2025
Grants

The Mayor’s Youth Engagement Council for Climate Initiatives (MYECCI) Project is a partnership between EcoRise, the City of San Antonio and the Hollomon-Price Foundation that engages San Antonio youth in promoting the city’s ambitious Climate Action and Adaptation Plan (CAAP). Continued funding from the Hollomon Price Foundation allows this program to continue for a 6th year, which will include a new group of 25-30 students from grades 9–12, representing all council districts within the San Antonio area. This grant the will fund another year of the MYECCI paid internship opportunities for 6 Youth Council members from the MYECCI Year 6 cadre. This program helps historically underrepresented students realize their power and potential to thrive in the green jobs market. Students have access to real-life experiences that are well compensated, setting them on the path to life-transforming career opportunities. Through problem-based lessons and real-world practice, students in the program participate in diverse experiences within green building. Mayor Nirenberg’s tenure ends in May 2025 and it is uncertain as to if the new Mayor will embrace this project – however, Ecorise has that this program will continue (though the name may change) and will continue it’s close work/relationship with the City of San Antonio’s Office of Sustainability. This final year of funding for this project will allow Ecorise to adapt to the new mayor, as well as raise funds for the continuation of this work beyond year 6.

Gunung Palung Orangutan Conservation Program's (GPOCP’s) mission is to conserve a vital Orangutan population through human community empowerment and forest conservation in and around Gunung Palung National Park (GPNP) in West Kalimantan, Indonesia. This grant will help with objectives in ensuring forests are protected through our Village Forest and Environmental Education Programs. Specifically, funds will be used to facilitate the establishment of a tenth Village Forest and increase the protection of Village Forests from illegal activity through the installation of boundary markers. This will also increase the ability to utilize data collected in Village Forests through passive monitoring stations so that it can be compared to data from inside the national park, with different types of degradation and legal protection, providing a better understanding of how orangutans and other biodiversity respond to this variation. Finally, the grant will help facilitate a culture of conservation in Village Forests through a new women’s empowerment initiative, the Kumbang Desa Education Group. This group consists of women whose formal education ended prematurely due to financial or social circumstances. This group provides educational opportunities, skill building activities, and social support for women who will become better prepared to cope with the economic and ecological challenges posed by forest loss and climate change.

Grevy’s Zebra Trust Scout Program ($15,000): Funding is to maintain a team of local scouts who are crucial to GZT’s conservation efforts. The scouts, recruited from communities coexisting with Grevy’s zebras, collect vital data on zebra populations, habitats, and threats. They also conduct community outreach to promote human-wildlife coexistence. The majority of scouts are women, and many of these women are widows or single mothers. Thanks to the income they receive through the Scout program, they can provide food, medical care and education for their children.

Niassa Lion Project ($15,000): These funds will be used for continued support of: a) renewal of support for the anti-poaching rangers (supported by HPF in prior years), b) renewal of support for NLP’s Conservation Manager Anthony Chabana and his aerial monitoring patrols (supported by HPF the past couple of years).

MareCet ($5,000): These funds will be used to support a new WCN partner, MareCet. They are the first and only Malaysian non-profit organization that is dedicated to the research and conservation of marine mammals locally, including the endangered Irrawaddy dolphin, dugong, and Bryde’s whales. High priority funding needs for them currently, which this grant will support, include salary support for their research assistants and local staff, as well as some equipment needs (camera and telephoto lenses (x 1), water parameter meter (x 1), drones (x 2) and GoPro cameras (x 2).

This grant will help Shelburne Farms fund the first of a series of Marshall Webb Climate Action Conversations and convenings to inspire hope and climate action locally, nationally, and globally. These talks and gatherings will be held at the newly rehabilitated Shelburne Farms Coach Barn convening center. This program is an important part of launching Phase 2 of Shelburne Farms’ work to achieve Net Zero by 2028 and advance climate action through education for sustainability. The first pilot climate action conversation program will be offered in the fall of 2025.

The mission of Sea Turtle Inc. is to rehabilitate injured sea turtles for return to the wild, educate the public about sea turtles and their marine environment, and assist with sea turtle conservation projects for all marine turtle species. In 2022 HPF granted funds of $235,000 for a new hospital facility that will include a research center which will be a fully dedicated 400 sq ft facility on the 2nd floor of the new Sea Turtle Inc. which is scheduled for completion in March 2025. Sea Turtle Inc is near completion of the largest fully enclosed sea turtle hospital in the world, opening March 2025. As part of this construction, there will be 15,000 sq ft of research and development, education and rehabilitation space. This funding will help Sea Turtle, Inc. prepare to work and execute the mission in this space. This includes desks for 5 offices, field trip education space for children, intern and research housing to include beds, sheets and kitchen wares, as well as furnishings to housing 7 full time interns during nesting season that will require beds, dressers and bedding as well as housing for researchers that are conducting research in the Wayne Hollomon Price Research Center at Sea Turtle Inc. Having funding dedicated to furnishing this new hospital allows Sea Turtle, Inc. to hit the ground running to make a worldwide impact on conservation.

This grant will support the Yale Center for Environmental Justice’s AI initiative, Ask EJ, which will revolutionize how communities advocate for their environmental rights. By providing grassroots and large-scale organizations with the tools to respond quickly to environmental harm and harmful regulatory changes, Ask EJ ensures vulnerable populations have the resources they need to fight back. This grant will serve as a challenge grant, allowing us to build a robust demo and position the project for further funding. The medium-term plan is to build a platform with potentially global reach, and, with a strong prototype in place, we anticipate attracting additional foundation and internal funding to sustain and scale the platform. The early investment from the Wayne Holloman Price Foundation will play a pivotal role in enabling this transformative initiative.

