Environmental Support Center

2009 Grant Awards List

Alabama Rivers Alliance received $3,500 toward the first College Environmental Forum, a new component of the organization’s annual Alabama Watershed Leadership Conference. Funds supported travel scholarships and other costs for up to 25 students of color. Alabama Rivers Alliance is a statewide advocacy organization dedicated to strengthening and diversifying Alabama’s growing grassroots watershed movement. 

Apalachicola Riverkeeper received $5,000 to participate in ESC’s FUNDS program, toward implementing its long-term fundraising plan developed in the FUNDS Planning Track. Focused on protecting the environmental integrity of the Apalachicola River and Bay in Florida, Apalachicola Riverkeeper serves six low-income communities partially dependent on fishing and related water-based industries, including tourism and recreation. Despite the economic downturn, Apalachicola Riverkeeper met its budget for the first half of the year and estimated that it would raise the remaining amount in less than three months.  As an example of a strategy generated through the FUNDS program, the group replaced its annual membership drive with monthly notices, increasing the number of renewals, and increasing dues income by more than a third.  

Bay Area Women Coalition received $2,040 in technology equipment through our Technology Resources Program, as well as training in its use. Based in Mobile, Alabama, this group serves Trinity Gardens and surrounding communities with affordable, lead-free, and environmentally safe housing for low- and moderate- income people, providing safer urban communities, a healthy environment and consistent community support and services. Before coming to ESC, Bay Area Women worked with a single computer. Through Technology Resources, they received an additional computer, software, and training in PowerPoint and other graphics applications to assist the organization in reaching out to the community. 

Citizens for Environmental Justice received $160 for a new domain registration from the Technology Resources program, which has worked with this organization for a number of years. Due in part to its professional-looking website, video documentation, and polished computer-generated publications, CEJ has been successful in combating industrial polluters along Refinery Row in Corpus Christi, Texas. CEJ has received national attention, including coverage in Rolling Stone magazine. In 2009, the group received the “Houston-Galveston Environmental Research and Outreach (HERO)” award from the Community Outreach and Education Core of the Sealy Center for Environmental Health and Medicine and NIEHS Center in Environmental Toxicology at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. 

Clean Water Network, based in Washington, DC, was awarded $5,000 in scholarship funds. The Clean Water Network includes watershed groups, environmental organizations, social and environmental justice networks, hunter and angler communities, sustainable agriculture groups, garden clubs, civic associations, the faith community, labor unions, and other activists. The scholarships helped environmental justice organizations participate in the Great Lakes Caucus meeting in Buffalo, New York.

Defense Depot Memphis TN – Concerned Citizens’ Committee (CCC) received $1,700 in computer equipment, plus additional training from the Technology Resources program. Located in an African-American community south of Memphis, CCC was founded when community members realized that toxic chemicals were flowing to their neighborhoods through drainage ditches from the Memphis Defense Depot, a federal Superfund site. Over the years, Technology Resources has helped CCC make effective PowerPoint presentations, including GIS maps, to Memphis city leaders and government officials.

De Madres a Madres received IT equipment worth $640, and additional training from the Technology Resources program. Houston-based De Madres is merging with Galveston-Houston Association for Smog Prevention (GHASP), another ESC beneficiary. De Madres helps Latino families organize communities around childhood lead poisoning issues. This includes promoting blood lead level screening for children, connecting families with city residential inspection and environmental lead mitigation services, and modeling positive, culturally appropriate risk communication and civic engagement to improve public health.

Environmental Justice Coalition for Water of Oakland, California, received two awards in 2009. The Coalition is a network of more than fifty grassroots and intermediary organizations in that state. The Coalition’s first grant, of $5,000, was for its annual gathering, a four-day retreat with an unusally large turnout due to the organization’s youth recruitment efforts, particularly among tribal member groups. A second grant of $4,000 supported the Environmental Justice and Water Peer Review and Connection Project, a workshop promoting collaborations between watershed groups and environmental justice groups. Structured around a book on federal water policy being written by the Pacific Institute, the workshop’s outcomes included a set of federal water policy recommendations for inclusion in the book; connections between environmental justice groups and groups working on water-related issues; and the increased capacity of all attendees to identify policy solutions to water-related environmental justice issues. 

