In 1993, RAN established the Protect-an-Acre Fund (PAA) to protect the world’s rainforests and the rights of their inhabitants through financial aid to traditionally under-funded organizations and communities in rainforest regions. Planned and implemented by and with forest communities, projects support local self-sufficiency while strengthening the rights and livelihood of forest communities through maintaining the ecological balance of their surrounding ecosystem.
Grants fit four basic categories:
- Demarcation of indigenous territories and creation of extractive and biological reserves.
- Local resistance to destructive development activities such as logging and oil extraction.
- Environmentally and socially sound alternative development projects.
- Community organizing and education.
PAA does not support individual, governmental, or exclusively academic projects. Grants generally do not exceed $5,000. Certain components of projects with larger budgets can be funded when those components significantly contribute to the project’s final outcome. Projects that fit the funding criteria will be financed in accordance with their urgency and the availability of funds.
If you believe your project fits our criteria for funding, send us your proposal (no more than six pages) accompanied by a cover letter. The proposal should include the following information:
- Organization’s name, address, phone/fax, email (if available) and a contact person for the organization and project
- History of organization and its mission
- Description of the current situation facing the involved communities and the region’s rainforests
- Briefly describe the specific activities and strategies that a grant from PAA would help to make possible and the expected results
- Organization’s annual budget and the project’s budget
- Tax-exempt status (documentation of the organization’s status as a non-profit equivalent organization – if the applicant group is not a registered non-profit organization, it must be represented or fiscally sponsored by one that is – this is for RAN’s own legal obligations)
Please send your proposal to:
Rainforest Action Network
Protect-an-Acre Program
221 Pine Street, 5th floor
San Francisco, CA 94104
