Grants supporting local efforts help us meet our mission and tackle some of today’s most pressing challenges. We’re investing $1,050,000 million into efforts led by non-profits and community-based organizations addressing key issues such as access to land, warming waterways, and the lack of trees in low-income and historically red-lined neighborhoods.

See the list of PIC 2023 grantees here.

In May our Board of Directors approved funding for 24 grant proposals recommended by our 13-member Grant Review Committee for sustainable agriculture and community gardens, habitat restoration, water quality improvements, and job opportunities for youth in the green workforce. Organizations are addressing community disparities and advancing equity by creating benefits for underserved communities through project design, partnerships, and organizational practices.

This year’s committee reviewed 42 grant applications requesting nearly $1.9 million in funding. Learn more about the committee members here.

Since 2007 we’ve invested more than $11 million in 150+ Partners in Conservation grants to organizations that help advance our mission.

Visit this page for the full list of 2023 Partners in Conservation Grant projects.

East Multnomah Soil and Water Conservation District awarded 2022 Partners in Conservation (PIC) grants totaling $700,000 in new funding. The funds are awarded to 14 nonprofits, schools and local governments for fish and wildlife habitat enhancements, urban agriculture, community garden and conservation education projects in the EMSWCD service area (all of Multnomah County east of the Willamette River). Please see the list of the PIC 2022 grantees below.

Since it was created in 2007, the District has awarded $10 million to more than 130 organizations through the PIC grant program. Projects restore habitat for native fish, get kids outside to learn about and care for nature, give people opportunities to learn to garden and grow food close to home, and support more healthy, sustainable communities.

Board member Jim Carlson, who served on the Grant Review Committee this year, says, “as a new member of the Board of Directors, I learned a great deal about the diversity of programs and projects we fund through our Partners in Conservation Grant Program. These investments play an important role in helping us achieve our mission.”

Visit this page for the full list of 2022 PIC Grant projects!

To EMSWCD grantees, partners, and supporters: We know how deeply all of you have been affected this past year by the upheaval and uncertainty that surrounds us. Here at EMSWCD, we have continued to do our work the best we can and to look for ways to support our communities. Ironically, it is in these extraordinary times that we are presented with a rare opportunity to consider how we may want to do things differently, to move in a direction that responds to the weight of this historic moment.

In this vein, EMSWCD has decided to take a “strategic pause” for the 2021 Partners in Conservation (PIC) Grant cycle – suspending the competitive grant opportunity for one year. While we will forgo the normal application process for PIC 2021, EMSWCD is committed to supporting our grantees and partners through this challenging time, and we intend to do this by extending some current grants and offering non-competitive new grants for our regular grantees for the fiscal year 2021/22. We have developed our initial criteria for this continued funding (please see below). The SPACE grant program will continue to operate as usual.

During this time, our staff will have the opportunity to address many aspects of our grant funding program with an eye toward greater equity and more strategic funding. We plan to conduct an evaluation of EMSWCD’s grants program in light of changes in the context of our regional funding, to implement new DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) and other strategic initiatives, and to more fully engage with partners, grantees and other stakeholders about the future of our grants program. Read more →