Grants
From 2012-2024, Wright-Ingraham’s Grant program recognized and provided financial support to organizations committed to making an impact in addressing environmental problems, engaging in conservation and resource protections, and tackling social concerns.
Through these small and mid-scale grants, the Institute supported like-minded organizations with missions that aligned with the Institute’s work. Since 2012, WII has awarded more than $550,000 to more than 80 organizations. The Institute continues to strongly believe that our mission is effectively broadened by supporting other like-minded non profit organizations carrying out important, impactful work.
Criteria
Our grants are designed to help address problems in three main areas.
Climate Change
Today, efforts to cope with the climate crisis are estimated to be costing the global economy approximately $3 trillion annually. We support organizations that are actively solving problems of how to bring clean air and water to global communities, how to prevent or stem natural disasters and meteorological events, and how to best promote sustainable practices and support renewable sources of energy.
Land Issues
Our grants strengthen organizations that are looking at different ways to apply concepts of sustainability, including ways to reverse the loss of fragile ecosystems that connect people and animals with land, or that work at the nexus of food, fuel and shelter. Additionally, we seek to better understand how human systems and natural systems intersect one another.
Wildlife Conservation
We support organizations that are working courageously on ways to conserve and preserve important wildlife habitats, as globalization continues to seek to develop every corner of the globe.
Eligibility
We welcome all organizations that meet our criteria and eligibility requirements to apply. In order to be eligible to receive a WII grant, the recipient organization must be a registered 501c(3) and able to receive funds in US dollars, even though the work the organization engages with may take place outside of the United States.
Reporting Requirements
Any 501c3 organization that receives a WII Grant must submit a preliminary report within 6 months of receiving the funds, and a final report describing: how the funds were used; the overall impact of the grant, including how many individuals were impacted and in what way (if applicable); and a full fiscal report. These reporting responsibilities will be a requirement of accepting any Wright-Ingraham Grant.
Grants
Elizabeth W. Ingraham Grant
Amount: $10,000
Richard T. Parker Grant
Amount: $10,000
Sustaining Grants
Amount: $5,000
Current Grant Recipients
2023/24
Elizabeth Wright-Ingraham Grant
Amount Awarded: $10,000
Richard T. Parker Grant
Amount Awarded: $10,000
Grand Staircase Escalante Partners
Sustaining Grants
Amount Awarded: $5,000 each
Spotlight
2023/24 Elizabeth Wright Ingraham Grant
Drylands Agroecology Research
The 2023/24 Elizabeth Wright Ingraham Grant was awarded to the Colorado-based Drylands Agroecology Research (DAR), a collective whose mission is to regenerate landscapes to improve life on earth. DAR uses nature as a model for restoring landscapes deeply degraded by human use into thriving agro-ecosystems that reverse desertification, sequester carbon, support biodiversity, and provide abundant and nutritious food for humans.
DAR’s leadership team explains the importance of WII’s support: “We are deeply excited to use these funds to train a new cohort of five apprentices not only in farming and ecological design, but in research and data collection that will give them tools to continually evaluate the health of the land and adjust management practices accordingly.”
2023/24 Richard T. Parker Grant
Grand Staircase Escalante Partners
The 2023/24 Richard T. Parker grant was awarded to Grand Staircase Escalante Partners (GSEP), whose mission is to honor the past and safeguards the future of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument through science, conservation, and education. Based in Escalante, Utah, GSEP serves as a lead organization and fiscal sponsor for the Escalante River Watershed Partnership (ERWP). This partnership, made up of over 20 agencies, nonprofit organizations, scientists, and community members, aims to restore and maintain the natural ecological conditions of the Escalante River and its watershed, and involve local communities in promoting and implementing sustainable land and water use practices.
2023/24 Sustaining Grants
Four additional Sustaining Grants in the amount of $5,000 each were awarded to sustain the work of the following programs:
Wisdom Carriers
Wisdom Carriers, a documentary film project by Sunny Dooley (Diné) focusing on the Indigenous wisdom of Four Corners tribal members, whose mindful interactions with their landscapes hold the key to rebalancing the human relationship with nature.
With the support of Wright-Ingraham Institute, Dooley will expand the Wisdom Carriers project to include two new stories: Ruby Chimerica, from Third Mesa village, Bacavi, on the Hopi Reservation in Arizona, who specializes in hands-on demonstrations of Hopi basket weaving traditional Hopi foods; and Twila Cassadore, an Arizona-based forager, food educator, advocate for indigenous food sovereignty, and member of the San Carlos Apache Tribe.
Practice Foundation
Practice Foundation, a nonprofit regranting organization committed to opening access and expanding approaches to the design of the living environment.
The support of Wright-Ingraham Institute will lead to the creation of a grant targeting the South West to support innovative land-based work that fill the gap between informal, land-based practices and professional design by identifying individuals and groups working to restore the relationship between people and place.
Leros Humanism Seminars
Leros Humanism Seminars (Columbia University) to sustain work on a series of annual intellectual, artistic, and activist encounters and workshops that take place on the Greek island of Leros.
Following the Wright-Ingraham Institute’s mandate, the 2024 Leros Humanism Seminars will focus on the problem of local struggles against external interventions that derive from and contribute further to catastrophic environments. This will be conducted through two intertwined lines of inquiry: the historical legacy of catastrophe and its continuous impact; and the as yet unmappable future of the migration/refugee crisis.
Kindness Farm
Kindness Farm, an immigrant, refugee and queer-led 501c3 educational, regenerative community farm in SE Portland, Oregon, to continue their education program which provides environmental and conservation education, and access to land and the experience of growing food, to kids and families, in particular those from historically marginalized groups.