Mini-Grants

Quaker Earthcare Witness organizes a mini-grant program which gives $500 matching grants to help Friends complete eco-friendly projects. Our goal is to encourage and support Friends groups, meetings, and organizations that are looking for ways to enhance their practical and spiritual relationship with Earth.

All ideas that support QEW values will be considered, but we especially encourage projects that directly address environmental justice, climate change and/or those that will involve young people.

Past grant recipients have used QEW mini-grant funds for a range of projects, like creating an edible garden for their meeting, adding a composter for a Friends’ school, and completing a meeting solar energy project.

We welcome your project ideas and energies! See details below.

A Special Opportunity: $1500 Grants

Quaker Earthcare Witness Announces a Call to Fund Special Initiatives in Earthcare

Due to recent fund-raising success for our Grants program, Quaker Earthcare Witness is pleased to issue
a call for proposals to fund selected special initiatives for Earthcare projects that may demand funding beyond the level of our $500 Mini-Grants program. Under this program we expect to fund several
proposals at levels up to $1500. Due to the contingency of this program on fund-raising success we
cannot assure that this program will continue in future years.

We especially encourage proposals that specifically address at least one of our preferred focus areas. Proposals that synergistically address multiple preferred focus areas will be given special priority for funding:

Responding to or preparing to meet the Climate change crisis.
Supporting regional and/or global biodiversity.
Redressing issues of environmental injustice that impact underserved or disempowered
communities (especially communities of color) preferably in North America, but other locations will also be considered.
Involving and engaging youth in responding to the above issues and/or transforming the
consciousness of the rising generation to act in unity with the Earth as caregivers for our planet.

The Proposal Description should address how the funds will enable the launching of the new initiative
being proposed, but also how the initiative will establish itself as a sustainable program into the future. We ask for a commitment of matching funds to be raised by the proposing Friends organization.However, if the proposing organization has limited opportunities to raise matching funds, they may include a statement from their treasurer explaining their economic limitations and requesting that the match be waived or reduced.

