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April 2003
Notes from NEGEF's Executive Director
Grantee Success Stories
Grantee Update
NEGEF's Bits & Pieces
NEGEF Statistics
NEGEF Grantmaking
Grantee Contact Information
NEGEF Staff & Advisors
New Application Form
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NOTES
FROM
DIRECTOR
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Making Democracy Work
Democracy is very hard work. Citizens must be willing to participate in local affairs. And effective participation takes a lot of time and energy.
Looking over NEGEF's list of 2002-2003 grantees, we see that your concerns focused on solving a wide range of environmental problems. I'll bet that you are as surprised as I've been to learn what it takes to solve one of these problems - baseline knowledge, an understanding of local political processes, the challenge of finding allies, and the even greater challenge of hearing, understanding and finding common points of interest with opponents. Sometimes the local issue includes work at the state level, too. Is this ringing any bells?
I sit on the Montpelier City Council. One year ago I volunteered to be the City's appointee to the Board of Directors of the regional public transit organization, WHEELS, because I believe that those who can't drive - the elderly, disabled, folks who can't afford a second car in the family - need and must have reliable public transportation. I also believe that public transit and environmental protection are intimately connected -- stopping sprawl and growing smartly…cleaning up the air and reducing greenhouse gasses… helping downtowns and freeing land from parking lots and parking garages…preserving our sanity and eliminating traffic jams.
My experiences this past year on the WHEELS Board taught me what enormous personal, professional, private and public energy it takes just to try to make something work as it was intended. Making something right - just one local issue - can consume you.
Two books were helpful in my WHEELS experience. Jane Holtz Kay sets outs all the facts, fallacies and hopes for a future different from one dependent on the automobile in her book, Asphalt Nation: How the Automobile Took Over America and How We Can Take It Back. Midwest Academy's Organizing for Social Change gave me organizing language to frame a strategy.
WHEELS is twenty-five years old. It provides fixed routes as well as van service for special needs like getting Head Start kids to school or shuttling folks to and from the airport. There are also a large number of volunteer drivers who go into the hinterlands and bring isolated senior citizens to their doctor appointments or to the store. Only 1-2% of our region's population really need and totally rely on WHEELS.
To make a very long story short, WHEELS went bankrupt this last month. It shut down its transportation system and filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy.
In the last twelve months, I have had to learn the transit language - fixed routes, ISTEA, TEA-3, RideShare, Meals on Wheels, FTA and AOT, federal earmark, state and local share, procurement. Stubborn individuals, complex regulations, labor-management disputes, strong administrative staff and a citizen Board of Directors, spreadsheets, contracts, management, audits… Agendas, agendas, agendas.
Here are a few things I learned about citizen activism:
· Environmental issues are far more complex when you're actually trying to solve them.
· Very few people have the depth of knowledge needed to play.
· It takes lots and lots of time to learn the "system".
· It takes tons of courage to speak up.
· You have to know the facts and figures.
· Knowledge is power.
· Figure out early who your proponents are, who the opponents are and why.
· Connect with the proponents and build alliances.
· Understand the position of the opponents.
· Convert opponents to allies.
· Organizing takes time, time, and more time.
· There should be a core group of at least five folks to share the load and delegate out from there.
· Everyone has different skills sets - a good leader will tap them all and make a complete package for the group.
· Sorry, but sound bits are necessary; stay on message.
· Political process is clumsy - like any game, the more you play, the better you know the rules. Just remember, new folks are entering the discussion all the time.
· Strategy counts. Understanding strategy, how to shape it, how to implement it is critical.
· Listen, learn and lead.
· Leading is very hard and can be frightening.
· Cooperation, collaboration and trust are essential to any success.
· Trust, Trust, Trust - when it's missing, you won't get collaboration.
· Risk, Risk, Risk - you put yourself on the line when you lead.
· Respect is crucial.
The WHEELS debacle exposed weaknesses in the entire system - the transit provider, the State Agency of Transportation, municipal oversight of the system. Most of all, it exposed the lack of a constituency advocating for public transportation.
What to do next is the question at hand. I can only imagine the meetings and public hearings ahead, but my foray into this local issue has given me tools and interest to stay until the new system is in place.
