Grants for Environmental Conservation

Charitable Contributions and Grants

MPC and our employees provide support to 501(c)(3) non-profit and government-related organizations and agencies in the form of foundation grants, corporate contributions and sponsorships and workplace giving and volunteerism. While we will accept requests from eligible organizations across our marketing area, preference will be given to communities where the company has a significant operational and employee presence.

We strategically focus community investments on three core areas where it can make a positive, measurable impact: workforce development, sustainability and thriving communities.

Communities Investment Priorities

Workforce Development

From engineers to pipefitters, chemists to accountants, IT specialists to welders, MPC’s success relies on our ability to recruit and retain employees with exceptional skills-based experience. Our goal is to invest in workforce initiatives that better prepare individuals for professional success by increasing access to high-quality educational training and career readiness resources inclusive of vocational, technical and skilled trades.

Sustainability

Consistent with our commitment to meet the needs of today while investing in a sustainable future is our support of community programs involving environmental conservation and sustainability. MPC supports environmental government agencies, community groups, trade organizations and professional and industry associations devoted to protecting, conserving and sustaining natural resources. These efforts may include life sciences and breakthrough research, protecting biodiversity, preserving or creating parks and green spaces, improving air and water quality and increasing access to clean water and food.

Thriving Communities 

We are committed to making our communities stronger, safer and thriving places to live, work and play. MPC provides funding for programs that promote the resiliency of our shared communities including helping to address basic needs, supporting youth development programs and creating opportunities for economic vitality. This also includes safety projects and efforts that help communities better prepare for, mitigate the risks of and respond to disasters, hazards and emergenciess

Funding direct program costs for land transactions is one of the greatest challenges facing conservation organizations today, in spite of the very high leverage effect it has on a land or easement donation from private donors. Landowners who are willing to donate conservation land worth hundreds of thousands of dollars are often unable to fund the cash transaction costs as well. Triangle Community Foundation will leverage donated land transactions by funding the transaction costs and stewardship endowments associated with land donations.Applications are accepted on a rolling basis.

The Transaction Grant Program will assist organizations in leveraging conservation projects by providing support to fund qualifying transaction costs associated with land and easement donations. Each property funded with these grants must be permanently protected through a Conservation Easement or Notice of Acceptance of Property for Conservation Purposes.

The Foundation will consider funding requests for the following: 

• Survey, environmental assessment, and legal description expenses 
• Legal expenses including attorney fees, title insurance, closing costs, and recording costs
• Legal defense fund for the project
• Baseline documentation report (including grantee labor and expenses to create the report)
• Stewardship endowment for the project
• Conservation staff expense, including labor costs and travel expenses, directly related to the proposed project

Oceans and Seafood Markets Initiative

Fostering responsible fishing and fish farming as the marketplace norm.

Feeding humanity in 2050—when the world’s population is expected to be between 9 and 10 billion—will require a 70 percent increase in global food production, and seafood is a protein source already in high demand.

A complex web of root causes, including economic incentives aligned with overexploitation rather than good stewardship, de facto open-access fishing and fisheries governance, insufficient data and weak enforcement make optimal management of the world’s fisheries and aquaculture farms challenging. Today, 85 percent of the world’s fish stocks are fully exploited or in decline.

Now more than ever, maintaining the productive capacity and integrity of marine ecosystems requires that we catch and produce seafood without engendering severe ecological impacts. We believe marine ecosystems can be safeguarded by re-orienting market demand for seafood and the decision-making systems that drive conservation solutions. In collaboration with the private sector, our grant recipients can help demonstrate the market value of improved fisheries and farm management, so that companies—and consumers—have the incentive to transition and help drive wide reform.

The Oceans and Seafood Markets Initiative is interlinked with and designed to complement our Forests and Agricultural Markets Initiative and our Conservation and Financial Markets Initiative. 

The Oceans and Seafood Markets Initiative is working to protect marine and coastal ecosystems by improving aquaculture practices and the health and abundance of wild-capture fish stocks. We are working with key partners to accomplish that goal by encouraging leading companies to implement sustainable sourcing commitments for top-traded seafood commodities, and, without displacement, to eliminate overfishing and coastal habitat degradation resulting from the production. To that end, we focus on three strategies, targeting the following outcomes:

• Private Sector Leadership: The business case for decoupling production from environmental degradation has been established, resulting in increases of key market commitments to source sustainable seafood and make meaningful progress toward implementing those commitments.
• Transparency: A leading group of key market companies make and implement commitments to track, verify and publicly report progress toward eliminating and reforming unsustainable products from their supply chains, with systems developed to enable uptake.
• Aligning Capital: An improved understanding of the business case for investing in sustainable seafood results in an increase in the amount of capital aligned toward sustainable production of target commodities.

Seafood Collaboration

Collaboration between non-profit and private sector actors is essential to achieve these outcomes. The initiative encourages that collaboration through a fiscal sponsor relationship with New Ventures Fund (GBMF5208) and direct consultation with multiple non-profit and seafood industry advisers collectively working toward a shared goal and on the dozens of complementary market-focused activities needed to achieve it.

The Davis Conservation Foundation’s broad purpose is to support the wise utilization, protection and advancement of our physical environment and the different natural forms of life that inhabit it, including wildlife, sea life and mankind as they are impacted by the environment. To accomplish this, the foundation supports organizations devoted primarily to:

• Projects/programs related to wildlife, wildlife habitat, environmental protection and outdoor recreation.
• Projects/programs that strengthen volunteer activity and outreach/community involvement in the above-noted areas.

DCF's Highest Priorities:

• Gulf of Maine
• Northern Forest
• Climate Change Adaptation, Mitigation and Resilience

Our Goal

We seek to protect, conserve and restore biodiversity and habitat in Minnesota's watersheds in order to improve water quality in a changing climate.

In addition to our 11,842 lakes, Minnesota’s water flows to diverse drainages including the Great Lakes, Gulf of Mexico, and Hudson Bay. Water plays a critical role in Minnesota’s identity and economic framework, as well as supporting habitat that encompasses the diversity of wildlife in our state.

Our Beliefs

To achieve this goal, we believe:

• Terrestrial and aquatic habitat and biodiversity are intricately connected to water quality. 
• The greatest positive environmental impact on our water will occur by addressing the complex needs of land and water systems through a variety of strategies at a watershed scale.
• Climate adaptation is also important to improving or maintaining future water quality and quantity.
• Groundwater can be an important part of freshwater systems.
• It is incumbent upon all of society--including individuals, private sector and public sector--to orient their habits, behaviors, and actions in a comprehensive way toward the health and sustainability of our watersheds.  
• Because effective sustainable solutions are connected to society's relationship to natural systems, we will most effectively protect our fresh water systems when all segments of society have - and take - the opportunity to form personal relationships with nature and water.

Thank you for your interest in applying for funding from the Oregon Wildlife Foundation.

We offer small grant awards to the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife (ODFW), tax-exempt organizations, volunteer groups with a fiscal sponsor, and qualified individuals for projects that fall within the following areas:

• fish and/or wildlife habitat restoration
• public access preservation, restoration, or improvement
• natural resource or outdoor education
• invasive species removal or control
• studies that support improved fish/wildlife management

Your proposed project may be a stand-alone project or part of a larger or ongoing project.