Grand Funding

Northern Piedmont Community Foundation

Community Foundation of the Rappahannock River Region

River Counties Community Foundation

Virginia Environmental Endowment

PATH Foundation

The Chesapeake Bay Restoration Fund is a state grant program funded by sales of the Chesapeake Bay License Plate. Each year an RFP is released in summer with applications due in September.

Eligible applicants include not-for-profit conservation organizations, schools
and universities, and governmental agencies whose projects will affect water bodies that are located within the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

Green Streets, Green Jobs, Green Towns (G3)

This program supports design projects, financing strategies, and/or implementation of green street projects.

Up to $15,000 for conceptual plans, up to $30,000 for engineered designs, up to $100,000 for implementation projects, up to $50,000 for community greening projects. Match encouraged but not required.

Chesapeake Oyster Innovation Award Program

This grant funds projects designed to increase knowledge within priority audiences of the value of oysters, oyster fisheries, and aquaculture efforts, advance technologies for increasing oyster population or aquaculture production, and/or advance oyster population monitoring techniques. Up to $10,000.

Environmental Education Mini Grants

This program provides grants up to $5,000 for meaningful outdoor learning experiences around a watershed issue investigation including field trips, fieldwork, student-led action projects, schoolyard habitat projects as well as teacher professional development trainings and programs to advance environmental literacy.

Chesapeake WILD Grant Program

These grants complements existing efforts in the watershed, including the Environmental Protection Agency managed Chesapeake Bay Program, by focusing on enhancing habitat for fish and wildlife and recreational opportunities for people. 

Planning and Technical Assistance Grants

These grants are an excellent opportunity for project designs, feasibility studies, engineering plans, and a variety of other project opportunities. Funding is available for up to $50,000 and have no federal matching requirements.

Eligible applicants include non-profit 501(c) organizations, state government agencies, local governments, municipal governments, Tribal governments and organizations, and educational institutions.

Small Watershed Grants

These grants are for implementation and demonstration projects. Think shovel ready best management practices (bmps) that directly impact water quality and a priority outlined by NFWF. Funding is available for $50,000 – $500,000 projects.

Eligible applicants include non-profit 501(c) organizations, local governments, municipal governments, Tribal governments and organizations, and K-12 educational institutions.

Innovative Nutrient and Sediment Reduction Grants

These grants are for multi-year funding to  accelerate the rate and scale of water quality improvements specifically through the coordinated and collaborative efforts of sustainable, regional-scale partnerships in implementing proven water quality improvement practices more cost-effectively. Grants are for $500,000 to $1 million collaborative projects.

National Coastal Resilience Fund

Grant program that restores, increases and strengthens natural infrastructure to protect coastal communities while also enhancing habitats for fish and wildlife. This program invests in conservation projects that restore or expand natural features such as coastal marshes and wetlands, dune and beach systems, oyster and coral reefs, forests, coastal rivers and floodplains, and barrier islands that minimize the impacts of storms and other naturally occurring events on nearby communities.

Five Star and Urban Waters Restoration Grant Program

Grant program that seeks to develop nation-wide community stewardship of local natural resources, preserving these resources for future generations and enhancing habitat for local wildlife. Grants seek to address water quality issues in priority watersheds, such as erosion due to unstable streambanks, pollution from stormwater runoff, and degraded shorelines caused by development.

Resilient Communities Program

designed to prepare for future environmental challenges by enhancing community capacity to plan and implement resiliency projects and improve the protections afforded by natural ecosystems by investing in green infrastructure and other measures.

Conservation Partners Program

Grant program that provides vital grant funding to support organizations that provide staff and technical assistance to private landowners in order to maximize the benefits of Farm Bill programs on working lands.

Acres for America Program

Land Conservation grant program to conserve lands of national significance, protect critical fish and wildlife habitat, and benefit people and local economies.

Bring Back the Natives

This grant program invests in conservation activities that restore, protect and enhance native populations of sensitive or listed fish species across the United States, especially in areas on or adjacent to federal agency lands. The program emphasizes coordination between private landowners and federal agencies, tribes, corporations and states to improve the ecosystem functions and health of watersheds.

