2024 Grants
Our Grassroots Grants program supports underfunded organizations and communities addressing a myriad of environmental and social justice issues, with a focus on fights over water privatization and plastic pollution.
Gary Advocates for Responsible Development (GARD):
Gary Advocates for Responsible Development (GARD) promotes economic development in the City of Gary that prioritizes environmental justice, community health, and protection of our neighborhoods and natural resources. In 2021 GARD began raising environmental justice and technical concerns about the proposed Centerpoint plant (trash to fuel refinery). The organization continues to work for clean air and environmental sustainability in this industrial corridor alongside the world’s largest source of fresh drinking water.
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Sure We Can:
In Memoriam Donation
Sure We Can is a non-profit recycling center, community space, and sustainability hub in Brooklyn. There, canners–our neighbors who collect cans and bottles from the streets to make a living–come together with the broader community through recycling, composting, gardening and the arts. This donation was made in memory of Pierre Simmons, a canner featured in The Story of Stuff Project’s short documentary, “Glass, Metal, Plastic.” It may be used towards Sure We Can’s goal of opening a new redemption center.
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Recycle2Riches:
Recycle2Riches is changing the culture of consumption with communication, collaboration, and community education. They recently joined the Reusable LA Coalition. As a Los-Angeles-based organization, they are impacted by the January 2025 Los Angeles fires and help promote the Mutual Aid LA Network (MALAN) list of resources.
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Veggie Mijas:
Growing Leaders:
Hānai Kaiāulu:
Making Bedding for the Homeless
Hānai Kaiāulu (HK) promotes the importance of stewardship of its community’s ʻāina (land) and cultural sites. HK also supports a healthy transition where food is never wasted, but returned to the soil for the next cycle of life. Hanai are things that feed you which should be returned to the land and kaiāulu means community. Their new youth-led program is making bedding for the homeless out of recycled cardboard. They continue to have native Hawaiian youth-led programming around environmental sustainability and waste by promoting food composting in school and the community and reusing cardboard to make biodegradable cardboard planters for local farms.
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WAGEP International:
Plastic-Free Future: Community Action Against Plastic Pollution
WAGEP International is dedicated to empowering women and marginalized communities by promoting gender equity, social justice, and access to essential resources. The organization focuses on creating sustainable change through education, advocacy, and community-driven initiatives that address systemic inequalities and improve the quality of life for those it serves. Their Plastic-Free Future: Community Action Against Plastic Pollution workshop series will cover topics such as the lifecycle of plastics, their impact on ecosystems and human health, and the urgent need to reduce single-use plastics.
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Re:wild Your Campus:
Ground Up Advocacy Bootcamp
Re:wild Your Campus has a goal of seeing every university in the United States eliminate synthetic pesticides and fertilizers by 2030, and will continue to empower students until every college campus in the country is ecologically safe. In response to the growing demand from both students and community members to dive deeper into the fundamentals of organizing tactics and sustainable land management, Re:wild Your Campus designed the Ground Up Advocacy Bootcamp, which brings their cutting edge training to a broad audience of young, visionary leaders on college campuses.
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Earth Ethics, Inc.:
No Plastic Pathway to a Greener Future
The mission of Earth Ethics, Inc. is to educate the public and increase awareness about environmental and social issues at local, regional, and global levels in an effort to engage, empower, and encourage public involvement towards positive resolutions. Their No Plastic Pathway to a Greener Future program aims to educate residents, hotels/motels, and restaurant owners in our area on the adverse impacts of single use plastic and how alternatives are not only better for the environment but cost-effective.
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Our Zero Waste Future:
Zero Waste Rio Grande Valley
The mission of Our Zero Waste Future is to promote awareness on the value of discarded materials by encouraging zero waste behaviors and facilitating thriving communities through cooperative business development. With Zero Waste River Grande Valley, they intend to help the Valley in Texas establish a zero waste movement. The state is home to two hundred active municipal solid waste (household trash) landfills, in an area of the country where burying trash is the cheapest.