--Cheryl King Fischer
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GRANTEE
SUCCESS
STORIES
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Vermonters for a Clean Environment - Danby, Vermont
A good example of a group that is spending a lot of time and energy trying to make democracy work here in Vermont is Vermonters For a Clean Environment (VCE). VCE "is fighting for the economic well being of all
Vermonters by promoting the wise use of our resources - our people, our land, our air and our water." Annette Smith, VCE's Executive Director, founded the group in 1999 to work on issues surrounding a $1 billion proposal to build two gas power plants in Vermont; one of the two proposed gas pipelines would cross Smith's 52-acre sustainable farm in Danby, Vermont.
The energy produced by the proposed power plants was for the
regional market, not for Vermont use. VCE worked closely with local town officials and residents, attending many local and state hearings. They waged a grassroots organizing campaign for 1½ years and raised over $200,000. VCE successfully stopped the construction of the gas plant and pipelines.
VCE has spearheaded opposition to the Swiss mining company OMYA, the largest employer in the area, who plans to mine marble in the small town of Danby. The marble is ground into calcium carbonate, a component of the paper making process, paint, fenders, crayons, wallboard, antacids and toothpaste, among other products. "I thought paper came from trees, not from scenic mountains, " said Smith of VCE. "Trees grow back, scenic mountains do not."
OMYA is the largest user of pesticides in Vermont. In addition, it owns 8,000 acres of land in 15 Vermont towns. VCE is quick to point out that the chemicals used at the Vermont OMYA plant include high strength chlorine bleach and a variety of fungicides. Solvents such as acetone and toluene have also been found in the quarry waste. An accident at the OMYA plant in 2000 involved a spill of 4,500 gallons of biocides. VCE has become a watchdog group of OMYA. "We will be around as long as OMYA is," said Smith.
VCE has been working with a new NEGEF grantee group, Residents Concerned about OMYA, that is opposing a permit to store tailings
from an OMYA-owned dolomite quarry in Florence, VT. The tailings
would eventually fill an old marble pit and become a hill 200 feet long, 700 feet wide and up to 80 feet above ground level. Neighbors in Florence, an OMYA company town, are concerned about runoff that could contaminate nearby ground water. 250 gallons of thion, a biocide used to prevent mold and bacteria from growing in the calcium carbonate slurry, spilled earlier in 2003.
Smith and VCE are committed to providing information, technical support and community outreach to residents of Vermont so that they can
make informed decisions. She regularly scans the headlines of
Vermont newspapers and sends articles pertaining to citizen action in
the region to hundreds of activists in the state who are on her email contact list. Her website (www.vtce.org) contains many articles about OMYA and other environmental issues in the state.
VCE offers a helping hand to Vermont citizens working at the local level to protect their environment. Smith works with community members concerned about factory farm proposals, pesticide concerns, contaminated water, proposed landfills and numerous other environmental issues. Since the Toxics Action Center (TAC) opened a Vermont office in the fall of 2002, both organizations are working together with many Vermont citizen groups.
Vermonters For a Clean Environment took an active role with other Vermont environmental groups in a legislative permit reform collaborative during this 2003 legislative session. VCE led the grassroots initiative campaign. VCE and NEGEF contacted grassroots groups within the state and organized regional meetings of community activists to discuss how to advance the citizen voice in the permit reform process. Members from thirteen NEGEF grantee groups testified in February during a legislative hearing before a joint House and Senate Natural Resources Committee. Said VCE's Smith, "We must come together with a clear and focused approach to redefining the process so that it works for citizens as well as developers."
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GRANTEE
UPDATE
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Bangor Area Citizens Organized for Responsible Development (BACORD) - Bangor, Maine
Our Grantee Success Story in the Summer 2002 NEGEF News focused on BACORD's attempts to prevent a WalMart Superstore from locating on the edge of the Penjawoc Marsh, widely acknowledged as one of the most significant emergent freshwater marshes in the state. At the time of the story, the members of BACORD were in the middle of testimony before the Board of Environmental Protection (BEP). On March 20, 2003 the BEP voted 5-3 to deny the developer's proposal to build the new WalMart. The Board included a number of objections to the project, ranging from lack of fit into the natural environment to inadequate compensation for loss of critical grassland habitat.
