The Charles Stewart Mott Foundation has adopted a new multi-year Environment program plan that will continue its previous work in support of freshwater conservation and sustainable development. The plan, approved by the Foundation's Board of Trustees in March, includes refinements to Mott's prior grantmaking on Reform of International Finance and Trade, and minor adjustments to its grantmaking in the Great Lakes and the Southeastern United States. It also retains a special initiatives component. (See Environment Guidelines.)
According to Lois DeBacker, associate vice president-programs (Civil Society and Environment), the most significant changes in the plan — which will guide the Foundation's grantmaking through 2012 — center around the sustainable development component, previously titled Reform of International Finance and Trade.
The new title for this area of the portfolio — International Finance for Sustainability — reflects the program's evolution. Through its past funding, Mott has supported efforts to influence public and private sector financial institutions, such as the World Bank, export credit agencies, and major private banks, to move toward more environmentally sustainable and socially equitable lending. Future grantmaking will retain that interest while placing new emphasis on proposed funding for large-scale energy and infrastructure projects in developing countries, with a focus on selected Latin American countries.
Specifically, grantmaking will expand beyond the establishment of policies and standards at international financial institutions to include efforts to monitor the implementation of such standards and ensure that community concerns are addressed in project development. Project level work will center on making sure energy and infrastructure projects, such as pipelines, roads, and waterways, contribute to sustainable development and are not damaging to the environment.
Changes to the Conservation of Freshwater Ecosystems program area are more subtle. Grantmaking will continue to focus on the Great Lakes and the American Southeast. This area's three objectives will focus on building the capacity of non-governmental organizations working on freshwater ecosystem conservation; influencing the design and implementation of public policies critical to the health of these systems; and protecting or restoring specific, high priority freshwater sites through site-based conservation activities.
The special initiatives component will continue to focus on unique or time-sensitive opportunities to advance environmental protection in the U.S. and internationally, as well as efforts to advance growth management and urban revitilization.
"These are long-time grantmaking interests of the Foundation, reflecting the staff's and management's view that the Foundation can maximize its impact by maintaining our commitments to fields of global and regional importance that we know well," DeBacker said. "Mott's leadership in these arenas allows us to place our grant dollars strategically and leverage the resources of our peer funders."
The groundwork for development of the new plan began nearly three years ago with the commissioning of eight evaluations of the Foundation's previous environmental grantmaking. Those studies were completed in 2005, and during much of the following year, staff developed the new plan in consultation with key grantees, peer funders and senior management.
DeBacker noted that funding for unsolicited proposals is limited throughout the Environment program. Applicants interested in applying for funding are advised to submit a letter of inquiry as the first step.
The new plan is an extension of Mott's 25-year commitment to environmental concerns. Since 1982, the Foundation's environmental grantmaking has been guided by a series of Trustee-approved, multiyear grantmaking plans. Since then, the Foundation has made 1,990 Environment grants totaling $235.7 million.