This grant will support the construction of four enclosures to share some of the mammals that are native to the southwest deserts . Currently, there is one coatimundi, one bobcat, one ringtail, and a few squirrels in artificial habitats on display for education purposes. In the past several years, there has also been opossums, skunks, javelina, foxes, deer and other mammal species. The goal is always the release of these animals back into their natural environment in the wild, but there are often situations where the animal cannot survive on its own in the wild. These animals are added to our education permits and many of them become an Animal Ambassador – with their new role in life is to allow the general public to visit them up close and see the beauty and value of their species.

The Salt River Wild Horse Management Group (SRWHMG) is an Arizona-based non-profit organization dedicated to the protection and humane management of Salt River wild horses and all wild horses everywhere. The goal is to continue protecting and managing the herd by providing everything in relation to the humane management of the Salt River wild horses along the lower Salt River in the Tonto National Forest. Funds from this grant will be used for supplemental food needed because of the current draught in that area. This funding supports the organization’s crucial need continue to feed the Salt River wild horses in their designated feed stations along the river and the mountains, due to a lack of green grass.

This grant to Blue Alliance will help to pay a coordinator’s salary for the expansion of the Palawan MPA network. As of today, Blue Alliance’s local sister entity,  Blue Alliance Philippines, manages 600,000 ha of MPAs and fishing grounds on behalf of local governments. The organization’s day-to-day activities focus on – compliance, conservation, and community development, as well as three blue economy reef-positive businesses, contribute to regenerating threatened coral reef biodiversity and enhancing the food security and livelihoods of more than 14,000 coastal fisher households.

This grant to the Environmental Film Festival in the Nation’s Capital (DCEFFi) is to support a public presentation of the documentary film Chasing Time, directed by Jeff Orlowski and Sarah Keo, featuring the work of James Balog and the Extreme Ice Survey Project. The 33rd Annual Environmental Film Festival in the Nation’s Capital will take place March 20-29, 2025, in venues throughout Washington, D.C. This grant will help in producing a film screening and subsequent post-screening panel discussion centering mentor and mentee pairs of climate professionals and other activists and storytellers. Funding for this co-presentation brings in the Chasing Time filmmaking team, 2 including subject James Balog, filmmakers Jeff Orlowski-Yang, and Sarah Keo.

The Sea Turtle Conservation Program, overseen by Pronatura Península de Yucatán, boasts a distinguished track record spanning over 30 years, with a primary objective to restore sea turtle populations in the Yucatán Peninsula and the Caribbean through the protection of key nesting and feeding sites within this region. The program manages three turtle conservation camps on the peninsula: Celestún and El Cuyo in Yucatán, and Holbox Island in Quintana Roo. Each year, these three camps protect and conserve 79 km of hawksbill (Eretmochelys imbricata) and green turtle (Chelonia mydas) high-density nesting beaches between April and October. Each season, nests are counted and marked in chronological order using stakes. GPS coordinates and beach profile positions were recorded and logged on data sheets. The time and date of nest discovery are noted to estimate the expected hatching date. The main threats Pronatura addresses are predation of females and their nests, and nest loss due to erosion or inundation. Fortunately, as a result of constant surveillance on these three beaches, poaching has remained low over the past 5 years. Unplanned coastal development is another threat that we address with environmental education to create awareness and promote the conservation of coastal dunes, and a more sustainable tourism, including good practices such as reduction of plastic waste and minimize light pollution on the beach during the nesting season. With the freezing of federal funds, ProNatura Peninsula de Yucatan lost $35,000 dollars allocated to the activities mentioned above. The organization was able to cover $20,000 thanks to a new donor, this $10,000 donation will cover most of the remaining project needs including salaries for project staff working on these beaches. Those funds will cover the salary for 2.5 field technicians for 6 months ($4,000 per season each).

Teo Paws is an American organization that funds work around the pyramids of Teotihuacan Mexico (outside of Mexico City) to help rescue, spay/neuter, rehabilitate, and adopt out homeless (mostly injured) dogs that are roaming the streets. With the help of a local Veterinary Clinic’s and Dog rescues partner with, TP has helped all of them get back to health or a full recovery, so that they can be adopted and have a new opportunity for a better life. The program is partnered with a dog rescue organization in Mexico called Xollin (Refugio Xollin) for over a 2 years now. This organization is working only with public donations and has over 300 dogs in the rescue program. The intention of this grant is to assist Teo Paws in their mission is to help supply the refuge with medical supplies, food, and shelter – as well as support the shelter’s adoptions, medical needs and spay/neuter programs.

This grant will focus on supporting one of the community subsidy clinics, the San Antonio Humane Society (SAHS) to provide spay/neuter assistance. SAHS provides the most generous subsidy plan, so the grant amount will help more cats. They accept ten feral cats per day, Monday through Friday.

Winter in Georgia brings significant seasonal changes to the elephants’ environment. The natural growing season has ended, grass is dormant, and trees have shed their leaves. This seasonal shift greatly reduces the availability of natural forage, making supplemental feeding essential to maintain the elephants’ health and well-being. Timothy hay forms the foundation of their winter diet, providing the dietary fiber necessary for proper digestion. Hay substitutes the fresh grasses available during warmer months and helps keep their digestive systems functioning well. To meet their nutritional needs, Mazuri feed is also provided, in addition, fresh produce such as carrots, apples, and bananas supplies essential vitamins and minerals that may be lacking during the winter months. Together, these supplemental foods ensure that Bo, Tarra, and Mundi remain healthy, strong, and active throughout the season. Adequate nutrition supports the elephants’ ability to engage in natural behaviors like foraging, walking, and exploring their habitat. Maintaining these activities is vital for their physical health and psychological well-being, helping them live as closely as possible to how they would in the wild.