Established in 1984, the Conservation Grants Fund (previously called the Conservation Endowment Fund, or CEF) supports the cooperative conservation-related scientific and educational initiatives of AZA and AZA-accredited zoos and aquariums and their collaborators.
CGF grants are awarded in six categories:
Previous awardees can be seen at https://www.aza.org/cgf-awards.
CGF does not fund the following: Tuition, university fees, or fringe benefits associated with graduate students or other project personnel; administrative costs (including institutional overhead and submission costs for the publication of journal articles); travel unrelated to completion of the project (conference presentation expenses, travel to meetings, etc.); planning meetings that define, rather than implement, conservation/management/education goals.
CGF does not fund salaries for project personnel other than graduate students, technicians, and start-up positions established solely for the purpose of completion of the project.
Eligible applicants include:
Applications were due March 29, 2024. Similar deadlines are anticipated annually. Next application cycle is expected to open in January 2025.
Annual disbursement amounts are determined by the AZA Board. Selections are made on the basis of a competitive review and approximately one-quarter of the proposals received every year are funded. The average project award is approximately $18,000.
All CGF projects must be completed within 12 months. CGF grants are intended to serve as seed money to attract additional funding and proposals should requests funds only for this one period year.
Identical components of a project of a project will not be funded for more than two grant cycles; however, funding requests for different components of the same project may be applied for in subsequent grant cycles.