Galveston-Houston Association for Smog Prevention (GHASP) advocates for more stringent air quality control in the heavily polluted Galveston-Houston area. ESC has been gradually outfitting Gulf area groups like GHASP with easily transportable equipment and safe, off-site information storage. GHASP, which now shares space with De Madres a Madres, had moved two times in twelve months, following the destruction of its offices during the 2008 hurricane season. GHASP received $3,900 worth of portable IT equipment, replacing and upgrading what was lost during the hurricane.

Georgia River Network (GRN) received $5,000 to continue its work in ESC’s FUNDS program. GRN is a statewide membership organization working to ensure a clean water legacy by engaging and empowering Georgians to protect and restore their rivers from mountains to coast. GRN had developed its first long-term fundraising plan in the FUNDS program the year before, focusing on increasing its individual donor base by upgrading communications and outreach. Tactics include a quarterly “Success Stories” letter to major donors and funders, with photos and stories demonstrating GRN’s impact; quarterly renewal mailings to increase member retention; three targeted special fundraising appeals; and production of a new professional membership brochure that promotes a new monthly giving program. 

Gulf Restoration Network received $4,000 toward its 2009 Gulf Gathering, the first in several years. More than 100 representatives from member groups throughout the region attended the gathering, which featured updates on policy issues and technical training on building membership, water quality monitoring, working with attorneys, and fundraising in tough economic times. ESC helped with travel costs (mostly mileage) for 33 environmental justice attendees who would not otherwise have been able to attend. Gulf Restoration Network works to build a unified voice for the health and sustainability of the Gulf of Mexico. The Network was active in achieving last year’s long-sought decision to close off the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet (MRGO), a manmade shipping channel deemed partially responsible for the massive flooding that took place in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

Honor Our Pueblo Existence (HOPE) of New Mexico was awarded $100 to update software provided earlier by the Technology Resources program. HOPE is a community-based organization serving the Sovereign Santa Clara Pueblo Nation by enhancing connection to ancestral teachings and homelands within and around the four Sacred Mountains. HOPE publicizes concerns about toxic materials that pose environmental health risks; disseminates information about contaminated sites and illnesses caused by exposure to nearby radioactive materials and toxic chemicals; and advocates for for clean-up of contaminated sites.

Leech Lake Area Watershed Foundation of Hackensack, Minnesota, was awarded $3,000 for strategic planning. This group protects the 750,000-acre Leech Lake watershed.

Mesquite Community Action Committee, which our Technology Resources program has supported for several years, was awarded $960 for a new computer. Mesquite Community Action addresses the environmental and health consequences of the Helena Chemical Company on Mesquite. As a result of the group’s partnership with the New Mexico Environmental Law Center and New Mexico Environment Department, Helena Chemical has been fined repeatedly for a variety of environmental violations.

Mother and Daughters Protecting Children’s Health, of Anniston, Alabama, was awarded $3,080 in computer equipment as well as IT training by the Technology Resources program. Mothers and Daughters’ mission is “to keep our children out of harm’s way of environmental contamination and pollution” by monitoring industry, local, state, federal and other agency actions impacting children’s health. 

Native Lens/Longhouse Media, in Seattle, received $5,000 as one of three tribal groups awarded funds to attend the 2009 Indigenous Peoples Global Summit on Climate Change, in Alaska. The Native Lens program teaches digital filmmaking and media skills to indigenous youth as a form of self-expression, cultural preservation, and social change. Longhouse Media partners with Northwest Film Forum and National Geographic All Roads Film Project to present a monthly series showcasing emerging talents in indigenous communities. 

Neighborhood Citizens of Northwest Ocala received $150 for software upgrades. This Florida-based group has worked with ESC’s Technology Resources program for several years, successfully closing down a nearby charcoal plant that regularly blanketed the community in carcinogenic soot. Northwest Citizens has used its ESC-supplied IT equipment to record emissions, interview residents about environmental effects on their health, and recruit younger activists to the cause.

Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides received a $10,000 grant to continue participating in ESC’s FUNDS program. Having completed the Planning Track in 2008, the group used strategies developed in FUNDS to raise $98,442 that year from major donors, nearly double what it had raised in the prior 12 months. Northwest Coalition advocates for alternatives to dangerous chemical pesticides in forestry and agriculture throughout Washington and Oregon.

Northwest Toxic Communities Coalition received $10,000 to attend the Indigenous Peoples Global Summit on Climate Change in Alaska. The Coalition serves Alaska, Idaho, Oregon and Washington, “connecting with and empowering communities impacted by toxic waste and to share resources, information, and support for toxic cleanup efforts throughout the Northwest states.”

Pleasantville Environmental Coalition (PEC) of Houston received $2,050 in IT equipment, along with training from the Technology Resources program. The organization was formed in 2005 in response to a week of catastrophic fires that released toxics into the surrounding low-income community. This all-volunteer organization now uses mobile equipment to record environmental violations, organize the community, present legal testimony, and coordinate with allies.

People Organizing to Demand Environmental and Economic Rights (PODER) was awarded $4,800 to help with a revised strategic plan. PODER’s new plan, taking into account the current economic crisis, was approved in December 2009. Both the board and facilitating consultant took their lead from the ESC publication Managing in Hard Times, reissued in 2009 with co-publisher Institute for Conservation Leadership. PODER serves San Francisco’s Mission District, working on local solutions to issues facing low-income communities and communities of color.

Salmon Homecoming Alliance, of Washington State, received $3,000 to attend the Indigenous Peoples Global Summit on Climate Change, in Alaska. The Salmon Homecoming Alliance grew out of Salmon Homecoming Celebration and Salmon Resource Forum, hosted annually by the Seattle Aquarium and the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission since 1992, drawing 40,000-50,000 attendees. The Salmon Homecoming Alliance builds stronger relationships between tribal and non-tribal communities and promotes better understanding of salmon stewardship and knowledge of water quality and marine protection issues affecting the Northwest Salmon. 

The indigenous Tewa Women United (TWU) received $2,600 to attend the Indigenous Peoples Global Summit on Climate Change, in Alaska. A long-time beneficiary of nearly all of ESC’s programs, TWU specializes in developing and operating culturally congruent programs that address environmental justice and other issues of violence and oppression in Northern New Mexico.

Texas Environmental Justice Service (TEJAS), in Houston, received funds totaling $4,860 from two ESC programs. With assistance from ESC’s Technology Resources program, TEJAS has become an international environmental justice ambassador, documenting environmental hardships, and hosting guests from locations as far afield as Bhopal, India and the Amazon on its “Toxic Tour” of Houston’s East End. In recognition of these efforts, the Sealy Center for Environmental Health and Medicine and the NIEHS Center in Environmental Toxicology at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston gave TEJAS a 2009 Houston-Galveston Environmental Research and Outreach (HERO) award. TEJAS is also working with ESC’s FUNDS program to develop the organization’s first long-term financial and fundraising plan, which will focus largely on raising money for infrastructure. 

West Atlanta Watershed Alliance (WAWA) received a grant of $160 to upgrade earlier ESC-funded software. WAWA’s outreach and organizing programs protect green spaces and water quality, while educating the public about environmental issues that affect this predominantly African-American community.

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NOTES: Amounts listed represent grants and reimbursements awarded to grassroots groups through the Environmental Support Center’s technical assistance programs during the calendar year. Amounts have been averaged to the nearest $10 and do not include staff time, direct service or overhead costs associated with grantmaking and technical assistance. 

In addition to the organizations listed, the Environmental Support Center’s staff supported several groups that received grant awards in 2008 for work in 2009, primarily through the Leadership and Enhanced Assistance (LEAP) and Fundraising for Sustainable Organizations (FUNDS) programs. Other groups, which received minor technology purchases, or considerable staff time but no new grants or equipment, are not included in the Grants Award List. 

All of these groups cope directly or indirectly with the challenges of water and air quality, poorly zoned or inappropriate development, access to and preservation of green space in underserved communities, or other issues.

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