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Grants

Notification of the 2025 North American Bluebird Society Grants Program

NABS, Inc. is a non-profit education, conservation, and research organization and our mission is the promote the recovery of bluebirds and other native cavity nesting bird species of North America.”  Accordingly, NABS offers annual competitive grants in support of that mission.

The NABS By-Laws mandate: 1) a Zeleny Fund wherein monies are put aside and are to be used only for the support of grants and, 2) that the Society can award grants in three areas:  research, conservation, and education.

Larry Zeleny Research Grants.  Research Grants  are competitive, and applications are invited via a Request for Proposals (RFP). RFPs are published on the NABS website as noted above. Research grants must be submitted by COB October 31, 2024, and awardees will be notified of their selection by February 1, 2025.  This year the NABS Grants Program will focus on applied research grants (some examples: finding more effective ways of defeating nestbox predators or designing nestboxes that will better shield eggs and fledglings from expected higher temperatures in the nesting season.  The NABS Grants Committee evaluates the proposals and recommends those for funding. It is important that the proposal directly show how it addresses the NABS mission as stated in the first paragraph above. Research grants are scored by the NABS grants committee which gives award recommendations to the Board of Directors. Any questions about research grants mentioned in the RFP can be addressed by email () prior to an application submission. Detailed instructions: How to apply for a NABS grant can be found here (PDF)

John Kujanik Education Grants   Support for ideas pertaining to the development of books, fact sheets, pamphlets, DVDs or other video products, or other kinds of media which can serve the purpose of educating bluebirders and/or the public about bluebirds and bluebirding (as well as other native cavity nesting species) can be submitted to NABS for consideration as an education grant.  Education grants can be submitted at any time and will be evaluated by the NABS Education Committee which will recommend funding to the Board of Directors (subject to funds available).  . It is important that the proposal directly show how it addresses the NABS mission as stated in the first paragraph above. Research grants are scored by the NABS grants committee which gives award recommendations to the Board of Directors. Any questions about research grants mentioned in the RFP can be addressed by email () prior to an application submission. Detailed instructions: How to apply for a NABS grant can be found here (PDF)

 

Art Aylesworth Conservation Grants   Proposals that deal with broader scale issues related to bluebird recovery might be candidates for a NABS conservation grant. For example, NABS recently participated in the funding of a three-year project to re-introduce Western Bluebirds to an area of North America where they had been extirpated.  Such projects might be considered for a NABS conservation grant.  Conservation grants can be submitted at any time and will be evaluated by an ad hoc committee which will recommend funding to the Board of Directors (subject to funds available).  . It is important that the proposal directly show how it addresses the NABS mission as stated in the first paragraph above. Research grants are scored by the NABS grants committee which gives award recommendations to the Board of Directors. Any questions about research grants mentioned in the RFP can be addressed by email () prior to an application submission. Detailed instructions: How to apply for a NABS grant can be found here (PDF)

Susan Lordi-Marker Challenge Grants  This  year, in addition to our regular grants (described above), we have a new grant opportunity.  One of NABS’ longtime supporters, Susan Lori-Marker, is generously offering a special opportunity to conduct research and/or develop new conservation methods for bluebirds.  As a result,  this year we will have Susan Lordi-Marker Challenge Grants.  Under this new program a NABS member or Affiliate will be able to submit a proposal for a research or conservation grant to help bluebirds and Susan will provide matching funds for that project.  Ideally this new program will support research into ways to address the common problems faced on a nestbox trail, e.g., reducing House Sparrow competition, “predator proofing” nestboxes, or regulating internal temperatures in nestboxes are a few examples. To participate in this new program the researcher would submit a proposal using the same 10-page format described elsewhere in this issue of Bluebird and by doing so they would commit to being responsible for half of the proposed budget. The other half of the required funds would come from a Lordi-Marker matching grant.  The number of Lordi-Marker grants is dependent on the project budgets.  A total of $4,000 matching funds is available for this grant season. It is important that the proposal directly show how it addresses the NABS mission as stated in the first paragraph above. Research grants are scored by the NABS grants committee which gives award recommendations to the Board of Directors. Any questions about research grants mentioned in the RFP can be addressed by email () prior to an application submission. Detailed instructions: How to apply for a NABS grant can be found here (PDF)

 

Some Research Grant Ideas  Some ideal/additional suggestions for research/data collection efforts that could provide important information useful to NABS as well as for investigators working on the conservation of bluebirds.  As environmental threats to bluebird survival continue to grow there is a growing need to assemble and analyze data about bluebirds that collects each year in the various continent-wide avian monitoring programs (e.g., data from annual surveys like BBS, eBird, Climate Watch, NestWatch and CBC).  These efforts could include not only collecting these databases but also assembling the data so it could be used to address NABS questions.  The recent article in Bluebird entitled: “Some Thoughts About the Environmental Stressors on Current Bluebird Populations, and How NABS Might Focus its Resources on Programs to Help”, (Spring 2024, issue 24, number 2) discusses this idea in more detail.  Individuals with skills in data collection and database management could contact the NABS Grants Committee chair, Bernie Daniel, with questions concerning grants in this area:  .