Cottonwood awards $23,000 in grants in fall 2003

Thanks to your support, Cottonwood Foundation has awarded 23 grants of $1,000 each to grassroots organizations worldwide that are working for a sustainable future. These grant recipients were selected from 228 applications in a very competitive process.

This brings the total grants awarded in 2003 by Cottonwood Foundation to $41,000, a new record! Cottonwood Foundation’s grants committee and board have worked hard to identify and fund those organizations where your contributions will make a significant difference.

Following is a listing of the 23 $1,000 grants awarded this fall: (Please note that organizations followed by “USA/[another country]” are based in the United States, but were funded for a specific project in another country.)

• African Blackwood Conservation Project, USA/Tanzania – to construct a small building in Tanzania in a nursery for the endangered mpingo tree to be used for storing equipment and to provide shelter for volunteers.
  
• Center for Ecosystem Survival, USA/Costa Rica – to purchase critically needed acres to complete the acquisition of the Rincon Rainforest into the Guanacaste Conservation Area in Costa Rica.
  
• Center for People’s Agricultural Plan for the 21st Century, Philippines – to construct a children’s learning center in the village of Mercedes, purchase environmental books and educational materials, train four volunteer para-teachers, and for a child feeding program.
  
• Centre for Indian Knowledge Systems, India – to assist farmers in Sukkankollai, Tamil Nadu to make, use and sell organic plant-based biopesticides by building a workshop, purchasing vessels for biopesticide preparation, and buying a grinder and gas stove.
  
• Cultural Survival - Wangurri Garden Project, USA/Australia – to build a shed for training materials and tools for this Aborigine community garden, and to set up a more efficient method of supplying water to the site using a water pump and hose.
  
• Entebbe District Wildlife Association, Uganda – to purchase stones, bricks, pipes, clay, metallic bars and fuel to construct energy saving stoves for 20 schools and 35 households in Entebbe.
  
• ETAPAS, Mexico – to help build a needed community water system for the indigenous Tzeltal community of Nueva Tierra Negra located on the outskirts of the Lacondón Rainforest in Chiapas.
  
• Friends Service Council, Nepal – to complete a community building, including purchasing cement for ceiling and wall plaster, stone for floor concrete, sand for plaster for the floor and ceiling, installations of doors and windows, electric wiring, and paint.
  
• Goriber Asroy, Bangladesh – for a water pipeline to supply critically needed arsenic-free water to the 528 households of Jattrapur village.
  
• Institute for Transportation and Development Policy, USA/South Africa – to help mobilize at least 25 volunteer HIV/AIDS outreach workers in South Africa, train them in bicycle operation and maintenance, and supply them with good-quality bicycles.
  
• Jeevan Rekha Parishad, India – to provide tribal people with vocational training in banana and papaya cultivation and commercial kitchen gardening, including supplying seeds and saplings, purchasing a diesel pump, and establishing a nursery.
  
• Juvenile Education and Awareness Project, USA/Guatemala – to purchase building materials for construction of an elementary school to serve 150 Mayan children in Chajul, Guatemala, including concrete blocks, metal roofing, nails, and wood.
  
• Maasai Heritage Preservation Foundation, USA/Kenya – to install two water tanks to provide needed access to clean water for the Maasai Mara people living in Talek, Kenya - one for the daycare center and the other for Talek Clinic.
  
• Monarch Butterfly Sanctuary Foundation, USA/Mexico – to support the NGO Alternare in Mexico in its work to train campesino families to improve their standard of living while protecting the forest ecosystem of the Monarch Butterfly Reserve.
  
• Nabichakha Women Group, Kenya – to set up nutrition gardens for growing vegetables and other crops for subsistence food and to provide income, including purchase of vegetable seeds, watering cans, hoses, tools, and training in nutrition gardening.
  
• Palawan Conservation Corps, Philippines – to construct a biogas plant for a youth dormitory which will provide gas for cooking purposes, and to build additional pig pens which will supply manure for biogas, fertilizer and offspring to be distributed to youth.
  
• PermaLot, Czech Republic – to help pay for this grassroots organization’s community water system including a water-well powered by a solar pump.
  
• Planet Drum Foundation, USA/Ecuador – for a revegetation project on the eroded hillsides of Bahia de Caraquez, including expanding a greenhouse, purchasing hoes and a wind-up reel for watering, wages for tree-planters, and purchase of fencing materials.
  
• Porters’ Progress, USA/Nepal – to run daily English language classes and weekly Empowerment Meetings for porters in Lukla, Nepal, pay for one staff working 1/3rd time, and to contribute towards rent and general office operating expenses.
  
• Project Mercy, USA/Mexico – to construct basic homes built of used garage doors for those in immediate and emergency need of housing in the outlying neighborhoods of Tijuana.
  
