Holden Grants

Holden Grant deadline to apply is 6 PM on October 15, 2026

Several years ago Washington Crossing Audubon Society received a generous bequest from the late Polly Holden to be used for conservation and environmental education. Our objective for providing grants from the Holden Fund is to assist individuals and organizations in advancing conservation and environmental education through initiatives broadly related to birdlife. See statement of purpose below.

A total of approximately $20,000 per year is available from the fund. Individual grants will be capped at $5,000. Applications are due by October 15, 2026 at 6 PM. Individuals and organizations wishing to apply for a grant should submit an application that supplies the information as outlined below (with supporting material as appropriate) to contact.wcas@gmail.com by October 15 at 6 PM. Do not send proposals by mail. Only proposals electronically submitted by e-mail will be accepted. Holden Grants are not given for profit making projects. Holden Funds will not be awarded for the applying organization’s operating costs, including staff salary or stipends.

If the proposal is funded, in the past recipients have been required to submit a report on the project upon its conclusion and to present a poster on the project at the next October in person WCAS public meeting. However, since our public programs are still all on Zoom, we are no longer having a public poster session.

See guideline statement below for further information. Please note that the Holden Grant Committee does not preview grant applications.

Holden Grant Guidelines

Holden Grants are available to individuals or non-profit groups for conservation projects or conservation education.  Profit making projects are not considered for Holden Grants. Each proposal will be evaluated for its effect on preserving biodiversity with emphasis on bird populations, other threatened species and habitat quality. Conservation projects should enhance biodiversity by improving, protecting, or restoring habitat or by gathering information that would allow more informed decisions to be made about conservation. Priority is given to habitat restoration projects that impact areas of conservation importance, including Important Bird Areas, and species of conservation concern, including Audubon Watch list species. For example, the Sourland Mountains, including Baldpate Mountain, would be an area of conservation concern because of its high biodiversity and the presence of flora and fauna not found elsewhere in our area, including the highest concentration of breeding Nearctic-neotropical migrants in Central New Jersey.

A good conservation education project should enhance the understanding and appreciation of the natural world, including the importance of protecting biodiversity. Priority is given to projects that expose young people to their local natural history and/or involve them in hands-on conservation projects.

Other factors that may be considered are community involvement in the project and financial leveraging. Holden Grants will not be awarded for operating costs, including salary, stipends, or transportation.

Please provide the following with your application
  • Name of Individual/Organization
  • Contact Information
  • Address
  • Telephone No.
  • E-mail

Proposal:

  • What is the project objective?
  • What need will the project fill? What is the benefit?
  • Describe the project. Include how the project will proceed and who is in charge.
  • What qualifications do you have? What past experience does the organization have?
  • How will you evaluate the project? If the project will continue, how will it be funded?
  • Provide a timeline and a budget.

2022 Holden Grant Reports presented November 2023:

Learn about these great projects at WCAS’ October Public Program meeting on Zoom!

2023-2024 Holden Grant Awards

  • Sourland Conservancy — $4998 for understory restoration at Sommer Park, Featherbed Lane.
  • D&R Greenway — $3,600 for meadow restoration at Hillside Farm Preserve. Invasive plants will be removed and native plants planted.
  • Friends of Rogers Refuge — $4,000 to continue the boardwalk through lower marsh which will safer allow access to monitor this ecologically important area.
  • Hunterdon Land Trust — $4450 for riparian habitat restoration at Idell Preserve by emergent invasive species control along path edges and planting trees and shrubs in a canopy gap.
  • Friends of Hopewell Valley Open Space (FoHVOS) — $4450 for Northern Copperhead tracking and copperhead habitat restoration at Baldpate Mountain.
  • Friends of Princeton Open Space (FoPOS) — $4000 for riparian habitat restoration at the Mountain Lakes Preserve.

2022-2023 Holden Grant Awards

• D&R Greenway Land Trust St. Michaels Farm Preserve Aunt Molly Field | $4,500
St. Michaels Farm Preserve Aunt Molly Field 2023 Report

• Friends of Hopewell Valley Open Space Baldpate Rare Species Stewardship | $5,000
FoHVOS Eastern Copperhead Radio Telemetry, Restoration and Rare Species Stewardship at Baldpate 2023 Report

• Friends of Princeton Open Space for the Billy Johnson Mountain Lakes Nature Preserve | $3,000
FOPOS Billy Johnson Mountain Lakes Nature Preserve 2022 Report

• Hunterdon Land Trust Dvoor Farm Stream Restoration | $3,000
Hunterdon Land Trust Dvoor Farm 2023 Report

• Friends of Roger Refuge Trail Improvements
Friends of Rogers Refuge 2022-2023 Report

• Sourland Conservancy Sommer Park Preserve Forest Restoration | $4,998
Sourland Conservancy Sommer Park 2022-2023 Report

2021-2022 Holden Grant Awards

Friends of Rogers Refuge $3,000
This project funds trail improvements, boardwalks and bridges, on the refuge trails. This is part of the long term restoration of the refuge which has resulted in birds and birders returning to the refuge. FoRR is a small grassroots organization with very limited funding, which gives it priority status.

D&R Greenway $5,000
This project further restores grassland bird breeding habitat at the Cider Mill Grassland Preserve by overseeding native, warm season grasses. According to the 3 Billion Bird Missing report, grasslands are the most threatened habitat. The listed breeding species at Cider Mill are primarily sparrows and new world blackbirds, the fastest and third fastest declining bird families.

Friends of Hopewell Valley Open Space $5,000
This project funds ongoing habitat stewardship and restoration at the Ted Stiles Preserve at Baldpate Mountain IBA. This grant would fund construction of a 1-acre exclosure to protect a number of existing rare plant species (eastern redbud, green violet, and yellow giant hyssop) in an area previously infested with wisteria and the restoration of native trees and shrubs that will be able to compete with invasive species free of deer browse.

Sourland Conservancy $5,000
This project helps with the restoration of the understory at the Sommer Park Preserve IBA by installing deer fencing to protect native woody and herbaceous plant species from deer herbivory and planting “groves” of native woody species and herbaceous plants.

Friends of Princeton Open space $5,000
This project supports migratory songbird habitat plantings within a 25-acre riparian restoration project area located at the Billy Johnson Mountain Lakes Nature Preserve in Princeton.

Hunterdon Land Trust $500
This project installs and protects additional native plants in the wetland and floodplain adjoining the Walnut Brook following completion of the stream restoration scheduled for the Fall of 2021.