DOWNLOAD APPLICATION

To apply for a QEW Mini-Grant, follow these steps:
1. Download and complete the Project Information Form linked below.
2. Submit a project description, which must include: an itemized budget; a description of activities; and a timeline for completion. Please limit this to no more than two pages (approximately 500 words).
3. Include a signed statement from your treasurer, stating the total cost of your project and that your meeting/church/ organization will match the amount of the requested mini-grant.
4. Email all the materials (the completed form, the description, and the treasurer’s letter) as attachments to the committee clerks at mini-grants@quakerearthcare.org.
Download Application Here
- QEW Mini-Grants support Quaker projects having a primary purpose of benefiting the environment and/or promoting environmental awareness and education among Friends and the larger spirit-led world.
- All ideas that support QEW values will be considered, but we especially encourage projects that directly address environmental justice, climate change and/or those that will involve young people.
- Friends’ organizations — whether a school, meeting or other group — are eligible to apply for these annual awards, up to a maximum of $500. Partnerships with non-Quaker groups in the community are encouraged.
- Applicants submit an application including: activities, budget, timeline, and benefits. Applicants are expected to match the mini-grant with an equal amount from their own funds. However, groups with limited financial means can also apply, adding an explanation of their financial limitations.
- Mini-grant applicants generally apply for one-year one-time projects. However, applications for multiyear projects with renewal applications anticipated, will be considered as long as they are clearly stated up front.
- Projects which substantially involve the participants in the planning and execution will be favorably considered. Generally, services and labor are not funded by mini- grants.
- A mini-grant check can be sent only to a Friends’ organization, not an individual. Please give the name and address of your financial officer/treasurer.
- Mini-grant recipients agree to document their project, sending a progress report no later than 6 months after receiving the funds, attaching digital photos where possible.
- Submit your application any time of the year. We usually respond within a month of receiving your complete application package.
2022
- Monteverde Friends Meeting and School (Costa Rica): Solar Array Inverter Replacement: Funds to replace failed inverter for solar array for Friends School
- Albuquerque Friends Meeting (Fellbaum Health Center Landscaping, Kaimosi, Kenya): Landscaping to divert rainwater at Fellbaum Community Health Center, Kaimosa, Kenya
- Kwibuka Yearly Meeting (Friends Church of Burundi): Tree Nursery for Reforestation Establish tree nursery to support reforestation efforts
- Newtown Square Friends Meeting (Pennsylvania): Wildflower Garden
2021
- Project Abundance at Ithaca Monthly Meeting (New York): Building raised beds for community food sharing.
- State College Monthly Meeting (Pennsylvania): Expanding the Keller St. Community Garden.
- West Chester Friends School (Pennsylvania): Acquiring the “Exploring Organisms with Literacy” set for 1st graders.
- New London Friends Meeting (Connecticut): Partially funding Chu Memorial & Meditation Garden using native landscaping.
2020
- New Garden Friends/Guilford College Environmental Justice Internship: New Garden Friends Meeting was awarded funds to match commitments from New Garden Friends Meeting, Guilford College, and North Carolina Interfaith Power and Light to support an internship for a young person of color focused on environmental justice issues during the spring college semester this year.
- Plymouth Pollinator Garden: Plymouth Monthly Meeting (Pennsylvania) was awarded funds to support a pollinator garden adjacent to the meeting house. This garden is also expected to engage youth from their Friends school.
- Princeton Friends School Greenhouse Project: Princeton Friends has been awarded funds for the purchase of materials to build a greenhouse in order to supplement their existing garden and expand their environmental education curriculum. This program is focused on deepening students’ “understanding of the symbiotic relationship between human behavior and natural resources, social justice, climate change, and environmental sustainability.” A greenhouse will enable them to expand this curriculum year-round, and also to expand their social outreach providing fresh produce to Arm-in-Arm, a local food bank.
2019
- Camp scholarships at Mountain Friends Camp, CO
- Butterfly garden in Fayetteville, AR 
- Trash pickup and education in St. Paul, MN
-  Solar panels at Monteverde Friends School
- Solar project at Durham (NC) Friends Meetinghouse
- Environmental education at Barclay College, KS
- Solar project in Philadelphia
2018
- Monteverde Friends School to restore their septic tanks for the teacher’s house and to build an emergency water system whose need became apparent after the tropical storm
- Falmouth (MA) Friends developed a Climate Calculator and distributed it
- Memphis (TN) Friends Meeting for landscaping with native plants and a garden
- Camp Woolman to develop and implement several earthcare lessons.
2017
- Bolivian Friends Int’l Bilingual Center, in La Paz Bolivia, received a grant to plant trees along a street in El Alto, near La Paz for beautification, shade and greening the area.
- Pro-Nica – Acahualt Women’s Center, in a poor neighborhood of Managua, Nicaragua received a grant to reprint and distribute family planning materials through the Women’s Center. We received a copy of the materials that were shared with the population committee.
- Eglise Evangelique de Amis au Rwanda, in Kigali, Rwanda, received a grant for for tree planting and seminar program for environmental protection.
- Whittier Monthly Meeting, in Springville, Iowa, received funds for the construction and installation of rain barrels for their pollinator garden.
- Burlington Friends Meeting, in Burlington Vermont, undertook a project at the Dzaleka Refugee Camp to create a Community Garden.
- Old Haverford Friends Meeting, in Haverford, PA, received funds to support a film project in Uganda, called “Struck by My Own Hands,” documents efforts a case study of post conflict challenges in northern Ugandan communities.
- Central Philadelphia Monthly Meeting received funds to support the work of a Friend named, O, in a project that facilitated spiritual support for their climate justice campaigns.
- Monteverde Friends Meeting, in Costa Rica, received funds toward their work of an emergency water system that became an apparent need after they lost water after the tropical storm.
2016
- Friends Theological College (through the Grinnell Friends Church in Iowa): The college in Kenya where Quaker pastors study has made a transition to solar power. We were very pleased to help the Grinnell Friends Church with this project.
- Childrens’ Pachamama Program, La Paz, Bolivia: We funded the start-up of a program designed and run by Bolivian Quakers for city children in La Paz. The program involved learning by doing, and field trips, connecting with the powerful Bolivian tradition of Pachamama, sometimes called the Earth Mother.
- Pro Nica: A clinic in Nicaragua run by Pro-Nica lost funding. We were able to help them reprint some excellent pamphlets on birth control.
- Rwanda Yearly Meeting: The YM undertook a major tree planting project in all 4 of its areas. We gave them important funding.
2015
- Grinnell Friends Church, Iowa: We helped the church create a pollinator garden at a crossroads in front of the church.
- Westtown Monthly Meeting, PA: Through the MM we provided funding for a student at Westtown School to go with classmates to Mexico to participate in a Quaker eco-leadership program.
- Quaker Oaks Farm Visalia, CA: We helped sponsor a workshop at the farm, taught by members of the Wukchumni Nation in the use of native plants.
- Pro-Nica,FL: A canal was proposed to go from the Atlantic to the Pacific in Nicaragua, putting native plants and animals at risk. We supported a flora/fauna survey, noting imperiled species along the canal routes.
- Dzaleka Friends Concern, through Burlington, VT MM: A group of African Quakers fleeing war at home are interned at the Dzaleka Refugee Camp in Malawi. They have begun a community garden to grow food to supplement what the UN provides, and to sell at the camp’s market places. We were able to help.
2014
- Indianapolis First Friends, Indianapolis IN: Money to fund a Water capture and filtration system for meeting property garden
- Miami Monthly Meeting, Miami, FL: Matching funds for a “divider / barrier / conflict reduction area” with native plant landscaping between public school and Bartram House
- Casa de los Amigos, Mexico City, Mexico: Funding for a rain harvesting and filtration system for the Casa, with ongoing community education and development of Casa full eco-vision
- Westtown Monthly Meeting, Westtown, PA: Funding to assist two Westtown Friends School students to attend an eco-leadership program in Mexico
- Milwaukee FM: Composting project
- Green Street MM, PA: Rainwater garden
- Sarasota FM: First Day School vegetable and flower garden
- Casa de los Amigos, Mex. City: Solar hot water heater
- Weare, MM, NH: Tree-planting project in Uganda.
- The African Great Lakes Initiative (AGLI): Tree-planting project in Rwanda
Quaker Earthcare Witness (QEW) is a spiritually-centered movement of Quakers and like-minded people seeking ways to integrate our concern for the environment with Friends’ long-standing testimonies for simplicity, integrity, peace, and equality.

The QEW Vision and Witness statement declares: “We are called to live in right relationship with all Creation, recognizing that the entire world is interconnected and a manifestation of God. We put these beliefs into practice by striving to be examples, communicating our message, and by providing spiritual and material support to those engaged in the compelling task of transforming our relationship to our planet toward sustainability and justice for the totality of life.”