Marine Debris Removal Program

Grant program for projects that create long-term, quantifiable ecological habitat improvements for NOAA trust resources, with priority consideration for efforts targeting derelict fishing gear, abandoned and derelict vessels, and other medium- and large-scale debris.

Bay Watershed Education and Training (B-WET) 

B-WET provides competitive funding to support Meaningful Watershed Educational Experiences for K–12 audiences. These are multi year grants for education partnerships.

eeBLUE Aquaculture Literacy Mini-Grants Program

Grant to develop lasting partnerships between environmental education providers, aquaculture industry experts, and NOAA to achieve greater impacts on several levels. This opportunity aims to support co-development of aquaculture education programs that are responsive to the goals of the Community of Practice for Aquaculture Literacy (CoPAL).

Coastal and Marine Habitat Restoration Grants

Grant program to support restoration projects that use a habitat-based approach to rebuild productive and sustainable fisheries, contribute to the recovery and conservation of protected resources, promote healthy ecosystems, and yield community and economic benefits.

NOAA Coastal Resilience Grants

Grant program to build resilience through projects that conserve and restore sustainable ecosystem processes and functions and reduce the vulnerability of coastal communities and infrastructure from the impacts of extreme weather events, climate hazards, and changing ocean conditions.

Species Recovery Grants to States

Species Recovery Grants to Tribes

Conservation Innovation Grants (CIG)

Competitive program that supports the development of new tools, approaches, practices, and technologies to further natural resource conservation on private lands.

Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP)

RCPP promotes coordination of NRCS conservation activities with partners that offer value-added contributions to expand our collective ability to address on-farm, watershed, and regional natural resource concerns. Through RCPP, NRCS seeks to co-invest with partners to implement projects that demonstrate innovative solutions to conservation challenges and provide measurable improvements and outcomes tied to the resource concerns they seek to address.

Agricultural Conservation Easement Program (ACEP)

ACEP helps landowners, land trusts, and other entities protect, restore, and enhance wetlands, grasslands, and working farms and ranches through conservation easements.

Wetland Reserve Enhancement Partnership (WREP)

WREP is a voluntary program through which NRCS enters into agreements with eligible partners to leverage resources to carry out high priority wetland protection, restoration, and enhancement and to improve wildlife habitat.

National Fish Passage Program Funding

This program provides financial and technical assistance in support of fish passage projects. Fish passage project proposals may be initiated by any individual, organization, government, or agency, in cooperation with their local Fish and Wildlife Conservation Office. Please contact your Regional Fish Passage Coordinator.

Eastern Brook Trout Joint Venture

Each year, the Eastern Brook Trout Joint Venture requests project proposals that are focused on conserving and restoring habitat that will support healthy and productive populations of wild Brook Trout.

National Coastal Wetlands Conservation Grant Program

Grant Program annually provides grants of up to $1 million to coastal states to restore and enhance coastal wetland ecosystems and associated uplands.

North American Wetland Conservation Act

These grants increase bird populations and wetland habitat, while supporting local economies and American traditions such as hunting, fishing, bird watching, family farming, and cattle ranching.

Land and Water Conservation Fund – State and Local Grant Funding 

This program is a 50-50 percent matching reimbursement program that provides local governments with support for the acquisition and/or development of public outdoor recreation areas.

Outdoor Recreation Legacy Partnership Program (ORLP)

The Outdoor Recreation Legacy Partnership Program (ORLP) is a 50%-50% matching reimbursement program established to provide new or significantly improve recreation opportunities for economically-disadvantaged communities in densely populated urban areas that are under-served in terms of parks and other outdoor recreation resources.

Trail Access Grants

The Trail Access Grants program is a 100% reimbursement program being offered for trail projects that increase access to trail opportunities for people with disabilities.

Virginia Recreational Trails Program (RTP)

The Recreational Trails Program (RTP) is a federal 80-20 matching reimbursement program for building and rehabilitating trails and trail-related facilities.

Funding may be awarded to city, county, town or other government entities. Registered nonprofit groups partnered with a government body also are eligible.

American Battlefield Acquisition Grants

This program enables the permanent protection of historic battlefield lands through fee simple acquisition or through the purchase of an interest in the land through a preservation covenant. State or local government entities are eligible to apply.

