2026
Grants

The San Antonio Youth Climate Council Project is a partnership between EcoRise, the City of San Antonio and the Wayne Hollomon Price Foundation that engages San Antonio youth in promoting the city’s ambitious Climate Action and Adaptation Plan (CAAP). Continued funding from WHPF allows this program to continue for a 7th year, which will include a new group of  25-30 students from grades 9–12, representing all council districts within the San Antonio area. The project engages San Antonio youth in promoting the city’s ambitious Climate Action and Adaptation Plan (CAAP). This grant will also include $40,000 for indirect operations for 2026 grant cycle, since Ecorise has successfully secured funding for the internship program for the next several years. Mayor Nirenberg’s tenure ended in May 2025, the new Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones has released a statement of support, but is expected to have less involvement than the previous Mayor. The program will continue it’s close work/relationship with the City of San Antonio’s Office of Sustainability.

The Animal Defense League of Texas is being granted $100,000 to expand lifesaving capacity at its main campus serving San Antonio and Bexar County by constructing new isolation and recovery facilities. The project will add 8,500 square feet of specialized space, create 84 additional kennels for both healthy and medically vulnerable animals, and increase medical treatment capacity by about 720 pets annually, ultimately saving an estimated 1,152 additional animals each year. Expected outcomes include reduced disease-related euthanasia, more than 1,000 additional annual adoptions, faster intake and placement, shorter shelter stays, and stronger regional response to the growing stray animal population.

In Texas, BCI owns and stewards Bracken Cave Preserve, home to the world’s largest colony of Mexican free-tailed bats Bracken’s 20 million bats support agriculture, reduce pesticide use, and maintain environmental balance across the region. For many years, the Wayne Hollomon Price Foundation (WHPF) has partnered with BCI to ensure this extraordinary natural system endures. This proposal is to continue protecting Bracken, while addressing a newly emerging conservation emergency affecting this same species across Texas. The grant will allow BCI to launch an urgent investigation into Mexican Free-tailed Bat population losses – Mexican free-tailed bat populations at several historically large maternity and migratory roosts—Devil’s Sinkhole, Rucker Cave, and Stuart Cave—have recently seen drastically declining populations. These colonies once numbered in the millions. Their sudden population drops raise an urgent red flag: the same species thrives at Bracken, yet its stability statewide is no longer assured. Understanding the drivers of these declines is essential to protecting Bracken and the broader ecosystem. Sudden crashes in several major roosts signal underlying threats such as extreme weather and climate instability, wind energy siting impacts, land-use change, shifts in pesticide application, and/or water quality degradation. Funds will be used for this research and investigation. Funds will also be used to support continued programming and education.

In addition, Bat Conservation International/Bracken Bat Cave is being given one of two first ever $50,000 WHPF Legacy Partnership Awards – in recognition of the work Bat Conservation International/Bracken Bat Cave and WHPF have done together over the years – in the words of our founder to “make the world a better place”. As well as to recognize the stellar stewardship and program effectiveness of the organization. This award is completely unsolicited and may be used by the organization in the best way they see fit – with the only stipulation being that it be used for and at Bracken Bat Cave! We’d also like to recognize and celebrate Fran Hutchinson’s dedication and selfless work to protect the cave and to spread the message of conservation and environmental protection to the youth of Texas. Congratulations! WHPF is very proud to present this award to Bat Conservation International/Bracken Bat Cave.

The Sea Turtle Inc. rehabilitates injured sea turtles, educates the public, and supports marine turtle conservation projects. Following a $235,000 HPF grant in 2022 that funded a new hospital and 400 sq. ft. research center completed in 2025, the organization experienced an unprecedented year, taking in roughly 20% more patients and supporting the largest recorded nesting season with 148 nests and over 13,000 eggs. A $25,000 grant from the Wayne Hollomon Price Foundation will help cover increased operational costs, including medicine, food, treatments, surgical care, vehicle maintenance, staff overtime, and daily patrols, ensuring continued high-quality care and conservation support.

In addition, Sea Turtle Inc. is being given one of two first ever $50,000 WHPF Legacy Partnershipship Awards – in recognition of the work Sea Turtle Inc and WHPF have done together over the years to in the words of our founder “make the world a better place”. As well as to recognize the stellar stewardship and program effectiveness of the organization. This award is completely unsolicited and may be used by the organization in the best way they see fit. Congratulations! WHPF is very proud to present this award to Sea Turtle Inc.

The Bee & Butterfly Habitat Fund (BBHF), founded in 2017, works to establish and protect high-quality pollinator habitat in response to widespread declines in native bees, monarch butterflies, and honeybees, primarily by improving access to nutritious habitat. Its flagship Solar Synergy Program integrates pollinator-friendly vegetation into utility-scale solar developments, linking renewable energy projects to measurable benefits such as pollinator health, increased honey production, carbon sequestration, soil regeneration, and long-term habitat monitoring in partnership with organizations like Monarch Joint Venture. With prior support from the Wayne Hollomon Price Foundation, the program has created thousands of acres of habitat, expanded beekeeper partnerships, and built national industry engagement. BBHF is being granted $50,000 to expand Solar Synergy in 2026 by launching a community-scale solar pilot program, increasing monitoring capacity, hiring a dedicated program manager, and strengthening seed supply infrastructure, with funds allocated primarily to staffing, pilot programming, travel, and equipment.

