Purpose:
The Capacity Building Initiative (CBI) seeks to build regional networks of diverse conservation and civic organizations working to improve local environmental and community health conditions in priority landscapes.
Background:
Many have begun to recognize that a broader set of communities and organizations must be involved in natural resources issues in order to improve them, and that improving natural resources and improving other aspects of communities go hand in hand. Additionally, the essentials of non-profit effectiveness – adequate and stable unrestricted fundraising (members and major donors), sustained board and leadership development, robust volunteer engagement, strategic program alignment and evaluation – remain a challenge for many groups in the region. As a result, in 2015, the Chesapeake Bay Trust, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Chesapeake Bay Program, and seven other partners in the Chesapeake Bay Funders Network, including the Keith Campbell Foundation, The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation, Rauch Foundation, Town Creek Foundation, the Prince Charitable Trusts, MARPAT, the Agua Fund, and the Hillsdale Fund advertised a funding opportunity to provide capacity building support to organizations working together to attract a diverse array of partners to the effort. Competition was high, with 29 “networks” (defined as a group of partner organizations within a region working towards the same goals) applying, and only five selected to participate in the Regional Capacity Building Initiative.
Status:
Closed to new networks at this time.