Valerie Carter reports that although they are pleased with their "victory" over inappropriate development next to the fragile marsh, BACORD members are continuing to work with the city of Bangor on its comprehensive plan and on further marsh protection.
Concerned Citizens of Franklin County - Highgate Center, Vermont
In our fall 2002 grant round, we awarded Concerned Citizens of Franklin County $2,000 to "support the group's organizing work around the expansion of Vermont Egg Farm and other Large Farm Operations." It was the second grant for this group, the first being in November 1998 when they were educating the public and policymakers about the harmful effects of factory farms on the envir-onment and on rural communities.
Vermont Egg Farm had applied to the Vermont Department of Agriculture for a permit to expand its operations from 100,000 hens to 235,000 hens, with the long-range goal to expand to about 700,000 birds on its 120-acre farm.
Concerned Citizens had already been complaining about the current operation and the stench and fly problem coming from the farm. With the new expansion proposal, they quickly rallied grassroots support from around the state to oppose the expansion and send a message that factory farms are not welcome in Vermont.
In October 2002 Vermont Agriculture Commissioner Leon Graves denied the Vermont Egg Farm a large-farm permit that would have allowed it to more than double in size. The decision stated that the owner did not have adequate manure management controls, and that the plan to ship manure to other locations for disposal was not sufficient to ensure the farm would not produce flies that would be a nuisance to neighbors.
Concerned Citizens continues to work helping farmers in other parts of the state who are facing similar factory farm proposals.
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NEGEF'S
BITS&
PIECES
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We think spring is coming…
The State of Songbirds
From American PIE EcoAlert
Total bird population in the U. S. is estimated to be 10-20 billion representing roughly 650 species, more than half of which are perching birds called passerines. Their fate is in question, however, and numerous organizations are working for their protection.
Human activities threaten native songbird populations. As people
move into formerly wooded areas, they are usually accompanied by
cats, raccoons, squirrels, chipmunks, blue jays and other animals that harass and kill small birds. Domesticated cats alone kill 4 million songbirds every day, over a billion each year; feral cats add to this toll. Collisions with plate glass windows of homes and office buildings kill an estimated 80 million songbirds annually throughout the U. S. Millions more are killed by colliding with cars, lighted buildings and communication towers. Bird mortality from pesticides has been conservatively estimated at 67 million annually. Climate change, too, is threatening the existence of songbirds; one forecast suggests that the range of the Baltimore Oriole will shift north until it is no longer found in Baltimore.
A small notch upward on the thermometer is causing big changes for North American wildlife. For example, parts of northern Minnesota and southwestern Ontario may end up with 14 fewer species of warblers than are currently found there. Many bird species are now arriving an average of 21 days earlier at one site on Michigan's Upper Peninsula. The ranges of most North American grassland birds will shift northward into areas that currently contain forests. Unless all species (birds and plants) shift at the same time - an unlikely prospect - then habitat may be limiting for these species in the future.
For an analysis of how global climate change may affect songbird populations in your state, go to www.abcbirds.org/climatechange/statepage.htm for information compiled by the American Bird Conservancy.
In the meantime, attract birds to your own backyard with bird feeders and birdbaths. A variety of native trees, shrubs and flowers provide good nesting sites, winter shelter, places to hide from predators, and natural food supplies that are available year-round.
Before you plan that summer trip, read this.
An Alternative to AAA
Adapted from Enough, the newsletter of the Center for the New American Dream.
An environmentally friendly auto club may sound like an oxymoron devised by someone in Detroit. It's clear that the greenest way to operate a car is to give it plenty of rest and to leave it at the curb whenever public transportation is available or a stroll would suffice. For many of us, though, owning a car is a necessity. Cars don't always respond to our every wish, however, and many of us have found ourselves stranded on the side of the road, dialing for roadside assistance.
