Chesapeake Bay Program expands on grant equity efforts with new workshop series

Each year, the Chesapeake Bay Program provides funding to organizations across the watershed to support environmental initiatives of all scales. As a partnership that guides the restoration and conservation of the Bay, we relish the opportunity to help our partners make improvements to the lands and water on the local level, in order to meet the regional goals of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement.

To broaden our impact, the Bay Program partnership has been examining ways in which grant funding can be made more accessible to nonprofits and community groups, especially smaller ones that represent under-resourced neighborhoods in the watershed.

This work was accelerated in 2020, when the Chesapeake Executive Council signed a Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice (DEIJ) Statement to commit the Chesapeake Bay Program to “equitable, just and inclusive engagement of all communities living throughout the watershed.”

In September 2022, our Citizens Advisory Committee (CAC) hosted a panel discussion on grant equity in the Chesapeake Bay watershed with various community groups and experts in the field. Through the meeting, the CAC identified various barriers to grant access and made recommendations on how to remove or lessen them.

Now, from February to March of 2023, the Bay Program’s Diversity Workgroup will host a four-part virtual workshop series focused on building capacity for equitable grant funding in the watershed. The workshops are a follow-up from stakeholder interviews conducted in fall 2022 and are geared toward both funders and grant-recipients. Workshops 1 and 2 are for funders only, and workshops 3 and 4 are open to funders, nonprofits, intermediaries and technical assistance providers working in the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

Workshop 1: Building Trust Through Authentic Community Engagement

February 23 (9am-12pm EST)
Register here‍

Workshop 2: Putting Trust Into Practice

March 15 (9am-12pm EST)
Register here‍

Workshop 3: Innovation and Best Practices in Partnerships and Fiscal Sponsorship

March 21 (9am-12pm EST)
Register here‍

Workshop 4: Simplifying Grantmaking and Access to Resources for Under-Resourced Communities

March 28 (9am-12pm EST)
Register here‍

These workshops are part of the Bay Program’s ongoing effort to support local restoration and conservation efforts in the watershed. If you cannot attend but would like to receive follow up about the findings in the workshops, please fill out this form.