Save the Children

Tree Equity Funding Action Guide Step Seven:
Stay in Touch

Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 Step 4 Step 5 Step 6 Step 7 Stay in Touch Donors in particular don’t like to disappear behind the curtain once the check is written. They’ll appreciate being kept up to date on what you’re doing, and what you’ve accomplished. People who are investing time and resources — […]

Tree Equity Funding Action Guide Step Six:
Track Progress​

Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 Step 4 Step 5 Step 6 Step 7 Track Progress Given that you’ll be reaching out to many different people, often more than once, you’ll need a good record-keeping system. Otherwise, you’ll never remember who said what to whom — or more important, who gave how much to you […]

Tree Equity Funding Action Guide Step Five:
Go Public​

Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 Step 4 Step 5 Step 6 Step 7 Go Public “When a good story is being told, listeners are not only engaged. They’re also involved — both in head and heart.” -Carolyn O’Hara Harvard Business Review, July 2014 Make it Personal Dry presentations of fact rarely convince anyone to […]

Tree Equity Funding Action Guide Step Four:
Budget for Success

Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 Step 4 Step 5 Step 6 Step 7 Budget Requests for budget information will take different forms. They range from simple — a single spreadsheet showing major expense categories — to complex. The most intricate may require, for example, allocating staff and contractor expenses across each activity proposed or […]

Tree Equity Funding Action Guide Step Three:
Speak Their Language

Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 Step 4 Step 5 Step 6 Step 7 Speak Their Language One size will not fit all. Whatever the project, proposals must be tailored to each potential funder, and their priorities. They can be five pages, or they can be fifty. What they share in common is a structure that leads the writer […]

Tree Equity Funding Action Guide Step Two:
Address Funder Needs, Not Just Your Own

  Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 Step 4 Step 5 Step 6 Step 7 Address Funder Needs, Not Just Your Own At the outset, tree equity may seem abstract to potential funders and allies. Your challenge? Determine what matters to them — and then demonstrate how tree equity initiatives can help achieve their goals. Goals […]

Tree Equity Funding Action Guide Step One:
Stand Up, Stand Out

Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 Step 4 Step 5 Step 6 Step 7 Stand Up, Stand Out To earn funding, you must be viewed as part of the solution to an acknowledged problem in your community. Perhaps people and organizations are already aware of the tree equity crisis; perhaps not. You need to be […]

What’s in a Tree Protection Ordinance

A tree ordinance should: Present a compelling statement of the public health, municipal, and environmental benefits of healthy city trees,  Explain why protection and enhancement of the city’s tree population is a public good, Demonstrate  why protection and enhancement of city tree canopy  requires a municipal ordinance, Enact municipal code(s) that sets goals for tree […]

The Case for Public/Private Partnerships

Philadelphia has nurtured city trees since colonial times. Highly effective urban forestry programs often are led by partnerships established through municipal code. They bring together multiple city agencies and an anchor organization — usually a long-standing nonprofit conservation organization. The city of Philadelphia joined forces with the several nonprofits — including the Fairmont Park Conservancy and […]

New York City’s Comprehensive Tree Initiative

The New York City Department of Parks and Recreation — working with the nonprofit New York Restoration Project — completed one of the earliest and most successful tree planting initiatives in the US. The City has added tens of thousands of trees to NYC streets and parks over the past decade. Trained volunteers played a key […]

Edmonton Alberta Corridors Bridge Urban/Rural Boundaries

Edmonton Alberta is one of the first cities to address both human health and biodiversity in their “corridors” initiative. But people and animals have different needs and patterns of behavior. Finding a shared language Working with animal behaviour experts at the University of Alberta, the city developed engineering guidelines that, among other things, organized the […]