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Plastic Free Delaware:
Delaware Youth Environmental Summit (YES!)
Plastic Free Delaware aims to eliminate the scourge of plastic pollution in their state through education, outreach, awareness building events, and policy initiatives with a current focus on single-use plastics and encouraging the principles of a zero waste culture. Their Youth Environmental Summit (YES!) offers Delaware high school students plenary/keynote speakers from beyond Delaware, a wide array of workshops with local and global speakers/panels, and a hall of exhibitors where they can learn more about the many options to get more deeply involved in whatever environmental initiative is of interest to them.
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Beaver County Marcellus Awareness Community (BCMAC):
Caring Cornucopia: Supporting Families Affected by Petrochemical Pollution
The Beaver County Marcellus Awareness Community (BCMAC) seeks to protect the residents of Southwestern Pennsylvania by informing them about the health, safety, environmental, and economic impacts of fracking infrastructure—including the petrochemical buildout—and by supporting sustainable alternatives to carbon-based energy sources and economic development strategies in Beaver County. Their Caring Cornucopia initiative is a special Thanksgiving distribution of fifty dollar grocery gift cards for families impacted by petrochemical pollution (including those affected by the Norfolk Southern train derailment, the Shell petrochemical plant, and fracking infrastructure).
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Wellington Water Watchers:
End Bottle Water Campaign
The Water Watchers began as a grassroots organization founded in 2007 to oppose Nestlé Water Canada’s local water-bottling operations in Wellington County, Ontario. Today, the Water Watchers has become a unique resource to grassroots leaders on the frontlines of water protection. Their End Bottle Water campaign works to oppose water taking permits for water bottling, to ensure the human right to clean drinking water, and to insist that governments at all levels invest in the building and maintenance of public water infrastructure for all.
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Carrizo Comecrudo Tribe:
The Bridge to the Future Walk for Youth & Elders
The Carrizo Comecrudo Tribe lives by their mission of preserving, maintaining, protecting, and offering services that will better their tribal communities to overcome the erasure of the Original People of Texas. The Bridge to the Future Walk for Youth & Elders was organized by the Carrizo Comecrudo Tribe to protest the liquefied natural gas (LNG) pipeline attempting to be built between Sierra Blanca and Hot Springs, TX.
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Valley Improvement Projects (VIP):
Burning Injustice Documentary
Valley Improvement Projects (VIP) aims to improve the quality of life of underrepresented and marginalized residents of California’s Northern San Joaquin Valley by advocating for social and environmental justice. VIP is working closely with The Story of Stuff Project to create the Burning Injustice documentary, which will be released alongside a campaign targeting government subsidies for incinerators.
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Asociación de Gente Unida por el Agua (AGUA):
Agua es Vida Project
Asociación de Gente Unida por el Agua (AGUA) is a grassroots coalition of thirty-six low-income and people of color communities, including thirteen community-based organizations and eleven NGOs, dedicated to securing safe, clean and affordable drinking water in California’s San Joaquin Valley. They work to clean up existing pollution, and prevent water from further contamination. Their Agua es Vida project works to clean up existing pollution and prevent water from further contamination through five primary strategies: awareness building, leadership development, community organizing, advocacy, and watchdog monitoring.
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Climate Organizing Hub:
The Summer of Heat Campaign
The Climate Organizing Hub was founded in 2022 as a climate action center to run campaigns against the fossil fuel industry by partnering with frontline community groups and individual activists. Their Summer of Heat campaign aims to organize disruptive, nonviolent, civil disobedience actions at the headquarters of the banks, insurance companies, and investors fueling the climate crisis. Their first demand is that Wall Street must stop funding, insuring and investing in all coal, oil, gas, and petrochemical companies.
