grant opportunity

[Valerie M P R Guerin]

Genographic Legacy Fund Offers Grants to Support Indigenous Communities Worldwide

Deadline: June 15, 2007

The Genorgraphic Legacy Fund aims to empower indigenous and traditional peoples on a local level while helping to raise awareness on a global level of the challenges and pressures facing these communities. Reflecting the values and missions of the Genographic Project ( https://www3.nationalgeographic.com/genographic/ ) partners -- the National Geographic Society, IBM ( http://www.ibm.com/ ), and the Waitt Family Foundation ( http://www.waittfoundation.org/ ) -- support from the fund will be directed primarily toward education initiatives, cultural conservation, and linguistic preservation and revitalization efforts.

Genographic Legacy Fund grants are open to individuals, groups, and organizations. Applicants must provide a record of current or prior work in support of indigenous education programs and/or cultural or linguistic conservation efforts. Applicants should be seeking to expand their service to indigenous communities and have a demonstrated commitment to improving general awareness of indigenous cultures, histories, and heritages. The majority of the people forming the group responsible for providing project governance must be members of the indigenous community in which the project will be implemented.

Projects are divided into two general categories: 1) Micro -- smaller, discrete projects that typically require lower amounts of funding; funding for these projects will be capped at $25,000 each. 2) Macro -- larger, more complex projects undertaken in conjunction with other entities such as NGOs, local education institutions, government agencies, etc. Grant amounts are more flexible but will not typically exceed $100,000 each.

Applications are accepted on a semi-annual basis. Submissions for semi-annual review will close on June 15 and December 15 of each year for the duration of the project.

More information on the fund and the grant application process as well as an FAQ can be found on the Genographic Legacy Fund Web site.