Past Regional Grant-Making Programs
Supported by ECOLOGIA
1993-2009

Baltic Mini-Grant Program


Region: Baltics (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania)
Authors: ECOLOGIA USA & Baltic Ecological Programs Office, Lithuania
Status: Funded Budget: $20,000 - $35,000 per year Years Operated: 1993 - 2003
Goal: To support community groups in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to organize and implement their own projects. The average grant size was $644. Over 215 projects were funded. The long-term impact has been to build horizontal civil society linkages within Baltic communities, and across international borders and to provide experience for emerging young leaders in the post-Soviet era.
Major Donor: The Moriah Fund Washington D.C. with numerous match-funders both in the Baltics and in the US [1993 - 2003].

Micro-finance for Rabbit Raising in China

Goal: To enable farming families in rural Sichuan Province to participate in a micro-loan program developed by successful rabbit farmers, in partnership with ECOLOGIA.
Region: China
Status: Funded Budget: $50,000 Years Operated: 2006-2009
Comment: Chinese farmers face considerable environmental and social upheaval; micro-finance support for rabbit raising provided an opportunity for family members to earn money while staying together on their land. In the 1990s, the Sichuan Xuping Rabbit Raising Company started rabbit raising programs, modeled on the Heifer Project, to encourage farmers to raise a source of food and income in their villages. Their Rabbit King Poverty Alleviation Center, formed in 2006, expanded into micro-loans and education. The Rockefeller Brothers Fund supported the micro-finance project with seed money and overhead costs.

Problem Solving for Better Health in Lithuania

Goal: To train health professionals and NGO representatives to create lower-cost and more realistic, results-oriented projects
Region: Lithuania, Baltics, Central Europe
Status: Funded for 8 consecutive years Budget $25,000 / year Years Funded:2000-2007
Comment: Created and funded by the Dreyfus Health Foundation, this program provided direct aid of $8,000 per year to help people better themselves with local resources, and to be self-sustaining in their solutions. Annual training conferences provided opportunities for participants to construct low-cost projects and to apply for funding.
Major Donor: The Dreyfus Health Foundation, which is now part of The Rogosin Institute, New York.