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Sea of Life Caribbean, Inc.:
TrashBlitz Waste Audits
Sea of Life Caribbean, Inc. strengthens and empowers local communities to protect and restore oceans in the Caribbean. Their mission is to support and develop locally led ocean conservation projects and business solutions in the Caribbean. They will partner with 5 Gyres to conduct waste audits on campuses with students and other repeat locations with community partner groups or businesses. Once the data is documented in the TrashBlitz app, all waste will be removed from the local environment in partnership with schools, organizations, and local city councils to ensure proper disposal of all waste.
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Save Our Forest Association:
Coalition Event
The Save Our Forest Association is an all-volunteer organization in California that protects the mountains from development and industry and organizes with the U.S. Forest Service in San Bernardino County. Their work on The Story of Stuff Project’s Unbottle Water campaign aims to preserve Strawberry Creek and hold Blue Triton and government agencies accountable in the San Bernardino National Forest.
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Ground Score Association (GSA):
Ground Scores: A Podcast
Ground Score Association (GSA) consists of informal recyclers, waste pickers, canners, dumpster divers, and other environmental workers who create and fill low-barrier waste management jobs in Portland, Oregon. GSA is collectively-organized and radically inclusive, prioritizing work opportunities for those facing work and housing insecurity. They aim to develop a podcast encouraging visibility and respect for US waste pickers, with special attention to informal can and bottle collectors coming to Ground Score’s People’s Depot, a canner-run redemption center under Oregon’s Deposit Return System.
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Panethnic Pourovers:
Community Gardening Cohort
Panethnic Pourovers is a women-, queer-, and AAPI-led grassroots organization centered on community in the Greater Boston Area. Their mission is to fight racism and capitalism through the centering of resources, education, and art reflective of underrepresented identities and cultures. Their Community Gardening Workshop Cohort with Holly Hill Farm aims to empower individuals with the knowledge and resources to cultivate thriving gardens and green spaces in our local community. The series will cover essential gardening topics and provide hands-on experiences to participants.
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Voices In Solidarity Against Oil in Neighborhoods (VISION):
Voices In Solidarity Against Oil in Neighborhoods (VISION) brings together community groups and allies who are concerned with the impact of oil and gas extraction on communities in Kern and Los Angeles Counties. VISION fights to prevent and shut down oil and gas drilling through bottom up coalition based organizing and policy change. In March 2024, the coalition had a victory by securing a court ruling to halt Kern County’s plan to fast track oil drilling near homes and schools.
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Race to Zero Waste (R20W):
Zero Waste Forum & International Dialogue
Race to Zero Waste (R20W) is a woman-founded and -run environmental conservation non-profit dedicated to reducing consumption, promoting reuse, and advancing an equitable circular economy. Their efforts significantly impact the environment and global greenhouse gas emissions by urging waste reduction across all sectors. Their Zero Waste Forum serves as a platform to discuss future challenges, while simultaneously celebrating recent achievements. It is designed to hold space and provide insightful content that benefits youth, seasoned professionals, leaders, and novices alike.
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Rooted Uprising:
Collective Growth & Development
Rooted Uprising is a BIPOC-led social and environmental justice collective that engages, elevates, and empowers communities to take action towards a regenerative world. They aim to strengthen the foundation of their collective by building tools and resources to effectively create both local and virtual spaces to connect like-minded individuals. They also plan to expand their virtual and in-person events to promote solidarity and establish connections across North America and beyond.
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Matriarch Ways Inc.:
Funding for New Non-Profit
Matriarch Ways’ mission is to actualize their community’s inherent power through healing and Indigenous life skills for all American communities. They see healing as essential if humans are to continue on the earth. Matriarch Ways are known as organizers of Indigenous Peoples Day Arizona (IPDAZ), an annual event every second Monday of October. They are supporting a newly formed non-profit called Land and Water Defense, which advocates for united efforts against extractive industries, aiming to ensure clean drinking water, breathable air, and access to land for all beings.
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