Fisheries Recovery and Sustainability Grants
The Opportunity
Foundation for Louisiana is partnering with The American Red Cross to provide Hurricane Ida disaster recovery support to impacted fishing communities in southeast Louisiana. This grant opportunity is designed to support Louisiana fishers, oysterers, crawfishers, shrimpers and other workers in seafood industries to fund repairs and improvements to boats, nets, and other essential equipment, assets, and other resources necessary to keep businesses impacted by Hurricane Ida operable.
Temporary relief measures alone, however, will not be enough to fully restore the Louisiana seafood industry, which even before the storms and COVID-19 pandemic faced stiff headwinds in the form of foreign competition, stagnating domestic seafood prices and the loss of critical coastal wetlands due to land subsidence where the Mississippi River empties into the Gulf of Mexico and rising sea levels caused by global warming. Thus, the program aims to support seafood workers in making their harvesting practices more environmentally sustainable and better equipped to respond to climate change-related challenges by providing additional funds for adaptation and improved sustainable fishing practices.
This program will utilize a community-led grantmaking process, and applications will be reviewed by a diverse panel of community members with relevant industry and community knowledge. One-year grants are available in increments between $5,000 - $10,000 for the primary grant and an additional $2,500-$5,000 for the secondary sustainable component.
Goals
Foundation for Louisiana aims to support Louisiana people and Louisiana communities working to respond to, mitigate the impacts of, and organize to prevent the increasingly severe and more frequent natural and human-caused disasters faced in Louisiana. We acknowledge the role of climate change, environmental racism, and discriminatory public policy in the ways in which these disasters are experienced differently on the basis of race, gender, sexual identity, age, systems-involvement, disability, geography, economic stability, and immigration status.
This program recognizes and aims to support small-scale fisheries as a heritage industry in coastal Louisiana, made up of communities and families who have been surviving off this coast and its bountiful seafood production for years.
Goals for this grant opportunity include the following:
- Provide disaster recovery funding to the wide range of diverse small-scale members of the fishing community
- Support a more sustainable seafood harvesting practices
- Assist in the economic recovery of the seafood sector
- Contribute to long-term sustainability for Louisiana’s fisheries
Timeline and Process
Applicants should gather all required documentation prior to starting the online application. Applicants will be prompted to create a free Submittable account or sign in with Google or Facebook credentials to submit the application form. The following documents will be needed to complete the application:
- Driver’s License or Bill (Confirming State Residency)
- Federal or State Issued Document or Bill (Confirming Business Location)
- Verification of Employer Identification Number (EIN)
- 2020 Profit/Loss Statement; or 2020 Schedule C
- W-9 (Version October 2018)
The timeline for this grant opportunity is as follows:
- January 24: RFP announced
- January 31: Informational Webinar on Zoom
- February 17: Applications due by 12pm CT
- February 17 - March 30: Review Period
- March 31: Notifications
Eligibility and Selection Criteria
- Applicants must be based in one of the parishes that received federal disaster declaration following Hurricane Ida: Ascension, Assumption, East Baton Rouge, East Feliciana, Iberia, Iberville, Jefferson, Lafourche, Livingston, Orleans, Plaquemines, Pointe Coupee, St. Bernard, St. Charles, St. Helena, St. James, St. John the Baptist, St. Martin, St. Mary, St. Tammany, Tangipahoa, Terrebonne, Washington, West Baton Rouge, and West Feliciana parishes
- Applicants must have been working in a seafood industry (fishing, oystering, crawfishing, shrimping, etc.) previous to Hurricane Ida’s landfall.
- Applications will be assessed on the following criteria:
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- A clear explanation of the impact and damage of Hurricane Ida on your business, including repairs and/or replacements related to Hurricane Ida damage
- A clear explanation of the existing or intended uses for funds including a simple budget (a template is included in the online application)
More Information
- To review our responses to frequently ask questions (FAQs), please click here.
- To attend our informational webinar on January 31, 2023, please register here. Following the webinar, a recording of the informational webinar will be available here.
- Resources and support for using our online application portal Submittable is available here.
- Want to learn more about how our application has been designed to be inclusive of Louisianans with disabilities? Learn more here. To discuss accommodations, please contact us at grants@foundationforlouisana.org or call us at (225)383-1672. Please refrain from calling or emailing except to discuss accommodations.
- Questions about this opportunity, eligibility, or how to prepare your application materials? Other questions or concerns? Email us at grants@foundationforlouisiana.org.
About Foundation for Louisiana
Foundation for Louisiana (FFL) is a social justice philanthropic intermediary founded in 2005 as the Louisiana Disaster Recovery Foundation to invest in the immediate recovery of Louisiana’s communities after hurricane Katrina. While FFL was founded in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, our founders recognized the need to address the longstanding inequities that have shaped life outcomes for the most marginalized of Louisianans. Our programs grew in response to these needs, and today FFL focuses on racial justice, climate justice, criminal justice reform, economic opportunity, LGBTQ organizing, and support for Louisiana's vibrant arts and culture via a three-pronged strategy:
- Invest: FFL makes grants and loans to support organizations and movements throughout Louisiana in our key program areas. We attract and invest resources to support on-the-ground projects, many of which can’t access traditional philanthropy. Through fiscal sponsorship, we support innovative ideas responding to unmet needs throughout Louisiana.
- Build: We build power to effect change in Louisiana communities. Our TOGETHER initiative convenes community leaders and provides training in organizing, policy change, leadership, public speaking, and facilitation to tackle issues of climate change, police accountability, health disparities, housing access, and more.
- Transform: By fortifying movements, we shift systems and shape regional and national narratives. We re-imagine how our communities are governed and funded in order to redefine how residents are able to thrive in them.
Since its inception, FFL has invested $55 million in more than 250 mission-critical nonprofit organizations working across the state towards building a more just Louisiana. As a social justice philanthropic intermediary, FFL’s work unapologetically advances racial justice while moving Louisiana forward. The foundation engages communities in both program co-design as well as its grant-making process, in order to expand opportunities and move communities towards a more just future.