Project Guidance

After you’ve confirmed your organization's eligibility, this guidance will help confirm project eligibility.

Notes for specific applicants

Returning applicants: Repetitive or similar requests from the same organizations are less likely to receive funding.

Projects of particular interest include DCF's highest priorities:

Impact Gulf of Maine or Northern Forest
Relate to climate change mitigation or environmental climate change resilience
Strengthen volunteer activity and community involvement within environmental and conservation areas

Project budget

Strong project budgets:

Focus on project-unique costs vs the costs of the organization to operate (including % of overhead)
Indicate exactly what is being asked of Davis Conservation Foundation to fund
Provide details of additional project funding including source, amount, and status (received, committed, requested) to date

Discouraged project expenses:

General operating requests
Percentage of overhead including but not limited to general administration, rent and executive salary. All costs should be project-specific.
Budgets that reflect the request is similar/repetitive to past requests
Shortfalls
Re-granting projects
Multi-year grants
Scholarships (for outdoor recreation programs)
Endowments
Travel

Prohibited expenses (application will be declined):

Religious programs/projects
Annual giving campaigns
Deficit reduction
Fellowships
Loans

Grant request size

Grant awards have varied widely, depending on the organization, the need, and other applications received in a given cycle. Trustees may issue partial, restricted, or conditional grants. Organizations should feel encouraged to approach our Foundation with innovative applications, and these may be smaller or larger than past projects.

Next Steps

If you have questions, please visit our FAQ or contact the Davis Conservation staff.

Once you have confirmed your organization and project align with Foundation priorities, please proceed to the Application Instructions page.