2011 MiniGrants

2011 MiniGrant Guidelines
2011 MiniGrant Application
2011 MiniGrant Budget Worksheet
2011 MiniGrant Proposal Scoring Matrix
Final Report Guidelines (Word) Deadline: January 1, 2013
Image Release Form

2011 NWF Affiliate MiniGrant Project Summaries

Arkansas Wildlife Federation
Arkansas Wildlife Federation will use the 2011 MiniGrant towards a (AWF) Strategic Planning Project, which will help the organization in building a plan for sustaining the organization’s future as we celebrate our 75th year of existence; increase membership & public recognition; increase awareness of Arkansas’ biological & conservation needs to the general public; allow for more partnership opportunities with affiliate organizations, volunteerism & other objectives in an effort to protect and restore wildlife (e.g. our recent work with the Bearcat Hollow Cooperative Habitat Project in the Ozark Highlands), designing a more structured outreach program not only with the general public, both youths & adults, but with other organizations that have similar goals & agendas to AWF & NWF; implementing updated and/or new techniques for fund-raising; improving the AWF website.

Renewable Resources Coalition (AK)
Thirteen-year-old Charli Duke is passionate about protecting her coastal fishing community and Yup’ik culture from the proposed open‐pit Pebble Mine. Last October, Charli and nineteen other young leaders (ages 13-18) from rural and urban Alaska came together and created a youth-led campaign to protect Wild Alaska Salmon. Their resolution explains their motivation:

“Wild salmon sustains our lifestyles, economies, and our Alaskan identities. Living off of salmon is our way of life, and we want future generations to have the same great experience as us and our ancestors.”

In February, they created a statewide Wild Salmon Day and coordinated events in seven communities around the state, ranging from film screenings to parades to salmon potlucks. They collected over 1,000 signatures to protect salmon from the proposed Pebble Mine in Bristol Bay, new coal mining projects, and genetic engineering. This spring they travelled to their state capitol and D.C. to ask their elected officials for their support in protecting wild Alaska salmon.

The Renewable Resources Coalition and NWF’s Alaska Youth for Environmental Action program are working together to support the youth-led campaign. Our efforts are educating Alaskans about the threats to salmon and laying the foundation for future efforts to stop mining in important salmon habitat.

Iowa Wildilfe Federation
The Iowa Wildlife Federation’s longstanding mission has been focused on conservation education and the outdoors. In the last two years, that mission has focused on families and how they can enjoy the outdoors and develop a sense of stewardship in that world.

We look to expand our presence with design and development of a website and supporting membership recruitment. In this day, a web presence is mandatory for any organization to flourish and spread its message. A strong website will drive projects like our school yard prairies—the starting point for a campaign to create a certified Community Habitat—as well as others.

As IWF evolves from the direct mail approach, our website development and accompanying membership push are especially important to our primary goal of expanding our reach throughout central and eastern Iowa. We need to get kids—and their parents—outdoors; exposing more young people to nature; interacting with the world outside.

Louisiana Wildlife Federation
After several consecutive years of declining membership, Louisiana Wildlife Federation (LWF) leaders decided in 2010 to do something about it, and developed a 5-year plan with the goal of doubling our membership.

Traditional methods of membership recruitment has been becoming less productive over the years, so in order to improve upon our membership recruitment efforts as well as outreach to current members, LWF leaders have modernized our official website; added capability for online donations, and created a new LWF Facebook page. We started a regular email newsletter to our members, and we completely re-designed a new full-color brochure with updated LWF information. We have also created a new “membership incentive program” which includes an offer for those who join or renew, a chance to win one of several exciting outdoor adventures and other prizes. For these prize offers, LWF has secured donations from LWF board members and others, several hunting, fishing, and birding trips, and wildlife art prints.

LWF is using traditional direct mail campaigns to contact tens of thousands of potential new Louisiana members. Mailing lists are being acquired from several sources including NWF, LWF’s own affiliate organizations, local elected officials, and commercial suppliers. Those mail campaigns are just now getting underway so the results aren’t in yet, but our revised goal for this program is to recruit 300 new members each year for the next 5 years.

Natural Resources Council of Maine
As Maine’s leading environmental advocacy organization, the Natural Resources Council of Maine (NRCM) works to protect, conserve, and restore Maine’s environment, now and for future generations. During our fifty years, we have achieved invaluable environmental protections for natural resources, created and mobilized Maine’s largest environmental grassroots network, and won numerous important victories in our state’s Legislature. Today, NRCM serves more than 12,000 members, supporters, and activists, Maine’s 1.3 million residents, and the millions of people who visit our state each year.

With a new executive director at the helm—as well as facing a new and extremely challenging political landscape—now is a critical time for NRCM to regroup and reposition ourselves. Much of our success over the years can be attributed to the execution of a strong Strategic Plan. In the year ahead, NRCM staff, Board members, and National Advisory Board members will work together to create and implement a new, robust, forward-looking Plan. As the organization’s guiding document, the Plan will define our strategic environmental advocacy objectives, set forth a clear plan for our membership, marketing, and outreach teams, establish ambitious but achievable fundraising goals, ensure best administrative and management practices, and advance our mission.

Nebraska Wildlife Federation
Nebraska Wildlife Federation will use a $1,500 NWF MiniGrant to educate Nebraskans about the benefits to our wildlife, air, water, economy and communities of avoiding the need to build large coal-fired powerplants. We will organize around the proven energy efficiency and conservation strategies that can now meet our electric needs cheaper than new fossil-fueled power plants.

Our state is 100% publicly owned electric utilities, most with elected boards, and we will make our case that investing in energy conservation at a power plant scale will avoid the need to build the equivalent of a 600 MW power plant otherwise needed by around 2020 to meet growing electric demand in Nebraska.

