, sugar, and processed food.
Honor the Earth encourages applications from organizations/projects that utilize Indigenous wisdom and traditional methods to identify and implement sustainable local food production systems.
Please indicate on your application if your project is youth-focused.
FUNDING CYCLE
Honor the Earth issues grants on the funding cycle listed below (all dates are postmarked by or e-mailed dates. Please don’t FedEx unnecessarily; it’s expensive). Please note that if the deadline falls on a weekend, it will move to the next business day and these deadlines may change. Please check back with this site regularly to ensure you have the most up-to-date information.
Building Resilience in Indigenous Communities Initiative
Fall/Winter
Proposals Due: September 30th
Your group will be notified by the end of the calendar year and will receive your grant early the following year.
Spring/Summer
Proposals Due: March 30th
Your group will be notified by early June and grants will go out soon after.
APPLICATION PROCESS
Initial approach: full proposal with cover sheet and attachments
Proposal Format:
A. Cover Sheet
The cover sheet is used for board correspondence; please fill it out clearly and entirely.
For groups based in the United States (Downloads Microsoft Word Document)
For groups based in Canada (Downloads Microsoft Word document)
B. Proposal
Proposals should be 3 to 5 pages in length only and include/answer the following:
Organizational Information/Background
• A brief history of your group: how long has your group existed, how many staff/volunteers are there, and who in your group focuses on fundraising efforts?
• Demonstrate how you are running your organization as a Native-controlled organization.
• Where is the program located?
• How does your work fit within the Building Resilience in Indigenous Communities Initiative? Please be sure to address the specific type of project(s) you are working on: (Renewable Energy and Efficiency and/or Traditional Food Economies) and detail how your project will include ongoing efforts aimed at restoring Indigenous wisdom and sustainability in Indigenous territories.
Community Collaborations
• Who are the other groups you work with? Describe your efforts to work in your communit(ies). Who do you work within the non-Native community?
Program Description/Project Need
• A brief description of your current and future work. Please state your goals and describe your strategies to reach them. What is your long term vision?
• A brief description of the opportunity, challenge or need your community faces and/or the issue you are working to address.
• How was that focus determined? Who was involved in the decision-making process?
• What is your overall goal regarding the situation described above? What activities will you carry out to achieve that goal? Who will carry them out?
• What is the timeframe for this project?
• How will your proposed activities benefit the community in which they will occur? What impact will this project have?
Evaluation
• Please describe your criteria for success. What do you want to happen as a result of your activities?
• How will you measure your success?
• Who will be involved in evaluating this work (staff, board, constituents, community, consultants)?
• What will you do with your evaluation results?
• Who are your other sources of funding? What is your long-term funding strategy to sustain this effort?
C. Attachments
• An IRS letter determining 501(c)(3) status from your organization or fiscal agent. If you have a fiscal agent, please include a letter from them stating that their relationship with your project/organization.
• A list of staff (paid and/or volunteer) and a list of your Board of Directors, Advisory Board or Community Council including tribal affiliation(s)
• A current year itemized annual budget expenses for your organization
• A list of pending and committed revenues for your organization
If seeking funds for a specific project, please also include:
• An itemized budget expenses for specific project
• A list of pending and committed income for specific project
Please do not send CD, DVD, spiral bound documents, or materials other than what is requested in the cover sheet's check list. We will request more information if needed.
Submit via mail and e-mail (both) to
HonorGrants@honorearth.org
and
Honor the Earth Grants Manager
2104 Stevens Ave South
Minneapolis, MN 55404
Faxed proposals are not accepted.
Please send proposal and attachments at the same time. In the e-mailed version please use the subject line “[Your Organization’s Name] Grant Application”. Please call (612) 879-7529 if you have any questions concerning your application.
ASSURANCES
If your proposal is accepted, when you receive your grant award letter you will be required to provide assurances that the grant will be used only for its intended purpose and that any unused funds will be returned to the Honor the Earth/Tides Foundation.
Proposal Overview
Please follow the cover sheet checklist to make sure you provide us with all the information we will need in order to consider your proposal.
* Cover sheet – please fill out accurately and completely
* Proposal – 3 to 5 pages only, detailing the points above
* Attachments – IRS letter, list of staff/volunteers, list of Board members with tribal affiliations, your current year’s budget and a project budget, a list of pending/committed funding sources for the organization and/or project.
Although Honor the Earth has the utmost respect for all Native communities and organizations that submit requests for funding, we are a small organization and cannot fund all of the worthy proposals we receive. We will notify you in writing and/or via e-mail of the funding decisions within twelve weeks of the application deadline. We will contact you if we need additional information. Thanks again for applying, we look forward to hearing from you.
REPORTING REQUIREMENTS
If you receive a grant, final reports should be submitted within one year of the date your grant was awarded. No new grant request will be considered until final reports from prior awards are received. Grantees must send in a mid-term report in order to be considered for a new grant. If a mid-term report is submitted, a final report is still required at the end of the grant term (one year from the date of the grant award). If you have questions regarding the status of a report, please call (612) 879-7529 or e-mail: HonorGrants@honorearth.org.
Your report package must include:
• Grant ID number
• Your complete progress report (see guidelines below; no longer than 2 pages)
• A financial summary of the budget versus actual revenues/expenses for the project
• News clippings or other relevant material (just the highlights, please)
Please consider and respond to each of the points below in your progress/final report.
Impact and Assessment
• Reiterate your original goals and objectives. What progress was made toward those goals? Your response should include both qualitative and quantitative impacts. In other words, how did you move your program? How do/did you build capacity?
• Who, if anyone, did you collaborate with on the project?
Challenges
• What challenges did you confront and how did your organization deal with them? Were there any modifications to your strategy in light of this/these challenges?
• Detail any staff or other institutional program changes made/to be made.
Evaluation and Lessons Learned
• Describe your evaluation process and lessons learned. What has been your staff capacity to handle reporting requirements/interviewing/assessments?
Funding and Finances
• How did you spend the grant from Tides/Honor the Earth?
• If applicable, note the percentage of these funds used for direct and grassroots lobbying.
• List other key funders who provided additional financial support over the grant period.
The Future
• What is your long-term plan?
• Besides money, how else can Honor the Earth support your work?
Please submit report via e-mail to HonorGrants@honorearth.org and mail to:
Attn: Honor the Earth Grants Manager
2104 Stevens Ave South
Minneapolis, MN 55404
Faxed reports are not accepted. Please contact (612) 879 7529 or HonorGrants@honorearth.org with any questions or concerns.
