Garfield Foundation
OVERVIEW: The Garfield Foundation funds innovative models for change in three program areas: Collaborative Networks, Advancing Systems Change Practices, and Environmental Sustainability.
IP TAKE: The foundation maintains a minimalist website and does not accept unsolicited proposals. Reaching out to some of the foundation’s collaborative networks might be a way to get on the foundation’s radar. It will be difficult to crack this nut without networking.
PROFILE: Based in Oakland, the Garfield Foundation was established in 1980 by George and Julius Garfield, brothers who amassed wealth in the cosmetics industry. The foundation initially focused on medical, scientific, and legislative research. George’s son Brian, a writer, and two other trustees took the reins in 1996, and developed new grant guidelines that meet the changing environmental challenges of the times. The Garfield Foundation supports “direct action that addresses the world’s immediate environmental emergencies.” Its grants focus on Environmental Sustainability.
Grants for Environmental Conservation
The Garfield Foundation’s environmental grants support “solutions-oriented, innovative and collaborative projects addressing: the materials economy, excessive consumption and the waste it produces; rising levels of toxic pollution in our bodies, homes, workplaces and communities; and, America’s disproportionately out-sized contribution to global warming.”
The foundation works in collaboration with the RE-AMP Network, which “consists of over 130 nonprofits and foundations across eight Midwestern states working on climate change and energy policy with the goal of reducing global warming pollution economy-wide 80% by 2050”; as well as the Cancer Free Economy Network, which aims to “will lift the burden of cancers and other diseases by driving a dramatic and equitable transition from toxics to effective clean and safe alternatives.”
Past grantees include the Consumers for Dental Choice, Mercury Policy Project, Natural Resources Defense Council, Clean Production Action, and Energy Action Network.
Important Grant Details:
Conservation grants range $25,000 to $475,000. In a recent year the foundation gave away around $3.5 million. The Garfield Foundation does not accept unsolicited letters of inquiry or proposals.
PEOPLE:
Search for staff contact info and bios in PeopleFinder (paid subscribers only).
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