Forty five million Americans belong to the American Automobile Association (AAA), now in its 100th year. Very few of those members realize that AAA does more than just provide roadside assistance and handy maps. That "more" may be less of what you want. AAA uses membership dollars to lobby against federal environmental and auto safety laws, as well as public transportation initiatives. In 1990 AAA fought against strengthening the Clean Air Act. They claim to represent members even though three quarters of Americans supported the measure and the vast majority of club members have little awareness of and virtually no say in AAA's lobbying agenda.
If AAA doesn't sound like your kind of club, you do have a choice. The Better World Travelers Club, a new auto club with a conscience, was launched in the spring of 2002 as "the only socially responsible, environmentally friendly roadside assistance and travel club in the country that's working to help clean up the environment." Club President and Working Assets Co-Founder Mitch Rofsky explains: "Primarily, what we're putting together is a greener, cooler version of AAA."
Like AAA, Better World offers a host of services for the traveler, including emergency roadside assistance, travel guidance and insurance. Unlike AAA, Better World doesn't lobby against environmental
initiatives. Better World offers discounts on eco-lodging and hybrid and electric vehicle rentals, and spends one percent of its revenue on environmental cleanup efforts. In an innovative twist, Better World even offers carbon offsets to air travelers through its Travel Cool program. A portion of each airline ticket purchased goes to programs that reduce carbon dioxide emissions.
Of course an ecologically minded auto club is not a panacea for all the environmental ills associated with driving. But it is a step up from an auto club that actively opposes environmental progress. Todd Silberman, Rofsky's Better World business partner, notes: "Given the choice between two products that cost about the same and do about the same thing, I'll walk across the street to get the one that's good for the environment."
And Tom and Ray Magliozzi, better known as Click and Clack of NPR's "Car Talk", agree. "We had no idea that part of our AAA dues were being spent on lobbyists who oppose just about everything having to do with public transportation. If AAA thinks that it's a good idea for every single person to get to work in 3000 pounds of iron, we sure don't want to help support such a silly idea."
To join, visit the Better World Travelers Club website at www.betterworldclub.com or call them toll free at 1-866-304-7540.
--Dave Tilford
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NEGEF
STATISTICS
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NEGEF has been making grants since 1996 and we have a sense that these small amounts of money have been put to good use across New England. We maintain an extensive database that includes all kinds of information about both our applicants and our grantees and the work that they do. Here are some interesting statistics about our grants distributed over the last seven years:
Total Number of Grants - 670
Number of Grantee Groups - 493
Total Amount Distributed - $1,222,916
Average Grant Size - $1,825
Total Number of Applications - 1195
Average % New Grantees/Round - 66%
Grants Distributed by State
Connecticut (since 2000) - 40
Maine - 127
Massachusetts - 231
New Hampshire - 92
Rhode Island (since 1999) - 53
Vermont - 127
Grants Distributed by Issue
Air - 14
Biotechnology - 7
Energy - 47
General - 7
Land Use - 186
Natural Resources - 69
Population/Consumption - 15
Toxics/Hazardous Waste - 140
Urban Environment - 75
Water - 110
Use of Funds by Grantees
Conferences/Training - 10%
Education - 2%
Events/Celebration - 2%
General Support - 58%
Office Equipment - 1%
Printed Materials - 7%
Professional Fees - 13%
Proj. Equipment & Supplies - 6%
Technological Support - 1%
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NEGEF
GRANTMAKING
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In March NEGEF had its twentieth round of grantmaking. The Grantmaking Committee awarded $72,950 to 45 different groups around New England. If any of these projects sound interesting and you would like to contact members for more information or to network, you can visit our website where we have listed phone numbers, emails and websites. You can also give us a call for that contact information.
Aberjona Study Coalition - Woburn, MA
$1,500
To help fund community outreach expenses to provide the 225,000 residents that live along the Aberjona Watershed with information on the EPA Risk Assessment Study on the environmental effect of the two superfund sites on the Aberjona River.
Boston Climate Action Network - Boston, MA
$1,500
To support BCAN's campaign to raise awareness and promote actions to prevent and mitigate climate change.
Campaign for the Corner - Portland, ME
$1,500
To help preserve a small, centrally placed lot threatened by development and raise awareness of the natural and historical landscape in the area.
