Melinda Gray Ardia Environmental Foundation
OVERVIEW: The Melinda Gray Ardia Environmental Foundation promotes environmental K-12 education through its curriculum development and field experiences programs.
IP TAKE: This is a very transparent funder with clear application guidelines and requirements. It makes small grants to schools and organizations throughout the world that develop and implement environmental curricula. It maintains an open, on-line application process, but it does not make grants to individuals. Environmental educators should find some success here.
PROFILE: The Melinda Gray Ardia Environmental Foundation was established 1996 in memory of Melinda Gray Ardia, a biologist, environmental activist and science teacher. Based in Clarence Center, New York, the foundation’s board is comprised of members of Ardia’s family and environmental professionals. The foundation is “dedicated to increasing environmental education, awareness and responsibility around the globe.” MGAEF makes grants for environmental curriculum development and field experiences for school students. It also awards the SUNY-ESF Environmental Interpretation Scholarship.
Grants for K-12 Education
The foundation supports K-12 education through its curriculum development and field experiences programs. Curriculum development grants aim to “assist educators in the design and implementation of holistic environmental curricula.” Directed toward high school and middle school students, MGAEF field experience grants fund overnight trips to nature research camps in the Adirondacks and the western part of New York State.
The foundation awards two curriculum development grants each year in amounts of $1500. Past grantees include CROC, Conservation and Research on Crocodilians, located at Bardia National Park in Nepal; the Lilongwe Wildlife Trust in Malawi; and the Bluff Lake Nature Center in Denver, Colorado. Other past grantees can be explored in the foundation’s list of past recipients.
Important Grant Details:
The Melinda Gray Ardia Environmental Foundation accepts applications for its curriculum development grants. Application begins with a one-page pre-proposal that can be submitted through the foundation’s application page. MGAEF’s field experiences program does not accept applications for funding.
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