Grants

Grants Received in 2020

Thank you to our grantors for supporting these new projects and programs.

  • Barrington Area Community Foundation – a grant to create a commemorative booklet in celebration of CFC’s 50th Anniversary in 2021.
  • South Barrington Garden Club – donated funds to start a “grow contract ” with a native plant nursery to germinate rare seeds from CFC properties and grow plugs for us to plant next year. These are very important native plants that do not reseed readily as they must compete with other plants in the prairie.
  • The Garden Club of Barrington – gave CFC a grant to plant native landscape plants around our property identification signs, where now the tall prairie plants obscure the signs.
  • The Barrington Junior Women’s Club – again donated funds to support our Youth Ed programs.
  • The Oberweiler Foundation – again supported our college intern program. The 2020 summer interns are four highly qualified young people who are majoring in some aspect of environmental science. They gain valuable field experience while contributing to CFC’s restoration work.
  • The Illinois Nature Conservancy provided a COVID-19 Relief fund grant for installation of an exterior cleaning station and other protection supplies for CFC’s summer interns. The Illinois Nature Conservancy also provided funds for two additional weeks of work, by two interns, for seed harvesting since COVID-19 restrictions reduced the number of volunteers this summer.
  • Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation  – a grant for wetland restoration at Flint Creek Savanna. The grant funded thousands of wetland sedges to replace five acres of invasive reed canary grass. All this work was led by our restoration director, Kevin Scheiwiller, with many volunteers in 2020 and 2021.
  • The Environmental Collaborative Group Tech Grants – provided funds to support volunteer work groups following social distancing and health guidelines. Funds provided to purchase iPads and Wi-Fi hot spots so multiple teams of restoration volunteers can be supported on different sites on workdays while maintaining social distancing and still progress with our much-needed restorations.

Grants Received in 2019 and Work Completed in 2020.

  • The Barrington Area Community Foundation (BACF) provided a grant for a cooperative project with CFC, BACT, and the Flint Creek/Spring Creek Watershed Partnership to create a native plant buffer along Flint Creek. This collaboration also created Stream Bank Project information for home owners who want to restore their own shoreline banks. Plans, designs, plant recommendations, sources for plants, and maintenance practices are detailed in the report HERE.
  • Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation–  a grant to contribute to the purchase of 30 acres to add to Craftsbury Preserve, expanding the total to 50 acres.  

Grants Received in 2019

We thank these community organizations for their continuing support for the work that CFC does, from introducing children to nature, to restoring our ecologically valuable land, to supporting biodiversity.

Grants Received in 2018

  • The Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation generously awarded CFC  a major grant to support our 18-month restoration of CFC’s Craftsbury Preserve. This included a three to one match for up to $21,000, plus additional funds based on 400 hours of volunteer work, and social media publicity about the grant and our work. The grant also helped fund needed equipment and contracting professional firms for non-volunteer work of major brush removal.  The total grant of  $32,000 also provides for essential follow-up work for sustaining the quality restoration.
  • The Oberweiler Foundation again provided a grant to support our four college interns for the summer. While the interns provide essential help with CFC’s restoration and summer youth camps, and collaborate with our partners, they learn hands-on skills for their majors in restoration ecology or related fields and future careers.
  • Cuba Township provided funds for a thousand sedges to be planted in Flint Creek Savanna South as part of CFC’s important bank restoration.
  • The South Barrington Garden Club helped fund supplies for our expanded work in the Rare Plant Nursery at CFC headquarters, built with a grant from the Barrington Area Community Foundation last year.  These beds are growing conservative native plants for seed to contribute to the biodiversity of our restorations and our work with the Barrington Greenway Initiative.
  • The Barrington Junior Women’s Club provided funds for CFC’s Youth Education to collaborate with Countryside School to plant a butterfly garden. The BJWC grant also supported a program we provided to Hough Street School to learn about the habits, habitat and importance of raptors, with live owls and hawks as stars.

Citizens for Conservation greatly appreciates the trust and financial support from these organizations to further our mission of saving living space for living things.