• Rainforest Information Centre, Australia/Philippines – for a rainforest protection project in the Philippines, including raising and distributing seedlings to help surround and protect virgin forest and training Higaonon tribal members in permaculture and building.
  
• Red Cliff Land Recovery Project, USA – to support land acquisition by a Native American tribal organization on the Red Cliff Reservation in northern Wisconsin.
  
• Sanchuan Development Association, China – for general operational expenditures for a Chinese nonprofit organization working to promote equitable and sustainable development.
  

Board members speak out

What is Cottonwood Foundation?

Cottonwood Foundation is a tax-exempt charitable organization, run entirely by volunteers and with no paid staff, that provides small grants to grassroots organizations worldwide that are working for a sustainable future. Since it was started in 1992, it has awarded 267 grants totaling over $234,000. Eleven members currently serve on Cottonwood Foundation’s board of directors.

Giving Criteria
Cottonwood awards grants to organizations that combine all of the following: protecting the environment, promoting cultural diversity, empowering people to meet their basic needs, and relying on volunteers. Support of such groups makes it possible to really make a difference in creating a better world.

Cottonwood Foundation is proud that more than 90 percent of its expenditures go directly for grants. Less than 10 percent of all expenses are used to cover administration (such as postage, printing, supplies and postal box rental). The Foundation relies on donations of space, graphic design, computers, telephone, fax, and hundreds of hours of volunteer labor to operate!

Board of Directors
Karen Grabau, Secretary
Lucinda Pepper
Sarah Hannigan
Paul Schmiechen
Karissa Huntington
Laura Van Tassel
Jan Lucke
Jeff Washburne, Chair
Craig R. Miller, Vice Chair
Paul Moss, Executive Director
Suzanne Wisniewski,Treasurer

Give your support to Cottonwood Foundation!

Your much appreciated contribution can be allocated to one or more funds:

General Fund: Supports all aspects of the Foundation’s charitable activities and administration

Endowment Fund: A permanent fund providing the Foundation with investment income

Land Fund: Supports grants to indigenous peoples’ organizations for repurchasing their land base in order to preserve their culture and environment

Please send contributions made out to "Cottonwood Foundation" to Cottonwood Foundation, Box 10803, White Bear Lake, MN 55110 Phone: (651) 426-8797, Fax: (651) 426-0320

E-mail: cottonwood@igc.org

Thank you! Your contribution is tax-deductible as allowed by law.

In their own words

The following are some representative excerpts of some of the grant reports recently received by Cottonwood Foundation. These help to demonstrate how your contributions to Cottonwood Foundation are making a difference!

“During the past year, Benton Furniture Share distributed an average of 120 items per month to low-income households, or to non-profit agencies. The furniture was valued at well over $100,000 per year. We accomplished this on a budget of about $40,000. Cottonwood Foundation’s contribution assured the delivery of nearly 40 items of furniture to the most needy in the county and provided an important piece of our ongoing funding picture. Our thanks to the Foundation for its support.”
— Benton Furniture Share, Oregon, USA

"First I, on behalf of HEARDS & Narigapalli village people, convey my sincere thanks and gratitude to you for your heartiest cooperation and help in our Community Drinking Water Programme. With the implementation of Community Drinking Water Programme in Narigapalli village the people are able to fetch water from pipes which is free from all kinds of pollution and becomes safe for consuming. Water drawn from pipes are expected to be clean which frees them from contagious diseases and saves the time and energy of vulnerable in walking a mile to get good water. The people of the target villages are very happy to utilize the water. The beneficiaries had been trying, since 25 years to get a water source and to build a water tank. After drilling the bore well and construction of the ground level water tank the beneficiaries dream has been fulfilled. We are glad to work together with you in a spirit of partnership and we are hopeful to have continuous support with your agency in future also. Thanking all of you at Cottonwood Foundation once again.”
— Health Education Adoption Rehabilitation Development Society (HEARDS), India

“Greetings of Peace from the province of Kalinga, Philippines! First, I would like to thank you so much for your generous donation of $1000 U.S. which is being use to help our Indigenous peoples in their educational and health needs. Although, we initially requested for educational purposes but we had to use some amount for health needs to save lives of affected children by cholera and dysentery epidemic plus so many skin infections. There is still amount left that we can use to buy chalks and blackboards for one elementary school, remotely located 8-12 hours hike from the road. The community members requested for such. Thank you for partnering with us in our small effort to make this world safer and better place for our Indigenous indigent youth and other children.”
— International Association for Transformation, Canada/Philippines

Cottonwood Foundation Contributors Update
Laurie Gustafson, Editor

Paul Moss, Executive Director