Declinations and Withdrawals
February 1–April 30, 2015
Note: The date listed below for each declination indicates when the Foundation received the request.
Millie:
Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League3/18/2015
P.O. Box 88
Glendale Springs, NC 28629
General support to expand our community organizing campaign, “Safeguard America’s Resources,” to combat the threat of global warming posed by expanding natural gas development and the injustice of dumping coal ash on our communities.
Comment: BREDL has been fighting community environmental issues in North Carolina for three decades. It has a base in several communities, shifting depending on hot-button fights at a given time, and a reputation for quick-strike fights and support. However, it has never built a cohesive coalition. Core staff remain the same - the organization’s founder and her husband - and long-term leadership has rarely enveloped in the county chapters. Most of its funding comes from major donors and North Carolina foundations, and within the state it is a good resource, but it is not a good fit for our broader movement-building focus (MB).
Population served:
Various racial/ethnic groups
California Institute for Rural Studies (CIRS)12/5/2014
221 G Street
Suite 204
Davis, CA 95616
Project support to build a cadre of citizen scientists in the Eastern Coachella Valley, a region of environmental injustice, by providing tools for environmental monitoring.
Comment: The Institute provides research, technical assistance and publications for residents of the Eastern Coachella Valley, focusing especially on farmworkers and other low-income populations. It provides valuable services, but there are grassroots-based organizations in the region that could be a better fit for any available resources, perhaps including some served by this project (MB).
Population served:
Don’t know
Champaign County Health Care Consumers8/17/2014
44 E. Main Street
Suite 208
Champaign, IL 61820
Project support to build the power of grassroots community organizing environmental justice through the 5th & Hill Neighborhood Rights Campaign, led by low-income African American residents fighting to get a toxic site in their neighborhood cleaned up.
Comment: This organization makes interesting connections between toxic exposure and health and health policy issues, but the environmental work is focused solely on cleanup of one particular site, and is thus too local for us (MB).
Population served:
African American
Louisiana Environmental Action Network7/17/2014
P.O. Box 66323
Baton Rouge, LA 70896-6323
For a rapid community response fund to build the capacity of under-served individuals and communities to address the challenges they face related to industrialization, environmental degradation, and pollution within the lower Mississippi River Basin.
Comment: We provided general support funding to LEAN for a number of years to work on environmental issues in Louisiana, as well as special assistance after Katrina. They remain a valuable resource and ally to communities during emergencies and in the ongoing fight to protect the fragile environment of the state. However, we do not have the resources to bring them back in at this point (MB).
Population served:
Various racial/ethnic groups
Melange12/2/2014
420 Hayter Drive
Morristown, TN 37813
Project support to raise the visibility of and target Drummond Coal Company strip mining operations in Alabama.
Comment: This organization helps grassroots groups to form media campaigns using art and culture. Good work, but our priorities focus on funding the groups themselves (MB).
Population served:
Don’t know
Peaceful Uprising1/29/2015
PO Box 521011
Salt Lake City, UT 84152-1011
General support for climate justice work, which includes mobilizing to protect the Colorado River, Utah’s East Tavaputs Plateau, and the airshed of frontline communities from the first potential tar sands mine in the U.S.
Comment: This organization was founded by Tim Christopher, who served two years in prison for derailing a federal auction of oil and gas leases on public lands. It’s a collective primarily of white activists from the Rocky Mountain region. It plans to conduct Climate Justice Bold Schools for frontline activists, including those from indigenous communities fighting proposed tar sands development on and through their lands. However, the action agenda and analysis in the schools are set by this organization, not by those from the communities. We looked at LOIs from this group twice before, and while the proposal this time does include discussion of the need for leadership from impacted communities, the agenda remains the same. Not a fit (MB).
Population served:
Various racial/ethnic groups
Progressive Christians Uniting7/24/2014
634 South Spring Street
Suite 300
Los Angeles, CA 90014
To work with faith communities around climate change by organizing small groups or “eco-ministry teams” that engage in advocacy as well as critical reflection to strengthen planetary solidarity as a daily practice and further climate change policies.
Comment: This group works with individuals and religious institutions to develop teams to promote individual responsibility around climate change and create an interactive study guide. An interesting attempt that frames climate as a moral issue, which matches with work some of our on-the-ground groups promote. However, it is not a fit for our movement-building and organizing approach (MB).
Population served:
Don’t know
Resisting Environmental Destruction on Indigenous Lands (REDOIL)1/24/2014
PO Box 74667
Fairbanks, AK 99701
General support for Alaska Native grassroots movement challenging fossil fuel and mining industries and advocating for a safe and healthy environment on tribal lands and waters.
Comment: This is an interesting organization, working with a number of Alaskan Native groups and other organizations. If we had more resources, it would be a strong possibility for funding. However, there are other groups more deeply engaged in community organizing and leadership development (MB).