Chelsea Latino Immigrant Committee - Chelsea, MA
$2,000
To implement a grassroots community organizing and training project to eliminate worksite environmental health and safety hazards for thousands of Chelsea immigrant workers.
Citizens for the Preservation of Northbridge - Whitinsville, MA
$2,000
To protect the community of Northbridge and surrounding towns from the importation of infectious biohazard medical waste.
Coalition to Save Glendale Park - Everett, MA
$1,500
To support the organization's work to preserve, maintain and beautify Glendale Park terraces, as well as inform the public and seek public support for the preservation of open space and parkland in the city of Everett.
Cold Pond Community Land Trust - Acworth, NH
$1,000
To fund two agricultural educators who will work with grades K-5 students in the Acworth School in two community gardens where the sale of their organic produce will fund buses for field trips.
Concerned Cavendish Citizens - Ludlow, VT
$2,500
To help fund the group's participation in Act 250 proceedings for the McLean Enterprises Corporation's proposed quarry operations.
Day Street/Roundhill Community Garden - Jamaica Plain, MA
$500
To finish building a three-bin composting system for the continuing flow of organic waste material and to teach members of the community about the benefits of composting.
Deerfield/Millers Chapter of Trout Unlimited - Turners Falls, MA
$1,500
To hire a Monitor who will be responsible for reviewing dam owner and government filings and actions regarding compliance of four hydroelectric facilities along the Westfield River.
Dennis Conservation Trust - East Dennis, MA
$1,500
To help fund the costs associated with the acquisition of Crowe's Pasture, 250 acres located on Quivet Neck.
Friends of Bigelow - Vienna, ME
$2,500
To help fund the campaign to protect the Bigelow Preserve from development along its edges and a 13-mile corridor through the Preserve to connect the structures.
Friends of Green River Reservoir - Wolcott, VT
$1,500
To develop visual materials to support a voluntary plan to develop the "Green River Reservoir Shoreline, Hillside and Ridgeline District" to protect the scenic and ecological resources associated with the park.
Friends of the Blue Hills - Milton, MA
$2,000
To fund a public education campaign on the ecological importance of the Blue Hills Reservation and efforts by private interests to develop critical habitats, and to help fund general organizational activities.
Friends of the Mad River - Waitsfield, VT
$1,500
To enhance the educational reach of their watershed booklet, "Caring for the River, Caring for the Land: A Guide to Living in the Mad River Valley", by hosting a series of workshops for Valley residents during the spring and summer of 2003.
Great Barrington Housatonic River Walk - Great Barrington, MA
$1,500
To help fund the renovation, material upgrading, and widening of River Walk's original trail section, built in 1991 to minimal standards from salvaged materials.
GreenCAPE - West Barnstable, MA
$1,500
To continue its efforts to inform the community and Cape Cod about the dangers of using pesticides, and proposing alternatives to their use.
Groundwork Bridgeport - Bridgeport, CT
$1,500
To help fund the cost of running community/volunteer training, recruitment drives and funder/ corporate/city agency meetings that are critical to continuing the work of Groundwork Bridgeport.
Hometown Franklin County - Greenfield, MA
$1,600
To help fund a traffic engineer, real estate appraiser and stormwater engineer to prevent the construction of a Walgreen's Pharmacy that will result in the demolition of six existing buildings with affordable rental units.
Housatonic River Initiative - Lenoxdale, MA
$2,000
To help fund two projects that are working towards the goal of PCB community clean up, river clean up, and PCB health issues.
Julian, Judson, Dean Streets Community Garden - Dorchester, MA
$500
To initiate a composting program within the community garden by building a three-bin composter and providing a workshop on composting.
Kennebec Messalonskee Trails - Waterville, ME
$1,500
To help build the organization to support a 12.4-mile, multi-use trail that connect five communities along the Kennebec River and Messalonskee Stream.
Longmeadow Health and Environmental Initiative - Longmeadow, MA $1,000
To fund a brochure and flyers about the new organization and its goal to educate about the relationship between cancer and the environment, with the goal of reducing health risk factors for the citizens of Longmeadow.
