Our Guidelines for Grantmaking

We measure our success as an organization on how well our grants:

• Positively impact the environment, wildlife, and animal life, or

• Enhance 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.

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