Population served:
Native American/Alaska Native/Indigenous descendant
The Alliance for Appalachia3/14/2014
P.O. Box 11701
Charleston, WV 25339
General Support for a regional coalition with the goals of ending a devastating form of coal mining called mountaintop removal, putting a halt to destructive coal technologies and supporting a sustainable and just economy in Appalachia.
Comment: If we had more funding, this would be on my short list of potential grantee additions. It is an important network of groups based in the coalfields. We helped fund some early work, but in recent years they had access to other funds. Now, unfortunately, a couple of their core funders are sunsetting. Even so, our limited funding is needed more severely elsewhere, including consideration of bringing Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition back in (MB).
Population served:
European American/Caucasian
Toxic Free NC2/2/2015
115 S. Saint Marys Street
Raleigh, NC 27603
General support to connect local environmental justice leaders in all 100 counties in North Carolina to mobilize a powerful body of advocates to demand meaningful attention/action/accountability from public and corporate entities.
Comment: This organization has a long-standing record in NC on toxic issues, particularly related to agriculture. However, it has never diversified significantly, and although it has added one or two Latino staff there is one African-American representative and the leadership is still mostly white. They don’t mention, nor in my experience have, wide contacts or credibility re building leadership in most of the state (MB).
Population served:
Various racial/ethnic groups
WaterLegacy1/9/2015
WaterLegacy Administrative Offices
P.O. Box 2472
Inver Grove, MN 55076
General support to organize and advocate in partnership with tribes to prevent new sulfide mining pollution in Minnesota that would contaminate clean water, destroy wild rice, increase toxic mercury in fish, and degrade natural and tribal resources.
Comment: WaterLegacy is a volunteer-based advocacy organization that provides technical, legal and advocacy assistance to groups in Minnesota working on freshwater issues. Volunteers include lawyers, research scientists and other supportive professionals. This project would assist Native American tribes in the state in fighting sulfide mining pollution. WaterLegacy had a good reputation of responsive technical assistance, but it is not quite a fit for our grassroots-based, movement building focus (MB).
Population served:
Native American/Alaska Native/Indigenous descendant
Other
Wilma:
Center for Health Justice2/11/2015
900 Avila Street, #301
Los Angeles, CA 90012
Project support to provide reproductive health education, resources, and coalition-building for incarcerated and post-incarcerated women.
Comment: This project will be led by Center for Health Justice (CHJ) and the UCLA OB/GYN Clinic. CHJ empowers individuals affected by incarceration to make healthier choices by delivering programs and services that act as a bridge to a productive life. This project is well funded with a budget of over $1.5M yet it is only contributing $25,000 to these efforts.Additionally, it is not stated how this project will work directly in communities to change public policies.It does not fit Noyes guidelines (WM).
Population served:
Various racial/ethnic groups
Justice Now1/12/2015
1322 Webster Street, Suite 210
Oakland, CA 94612
General support for Let Our Families Have A Future campaign establishing systems for monitoring implementation of SB1135 the anti-sterilization abuse bill passed in 2014 and fighting for reproductive justice for people in women’s prisons.
Comment: Justice Now is a human rights organization that is focused on challenging gendered oppression and violence. This is an interesting organization with potential once it is more established. Presently it does not fit the Foundation’s guidelines (WM).
Population served:
Various racial/ethnic groups
Maine Women’s Policy Center1/28/2015
124 Sewall St.
Augusta, ME 04330
General support to form a statewide grassroots network of engaged women working on their own behalf by recruiting 16-20 regional leaders who will in turn reach out to their own networks to form local groups.
Comment: This Letter of Intent did not provide much information about the organization’s constituency or how this work will be done.It did not meet the Foundation’s guidelines (WM).
Population served:
Don’t know
Massachusetts Alliance on Teen Pregnancy2/5/2015
105 Chauncy Street, 8th Floor
Boston, MA 02111
The Alliance is seeking funding to increase the leadership role and equitable compensation of the Young Parent Policy Fellows, a group of highly motivated young parents who help shape and achieve our Public Policy Program goals.
Comment: This is a well funded (over $1.7M budget) statewide organization that does not need Noyes funding (WM).
Population served:
Don’t know
Women of W.O.R.T.H., Inc.2/6/2015
1513 Dean Avenue
Rome, Georgia 30161
Women of W.O.R.T.H. requests funding for a Patient Advocate who will also travel to work at the state and potentially federal level to improve reproductive rights for women and girls. Advocacy activities will also occur in-office.
Comment: Women of W.O.R.T.H., Inc. (WORTH) is a gynecological health services organization in Northwest Georgia and surrounding areas.This proposal sounds like it will be mostly used for outreach purposes and not for grassroots organizing or advocacy activities (WM).
Population served:
Don’t know
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