Catalyst Fund

The Network launched the Landscape Conservation Catalyst Fund Program in 2019 to accelerate the pace and practice of collaborative landscape conservation and stewardship across the United States.

The Catalyst Fund couples financial support through a competitive grant process with an in-depth Peer Learning and capacity building experience. The Fund makes strategic investments in strengthening the collaborative capacity of place-based, community-grounded Landscape Conservation Partnerships. These investments are intended to better positions Partnerships to achieve long-term conservation and stewardship success, building in landscapes across the country the enduring collaborative infrastructure and social capital needed to address systems-level challenges like the biodiversity, climate change, and environmental injustice crises.

A portion of the Fund is dedicated to supporting Indigenous leadership in landscape conservation. Indigenous-led Partnerships focused wholly on sovereign tribal lands and/or focused on advancing and conserving Indigenous interests, territories, and rights across a broader defined landscape are encouraged to apply.

The Catalyst Fund operates on an annual grant cycle schedule, and the 2023 submission window has closed. We anticipate announcing grant award decisions in August, 2023, and anticipate launching a 2024 grant cycle early next year. Please check back in early 2024 for more information on the next grant cycle.

Cover photo: Partners exploring a portion of the Black River in South Carolina. The Black River Initiative received a collaborative capacity grant award from the Catalyst Fund in 2021. Photo credit: Erin Donmoyer, Black-Sampit Riverkeeper, Winyah Rivers Alliance.