“Woodard & Curran Foundation engages the passion of the Woodard & Curran community to support nonprofit organizations that protect our water and environment.”
total grant money committed since our founding: $1.5M+
2024 impact grant ($100,000): turtle island restoration network (olema, CA)
Lagunitas Watershed Resiliency Project
Lagunitas Creek is the largest single run of the Central California Coastal Coho salmon, whose population has dwindled to 10% of historic numbers, putting it at risk of extinction. The Lagunitas Watershed Resiliency Project (LAWRP) will improve critical spawning, winter and summer rearing, and out-migration smolt habitat by installing approximately 150 large woody debris structures across one mile of Devil’s Gulch Creek. These structures will consist of existing logs, downed trees, and other woody debris and will be built by pulling, dragging, winching, and toppling trees and logs into the channel. Additional wood debris and wooden posts will be driven into the channel to create dynamic jams capable of adapting to changes in sediment supply, stream velocity, and riparian vegetation. This low-tech process-based restoration concept will use only power equipment and hand tools and has been proven to be a cost-effective approach to improving instream and floodplain habitat. The work will be completed by volunteers.
2023 impact grant ($100,000): ocean research project (annapolis, md)
Ocean Research Project scientists collect samples aboard the expedition schooner RV Marie Tharp.
PILOT STUDY TO GRADE CHESAPEAKE BAY’S PLASTIC POLLUTION
Ocean Research Project is working to change human behavior by providing information about the abundance of single-use plastics and their environmental effects. The Foundation’s funding enables ORP to work toward finding a path to assess Bay-wide plastic pollution and establish a pilot project exploring plastic particle count as a water quality indicator for monitoring future Bay health.
ORP’s study will be the first to determine particle concentration of plastic pollution across the United States’ largest estuary, the Chesapeake Bay. The information from this pilot project will be used inform a dedicated multi-year sampling program by the Chesapeake Bay Program partners at the federal, state, and local levels.
CONGRATULATIONS TO our 10 2024 giving while living grant recipients - $10K grants awardED to 10 environmental nonprofits (total of $100K!)
We are proud to fund the organizations below with $10,000 grants (each) in honor of our largest group of donors - the employees of Woodard & Curran, Inc., who nominated and selected the ten organizations below that are receiving Giving While Living Grants. Thank you to all the donors whose generosity makes it possible for us to fulfill our mission to support organizations that protect our water and environment.
Watch the video. Every year, Woodard & Curran Foundation Giving While Living Grants support nonprofit organizations around the country that are working to protect our water and environment.
A Decade+ of Doing Good!
Check out our 2022 Annual Report. We’re celebrating 12 years of working to protect our water and environment.
Thank you to all who support the Foundation in so many ways.
Read the stories. Our grants help environmental nonprofits big and small with projects ranging from creek cleanups to STEM in the classroom to water purification systems and more.
Banner images: a few of the projects we have funded through our Impact and Giving While Living grants: Literacy for Environmental Justice, PowerCorps/Camden, Friends of Casco Bay, Change is Simple, Sacramento Area Creeks Council, Techbridge Girls, University of Rhode Island.