Maine Appalachian Trail Land Trust - Yarmouth, ME
$1,000
To help pay for a portion of the cost of completing an Acquisition & Protection Plan for the Appalachian Trail lands in Maine.
Maine Conservation Voters Education Fund - Augusta, ME
$1,500
To help fund a series of public forums, "Putting a Face on the Issue", to bring citizens together to learn about issues specific to their local community.
Maine Environmental Policy Institute - Hallowell, ME
$1,500
To help fund a Low Impact Forestry Workshop for loggers, foresters, and woodlot owners interested in developing and promoting the methods and technologies of low impact forestry.
Maine Rivers - Augusta, ME
$1,500
To fund a brochure and website for a series of grassroots constituency-building meetings around the state as part of Maine River's evolution as a free-standing organization.
Massachusetts Climate Action Network - Arlington, MA
$2,000
To support MCAN's work with local groups in advocating for their municipal governments to join the Cities for Climate Protection campaign, to design action plans appropriate for their communities, and then to implement those plans.
Merrimack - A Cooperative Community - Merrimack, NH
$2,000
To educate the citizens of Merrimack on choices of solid waste disposal and specifically the benefits of a curbside program for trash and recyclables.
Metacomet Land Trust - Franklin, MA
$1,000
To help fund costs associated with two meetings for over 50 organizations involved in conservation, recreation and other environmental issues within the Blackstone River valley who are working together to build a sustainable coalition to preserve more land for future generations.
Mount Desert Island Water Quality Coalition - Mt. Desert, ME
$1,000
To fund a coordinator for the summer apprenticeship program of the Community Environmental Health Laboratory where students monitor swim beaches in the summer for bacteria levels and monitor harbors for phytoplankton in the fall, winter and spring.
Orenda Wildlife Land Trust - West Barnstable, MA
$1,300
To prepare outreach materials to owners of parcels identified as high priority for protection, and to send the new Stewardship Coordinator to the national Land Trust Alliance Rally.
Peace and Plenty Community Garden - Providence, RI
$2,050
To purchase equipment and pay plumber fees to get water installed in the garden.
Pilgrim Security Watch - Duxbury, MA
$2,000
To help fund the campaign to stop the relicensing of the Pilgrim Nuclear power plant and to begin the shut-down of the plant in 2012 or before.
Railroad Street Youth Project/ Project Native - Great Barrington, MA
$2,000
To help pay for the costs of supplies and materials to make locally grown organic native plants available to the public in southern Berkshire County.
Randolph Center Neighborhood Protection Assn. - Randolph Center, VT
$2,500
To support the campaign to oppose the proposed expansion of Vermont Pure Springs based on issues of larger and increased numbers of trucks on a rural road, as well as the quantity of water to be withdrawn from a single aquifer.
Residents Concerned About Omya - Brandon, VT
$2,500
To help pay for the organization's participation in Act 250 hearings for a proposed 32-acre, 80-foot high dump site to store waste tailings from Omya's calcium carbonate processing plant.
Ridgefield Open Space Association - Ridgefield, CT
$1,000
To help fund a field/meadow restoration project on the conserved Bennett's Pond property by implementing a program of mechanical brush removal, hand-removal and/or controlled burn of invasive species so native species can reestablish themselves.
Save Our Groundwater - Barrington, NH
$2,500
To further advance the group's goal of increasing public awareness through education and outreach activities about water issues, in particular, groundwater withdrawals.
South End/Lower Roxbury Open Space Land Trust - Boston, MA
$2,000
To fund a portion of "It's Our Garden Program" that will forge partnerships with individuals, businesses, institutions and corporations that work and live in the community around the trust's gardens and parks.
South Kingstown Land Trust - Wakefield, RI
$1,500
To help implement an innovative program that is designed to produce a steady stream of income for SKLT and to educate and involve a constituency of shoreline property owners who are not usually full time residents.
Sustainable Energy Resource Group - Thetford Center, VT
$2,000
To support SERG's ongoing work with "Power to the People" by forming energy committees in more towns and increasing its outreach work.