Working with other conservation and environmental groups, religious and neighborhood organizations, unions, energy service businesses and major energy users, we will educate electric utility officials and policymakers about the economical alternatives to fossil fuels and give them economical alternatives to building new power plants. Pilot programs already underway in Omaha and Lincoln will give us real-world numbers on the energy conservation potential in businesses and residential homes. We want to make Smart Energy the centerpiece of Nebraska’s energy policy.

Nevada Wildlife Federation
The Nevada Wildlife Federation (NvWF) is the oldest conservation group in Nevada. As there is no Sportsmen’s Action Network in Nevada, NvWF decided to take this task on with the help of a $4,000 mini-grant from the National Wildlife Federation. The funds will be used to (1) create a Sportsmen’s Action Network via internet on our web site, (2) grow the network and membership, (3) conduct an integrated letter/advocacy campaign to 6,000 Sportsmen, and engage Sportsmen statewide on wildlife issues. The funds will allow NvWF to purchase the software needed to initiate the campaign on the web site. They will also allow NvWF volunteers to provide a booth at key Sportmen’s events all over Nevada, collecting participants and contact information for our new Sportsmen’s Action Network and future direct mail campaigns. The funding from NWF will be matched by volunteer hours of our web master to set up the Sportsmen’s action network on our web site, volunteer hours to arrange, set up and staff booths and process all of the information collected, and design and complete the 6,000 Sportsmen letter campaign. Our ultimate goal is to unite Sportsmen in Nevada and form a presence at our state legislature and wildlife commission through a growing grass roots network.

Citizens for Pennsylvania's Future (PennFuture)
PennFuture seeks to expand membership and participation in our recently launched (9/28/10) Pennsylvania Camo Coalition through a statewide outreach and recruitment effort. This effort is necessary to counteract the impacts of current and future natural gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale region of Pennsylvania, particularly adverse effects on the natural resources, wildlife and landscape in our state.

Building a successful and active Camo Coalition is a priority for PennFuture, and advances our mission to conserve the state's wildlife and natural resources in the face of a potential 2,500% increase (yes, that number is accurate) in the number of natural gas wells proposed for both private and public lands in the state.

The initiative will be twofold: 1) Increase individual recruitment into the Camo Coalition; and 2) develop partnerships with hunting, angling, outdoor and conservation organizations. This will be achieved in two ways: 1) Advertising the Coalition in web sites dedicated to hunting, fishing and outdoor recreation, on-line newspapers’ outdoor sections, and through social media networks; and 2) the Coalition Coordinator, as well as select volunteers, will make in-person presentations to various hunting, fishing, and outdoor organizations around the state to explain the role of the Coalition in promoting conservation related policy and legislation at the state government level.

Action alerts via email and electronic newsletters will keep the Coalition members updated with current issues at the state level. Issues supported by the Coalition will be focused on natural resource and wildlife conservation, resource protection, as well as policies affecting our hunting fishing heritage, as well as other outdoor recreation and resource conservation issues.

Environment Council of Rhode Island
Environment Council of Rhode Island (ECRI) will work with the NWF NE regional center staff and our other partners to research climate adaptation strategies that may be applicable in an urban setting. Working in partnership with the RI Student Climate Coalition, the Environmental Justice League, Direct Action for Rights and Equality, and Providence organizations working on climate change adaptation issues (e.g., Providence Neighborhood Planting Program, Trees 2020, Groundwork Providence, Southside Community Land Trust), ECRI will work to identify adaptation strategies that are relevant and motivating to our Rhode Island urban communities. The project’s research and findings will be shared with the RI Climate Change Commission (created by the RI General Assembly in 2010 to study projected impacts of climate change and identify methods of adapting, including the protection of vital infrastructure) in the form of recommendations and ECRI will advocate for their incorporation into the commission’s final report. The RI Student Climate Coalition, an ECRI member, will lead the work in partnership with the Environmental Justice League and Direct Action for Rights and Equality.

Texas Conservation Alliance
A major resource decision facing Texas over the next few decades is providing water to the growing population in the Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) area without the devastation of damming rivers. Large reservoirs inundate crucial wildlife habitat, contribute to global climate change, and disrupt people’s life. The economic impact on agriculture, timber, and lost hunting leases leads to broader changes in the landscape.

There is enough water in existing reservoirs in Texas to meet the demands of this growing population. However, water developers with a vested interest in new projects are pushing for several new reservoirs, most notably a 72,000-acre project on the Sulphur River.

Educating DFW-area residents that building new reservoirs is unnecessary is a fundamental step toward sensible decisions about water supply. Texas Conservation Alliance has launched an Outreach Program to deliver this crucial message to DFW residents. Target audiences include civic groups, business clubs, chambers of commerce, wildlife and nature organizations, homeowners associations, women’s clubs, and similar organizations.

A second project will involve training an ethically diverse group of junior college students to give programs on water conservation in area middle schools. Texas Conservation Alliance will produce a video about water conservation, to be circulated in area classrooms.

Wyoming Wildlife Federation
Wyoming Wildlife Federation (WWF) produced a series of short, YouTube-style videos on relevant conservation issues in Wyoming, including the following topics:

• The Home Place (introduction to WWF and its mission—see below)
• Wolves
• Natural Gas Development and Wildlife
• Wind Energy Development and Wildlife
• Climate Change and Wildlife (focus on WY issues)
• Feral Horses and Wildlife
• North Platte River Valley (community planning and wildlife)

These videos have been used on WWF’s two websites, Facebook page, YouTube account and blog to explain WWF’s position on these and other issues, to attract new and younger WWF friends and members and to expand WWF’s role in organizing stakeholders on relevant issues.