The Long Island Sound Funders Collaborative has granted $377,250 in 2020 to nine nonprofits through its Long Island Sound Stewardship Fund at the Long Island Community Foundation
Melville, NY (December 29, 2020) –$377,250 has been awarded to nine nonprofits working to restore and protect the health and living resources of Long Island Sound.
The Long Island Sound Funders Collaborative is a group of funders with missions that include the protection and restoration Long Island Sound. Since its inception, the Collaborative has worked together to educate the public about the myriad issues facing the Sound and about possible solutions. The Long Island Sound Stewardship Fund (LISSF) is an inaugural effort to pool investments and expand the Collaborative’s grantmaking. They support projects that address pressing challenges and provide for a healthy, productive, and resilient Sound now and into the future. The LISSF is administered by the Long Island Community Foundation (LICF). These grants would not be made possible without the generous support from the foundations of the Collaborative. They are: Community Foundation of Eastern Connecticut, Community Foundation of Middlesex County, The Eder Family Foundation, Inc., Fairfield County’s Community Foundation, The Fred I and Gilda Nobel Foundation, Inc., Jeniam Foundation, Lily Auchincloss Foundation, Inc., Long Island Community Foundation, McCance Foundation, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, New York Community Trust, New York Community Bank, Pamela and Richard Rubinstein Foundation, Rauch Foundation, Ms. Wendy W. Roberts, and Westchester Community Foundation.
This is the Fund’s second set of grants, which brings the total funding from this collaborative to $693,250. The grantees, grant amounts, and purposes are listed below.
Chesapeake Commons, $59,000 to advance database and data visualization tools and strategies used by citizen scientists and others monitoring the waters and natural resources of the Long Island Sound.
Citizens Campaign for the Environment, $16,500 to upgrade office server and computers to improve organizational effectiveness.
Connecticut Fund for the Environment, $66,500 to create a standardized data storage and data visualization strategy in collaboration with local Long Island Sound embayment organizations.
Guardians of Flushing Bay, $50,000 for a proof of concept engineering design of a non-infiltrating bioswale in the Flushing Creek watershed.
Henry Ferguson Museum, $19,250 to support water quality data collection and analysis that will be used to develop a seagrass management plan for Fishers Island.
Nature Conservancy, Connecticut Chapter, $69,000 to advance database and data visualization tools and strategies addressing pollution in the Long Island Sound.
Save the Sound, $50,000 to engage young residents in the restoration of polluted streams and rivers in two environmental justice communities.
Sea Research Foundation, $37,000 to pilot two campaigns aimed at changing human behavior and reducing marine debris entering local watersheds.
Solar Youth, $10,000 to educate low-income youth on the importance of watersheds and engage in a community services project that protects local river habitats.
The Long Island Sound Stewardship Fund (LISSF) at the Long Island Community Foundation was established in 2018 to support projects that address pressing challenges and provide for a healthy, productive, and resilient Sound now and into the future. The fund promotes a sustainable Sound by providing opportunities for funders who care about this natural resource to work together around a common mission to make a positive impact on its ecological health; support programs and projects that align with the federal Long Island Sound Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan 2015; help nonprofits working to restore the health and living resources of the Sound achieve conservation outcomes in a more effective and collaborative way; and support capacity building efforts that strengthen nonprofits working to protect the Sound.