Toxics Information Project - Providence, RI
$1,500
To design and build a traveling exhibit that will include examples of everyday toxic products and their potential health effects, as well as examples of healthier less toxic alternative products.
Vermonters for Sustainable Transportation and Land Use - Burlington, VT
$1,000
To support several emergency actions as a critical part of the overall strategy to divert politicians and transportation planners away from their obsession with highway building, specifically, the Chittenden County Circumferential Highway.
Voice for the Potash Brook Watershed - South Burlington, VT
$2,000
To support Voice's Pesticide Reduction Campaign, a project to reduce pesticide use by residents, businesses and the city of South Burlington.
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GRANTEE
CONTACT
INFORMATION
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Just a reminder - If you want to get in touch with others in the NEGEF network who are working on issues similar to yours, you can find them on our website. Visit our website, click on Grantee Contact Information and go to the Issue that you are working on. You will see that each issue is divided into Subissues where our grantee groups are then listed in alphabetical order. We have
"assigned" each group to a particular issue based on its project proposal. Some of you may actually fit under a couple of our issues, so you may have to visit more than one place. If you would like your group to be listed under another issue, or if the contact information is incorrect, please email us and let us know so we can make the changes.
If you have a website, your website address is listed under Grassroots Web Links, again by Issue. If you do have a website and it is not listed, please let us know. We update the site whenever we get new information, and we welcome any and all changes so that we can keep the site current.
We also have links to websites of larger organizations whose site has useful information. Check out the list of those sites, and let us know of any others that you have found to be particularly important or useful for the work that you do.
Thanks for your help with this. If you maintain your own website, you know how important it is to keep it up to date. We welcome and appreciate any suggestions for improving our site.
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GRANTEE
STAFF &:
ADVISORS
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Sometimes we get so involved in the projects that all of our grantees are doing that we forget to recognize and acknowledge the work of the NEGEF Staff, Board of Directors and Grant-making Committee. So for those of you who do not know who we are and who helps guide the work that we do, here is a list of the current NEGEF team.
Staff
Cheryl King Fischer, Executive Director
Linn Perkins Syz, Program Administrator
Ginny Callan, Program Officer
Board of Directors
Rich Davison, President - Sudbury Foundation
Stephen Miller, Vice President - Islesboro Islands Trust
Gioia Perugini, Secretary - Jessie B. Cox Charitable Trust
Dini Merz, Treasurer - Proteus Fund
Paul Bruhn - Preservation Trust of Vermont
Daniel Ross - Nuestras Raices
William Shutkin - New Ecology
Ted Smith - Kendall Foundation
Quita Sullivan - Alternatives for Community & Environment
Grantmaking Committee
Valentine Doyle - Lawson Valentine Foundation
Karen Feldman - Youth in Action (Rhode Island Activist)
Benno Friedman - Cloud Mountain Foundation
Carolyn Fine Friedman - Fine Family Foundation
Brian Hart - Rockingham Land Trust (New Hampshire Activist)
Mike Herz - Sheepscot Valley Conservation Assn. (Maine Activist)
David Karoff - Rhode Island Foundation
Fred Kosnitsky - Vermont Earth Institute (Vermont Activist)
Sue Phelan - GreenCAPE ( Massa-chusetts Activist)
Jerry Silbert - Quinnipiac Partnership (Connecticut Activist)
Mariella Tan Puerto - Barr Foundation
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NEW
APPLICATION
FORM
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Our new Application Form is now available on this site. It has a new look to it, with a one-page Cover Sheet, a two-page Narrative that includes your project proposal and project budget, and a two-page Applicant Profile that will give us a better "snapshot" of your group and your community. The information from the Profile will also help us as we evaluate the impact of our small grants program. You should plan to use this new form from now on. Give us a call if you have questions about any of it.
Please remember that we hold you to the limitation on the number of pages. Our Grantmaking Committee members have a lot of applications to read each round.
Thanks!
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NEGEF
CONTACT
INFORMATION
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P. O. Box 1057
Montpelier, VT 05601
(802) 223-4622 (phone)
(802) 229-1734 (fax)
info@grassrootsfund.org (email)
www.grassrootsfund.org (website) |
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