The Ocean Conservancy is expanding its global efforts to combat plastic pollution through research, cleanup programs, and policy development, building on past support from the Wayne Hollomon Price Foundation. Since launching its global coastal cleanup initiative in 1986, the organization has mobilized millions of volunteers worldwide to remove hundreds of millions of pounds of marine debris while collecting data used to analyze pollution sources. Recent foundation-supported research has produced new scientific models measuring wildlife mortality risks from plastic ingestion and led to development of a Wildlife Impact Calculator, expected to launch in 2026, which will estimate how cleanup efforts directly save marine animal lives. Future work will expand this research into a policy-focused Ocean Blueprint report recommending the most effective plastic reduction and management strategies, while integrating findings into digital cleanup tracking tools to help governments, advocates, and volunteers better understand and increase conservation impact.

The Bioneers Young Leaders Program prepares youth for national and global environmental leadership by providing conferences, year-round training, and specialized pathways such as the Native Youth Leadership Program, helping participants drive projects like river cleanups, food justice initiatives, and environmental policy advocacy. With support from the Wayne Hollomon Price Foundation, funding will support staff, youth-led gatherings, curriculum development, and delivery of virtual and in-person learning through its education platform. Planned outcomes include program expansion to more youth, facilitators, and Tribal communities; new courses on Tribal sovereignty and youth environmental leadership; Rights of Nature policy proposals in Hawaiʻi developed with collaboration from the Earth Law Center; and a Rights of Nature youth gathering hosted with the Ho-Chunk Nation in Wisconsin.

The Gunung Palung Orangutan Conservation Program is being funded $40,000 to support to expand successful community-based conservation and forest protection efforts in and around Gunung Palung National Park in West Kalimantan, Indonesia, building on prior funding from the Wayne Hollomon Price Foundation. The 2026 initiative focuses on strengthening governance and patrol capacity in newly established Village Forests, expanding technology-based monitoring (including camera traps, bioacoustic sensors, weather tools, and thermal drones for fire detection and orangutan monitoring), and increasing women’s participation in conservation and sustainable livelihoods through education groups and skills training. Together, these efforts aim to reduce illegal forest activity and fires, improve biodiversity monitoring, support community resilience, and ensure long-term protection of critical orangutan habitat.

The Sheldrick Wildlife Trust is receiving a $40,000 grant from the Wayne Hollomon Price Foundation to support the Chyulu Mobile De-Snaring Unit, which deploys six-ranger anti-poaching teams across key ecosystems in Kenya. These teams protect wildlife across the greater Tsavo Conservation Area—the country’s largest national park landscape and a major elephant stronghold—as well as additional critical habitats including Meru National Park, Mau Forest, Arabuko Sokoke Forest, and Shimba Hills. The program conducts round-the-clock operations to combat bushmeat poaching, ivory and rhino horn trafficking, illegal logging, charcoal production, and human-wildlife conflict. Continued operations have contributed to elephant population recovery in Tsavo, increasing from 14,964 individuals in 2021 to about 17,226 today, supported by extensive patrol coverage, large-scale snare removal, and hundreds of wildlife crime arrests.

The Grevy’s Zebra Ambassador Program ($15,000) works across communities in the Turkana and Samburu areas, particularly the El Barta Plains and Wamba in Kenya, employing local community members—including those from families that historically hunted wildlife—to monitor zebra populations, prevent poaching, and strengthen community-led conservation. Through daily patrols using GPS and SMART data tools, coordinated communication networks with the Kenya Wildlife Service and conservation partners, and extensive community engagement, the program supports wildlife protection, emergency response, and conservation education. Grant funding supports staff, training, equipment, and outreach, with expected 2026 outcomes including documenting thousands of zebra sightings, responding to wildlife emergencies, contributing data to the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List, expanding community participation in conservation, and tracking continued population recovery trends following reduced poaching and increased local stewardship since the program began in 2007.

The Niassa Lion Project ($25,000) works to protect lions and other carnivores in the Niassa Special Reserve in Mozambique, a globally important stronghold supporting roughly 800–1,000 lions but facing major threats including poaching for body parts, accidental snaring, retaliatory killing, habitat loss, and disease from domestic animals. With prior support from the Wayne Hollomon Price Foundation, the program combines anti-poaching patrols, vaccination efforts, community education, and livelihood support to reduce human-wildlife conflict. New funding will specifically support the Niassa Carnivore Project employment initiative in Mbamba Village, providing 18,000 annual workdays to more than 300 households (about 1,750 people), with at least half of positions reserved for women, while building skills, improving food security, strengthening local support for conservation, and creating a scalable model for equitable, community-based conservation employment.

The Catalina Island Conservancy is receiving a $20,000 grant from the Wayne Hollomon Price Foundation to fund its 2026 Catalina Island Fox Monitoring Program, which protects the native fox population on Catalina Island—home to the island’s only endemic mammal and largest native land predator. After a canine distemper outbreak nearly wiped out the population in 1999, recovery efforts helped the species rebound, leading the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to reclassify it from endangered to threatened by 2016. Because the fox remains conservation reliant, the program continues annual monitoring, vaccination, health assessments, radio tracking, and population surveys across the Channel Islands, with the goal of maintaining or increasing the current population of about 1,974 foxes while supporting biologists, interns, and essential field supplies.

A $5,000 grant from the Wayne Hollomon Price Foundation will support the purchase of a dedicated transport van for the San Antonio Feral Cat Coalition’s humane TNR (trap-neuter-return) operations across Bexar County. The van will enable safe transport of community cats for spay/neuter and vaccinations, return them to their original locations, and assist residents who cannot trap or transport cats themselves due to physical limitations or lack of transportation. It will also support the Cat Crisis Fund by transporting sick or injured cats to veterinary care and make large-scale, coordinated mass-trapping projects feasible, improving both efficiency and outcomes for colony management.