Grant Making


The Bradley Fund for the Environment

The Bradley Fund for the Environment is a partnership between Sand County Foundation and the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation. The partnership allows the Bradley Foundation to express its values and ideals in the environmental arena while avoiding the need to build internal staff capacity to administer and report on those grants

The Fund is intended to foster ethically sound and science-based environmental programs that are leading edge solutions to major problems. Proposals that emphasize private responsibility, create sustaining partnerships and integrate habitat improvement with human considerations are solicited by Sand County Foundation on behalf of the Bradley Foundation.

Sand County Foundation applies the expertise to choose important projects carried out by trustworthy partners. The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation provides the money that first created, and now, sustains the fund.

Over the past several years, the Bradley Fund for the Environment/Sand County Foundation partnership has been instrumental in advancing conservation efforts across the globe through the use of ethical and scientifically sound land management practices and partnerships. This innovative partnering of financial resources with conservation expertise is critical for the benefit of people and the ecological landscape.

The Bradley Fund for the Environment serves as a useful model, bringing together likeminded investors in the service of conservation. Sand County Foundation is looking to partner with other investors as well.

SCF POLICY ON INDIRECT/OVERHEAD COSTS

 
SUCCESS STORIES

Developing Water's Potential as a Forest Value Stream

The Chicago Water Convening, which was partially funded by the Bradley Fund for the Environment, brought together 57 public and private donors and invited experts to develop water's potential as a forest value stream or "crop". Many forested watersheds are threatened by degradation or development resulting from economic challenges associated with the forest products industry. If water consumers can begin to pay modest fees to the landowners, this is often enough to ensure permanent protection and sound management of the land to protect or enhance water resources. This summary report outlines the key findings of the convening and describes areas of opportunity for future success.

Bradley Fund for the Environment grantee restoring sturgeon to the Milwaukee River

Riveredge Nature Center, a Bradley Fund for the Environment grantee, is working to return sturgeon to the Milwaukee River, which they have not inhabited since 1853.

Bradley Fund for the Environment sponsored study details wildlife management challenges in Tanzania

This study, primarily funded by Sand County Foundation's Bradley Fund for the Environment, found that the devolution of wildlife management to a system of Community Wildlife Management (CWM) in Tanzania is in need of new institutional models. The report examines how CWM needs to be approached as part of a broader social process of building local rights and access to resources through institutional reforms, rather than as a project-based or technical assistance strategy with short time horizons. It also provides suggestions for how practitioners in Tanzania and elsewhere might foster more effective and adaptive CWM approaches in light of these outcomes and experiences.  

Swift fox reintroduction study

A study conducted by David E. Ausband and Kerry R. Foresman of the University of Montana demonstrates the success of the swift fox reintroduction on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in Montana. The reintroduction was begun with a grant from Sand County Foundation's Bradley Fund for the Environment.

Tanzanian Parliamentary Exchange

Sand County Foundation’s Bradley Fund for the Environment, along with the Sigrid Reusing Trust and Norwegian People’s Aid, sponsored a successful exchange program, which involved 10 members of the Republic of Tanzania Parliamentary Natural Resource and Environment Committee visiting community conservancies in Kunene, Namibia from November 20 – 28, 2006.

New Zealand Fisheries Exchange

Sand County Foundation;s Bradley Fund for the Environment, along with California Sea Grant, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, and the Alex C. Walker Foundation, sponsored a seven-day tour of New Zealand's fisheries quota management system.


The Bradley Fund for the Environment played a significant role in helping West Lunga Trust secure a four year $75,000 grant from the Norwegian Development Fund to help local communities in northwest Zambia improve their management of natural resources.