Dam Safety and Floodplain Management Grants

This program is designed to help dam owners and Virginia localities enhance public safety and reduce the risk of dam failures and property damage from flooding. The fund was established to provide grants to public and private dam owners whose dams are under state regulation. Grants are available also to help local governments improve methods for flood prevention and protection.

Community Flood Preparedness Fund Grants and Loans

This program will provide support for regions and localities across Virginia to reduce the impacts of flooding, including flooding driven by climate change. The fund will empower communities to complete vulnerability assessments, and develop and implement action-oriented approaches to bolster flood preparedness and resilience.

Meaningful Watershed Education Experience Funding Support

Grant program to provide “meaningful watershed educational experiences” (MWEEs) to school districts within Virginia’s Chesapeake Bay watershed.

Readiness and Environmental Protection Integration (REPI) Program

This federal grant program aims to preserve land around military installations and improve access to outdoor recreation.

Stormwater Local Assistance Fund (SLAF)

Matching grants to local governments for the planning, design, and implementation of stormwater best management practices (BMPs) that address cost efficiency and commitments related to reducing water quality pollutant loads.

Funding range is $50,000 to $5 million with a 50% local match requirement.

Section 319 Non Point Source Implementation Grants

This is a federal grant program available to multiple applicants who propose eligible non point source implementation projects in watersheds with approved TMDL Implementation Plans. These grants generally have a 30% match requirement.

Citizen Water Quality Monitoring Grant

This program is offered annually and has three funding levels available to support various levels of monitoring programs.

Water Quality Improvement Fund

Funding for this program varies from year to year. When funded, this program is for design and installation of nutrient reduction technology at Chesapeake Bay watershed publicly owned wastewater treatment plants and design and installation of certain wastewater conveyance infrastructure projects.

Virginia Clean Water Revolving Loan Fund

This program provides financial assistance in the form of low-interest loans to local governments for needed improvements at publicly-owned wastewater treatment facilities and/or collection systems, stormwater management bmps, living shorelines, land conservation, and more.

Coastal and Estuarine Land Conservation Program

Provides funding for the acquisition and conservation of coastal and estuarine land with significant ecological values that can be effectively managed and protected.

Virginia Coastal Zone Management Program

The Virginia CZM office administers an annual grant award of approximately $3 million from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Ocean Service, Office for Coastal Management to accomplish its goals.

Trees for Clean Water Grant

The Virginia Trees for Clean Water (VTCW) program encourages the creation of long-term, sustained canopy cover to improve water quality across the Commonwealth. This grant is used to fund tree planting efforts that raise public awareness of the benefits of trees and their impacts on water quality.

Urban and Community Forestry Grant

The Urban and Community Forestry (U&CF) Grant Program encourages projects that promote the protection and enhancement of urban and community forest ecosystems, tree planting, the care of trees, and education on tree issues in cities, towns and communities.

Emerald Ash Borer Treatment Program

Treating ash trees for this destructive non-native insect increases the chance of preserving genetic material of ash trees throughout the state. The Emerald Ash Borer Cost-Share Program can help landowners and organizations offset 50% of costs for treatment of ash trees through stem injections with emamectin benzoate insecticide.

Forest Legacy Program

Grants and resources to protect private forests within a designated Forest Legacy Area by paying for their acquisition or an easement. 25% match required. 

Virginia Migratory Waterfowl Stamp Grant Program / Wetland Restoration Projects 2024Trees for Clean Water Grant

The Virginia Migratory Waterfowl Conservation Grant applications must be for waterfowl habitat improvement projects. With goals to protect, preserve, restore, enhance or develop waterfowl habitats. Download and view full grant application here.

Virginia Open-Space Lands Preservation Trust Fund

Grants for acquisitions, easements, rights of way, and other methods of protecting open space for farming, forestry, recreation, wildlife, water quality, and more.

Get Outdoors

Gants for projects that increase equitable access to safe open space in Virginia’s communities. Covers planning, capacity building, infrastructure, and more.

Virginia Land Conservation Fund

Grants for acquisition and permanent protection and preservation of farmland, forestland, historic resources, natural area protection, and open spaces and parks.

Funding varies from year to year.

Conservation Innovation Grant Virginia State Program

This funding allows the development and adoption of innovative conservation approaches and technologies for projects carried out in Virginia.