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Click on a project's title to see the full text of the proposal.

21 projects match your criteria.

"Wild Cherry Tree" Sustainable Desert Restoration

Goal: Planting selected indigenous species in a "tipping point" desert area will help to stabilize and restore a crucial ecosystem in Alashan, Inner Mongolia.
Region: China
Status: Funded and Ongoing Budget: $30000
Comment: The Herders' Cooperative is taking responsibility for the long-term success of this project. The "wild cherry" (Prunus mongolica maxim, or Mongolian Bian Tao) trees will yield an income-producing crop, valuable in traditional medicine, in three to five years. Companion plants will provide additional forage for camels and goats, as well as stabilizing the soil.

Donors: Keidanren Nature Conservation Fund (KNCF), Tokyo Japan [May 2009], Dinah Bear, Washington DC [January 2010]

China - Vermont Summer Exchange Program 2005

Goal: High school students from Guangdong (southern China) and Vermont work cooperatively to explore natural resource management and develop environmental policies
Region: China
Status: Funded and Ongoing Budget: $18000
Comment: Green Across the Pacific's summer exchange programs alternate between southern China and Vermont. Teenagers experience the cultural enrichment of an immersion program, with an environmental policy and leadership focus.

Donors: Various individuals and foundations

Green SOS Small Grant Fund, 2003

Result: to support Chinese university student environmental activities in the less developed western interior provinces, as a student group organizes and carry out a small grant competition for environmental projects
Region: China
Status: Completed - Final Report Budget: $3300 Comment: The Green SOS Council posts project proposals on their Green SOS website. Their decision-making process is visible to the public, as is the Virtual Foundation's. In their start-up year (see Green SOS Small Grant Fund 2002), they modeled openness and fairness in their own decision-making, and attracted participants from a variety of universities in different provinces.

Donors: Rona Florio, Alaska [September 2002]; Rachel Golden, Illinois [October 2002]; Shannon Simrell, Vermont [October 2002]; Ellanore McKenna, Arizona [October 2002]; Tom Walski, Pennsylvania [October 2002]; Jean and David Rosenberg, Vermont [October 2002]; Barbara and John Chaffee, New York State [December 2002]; Trace Foundation

Green SOS Small Grant Fund, 2004

Result: To provide opportunities to student environmental groups in the western interior provinces of China, by enabling them to administer and to apply for grants for their projects
Region: China
Status: Completed - Final Report Budget: $3300 Comment: Green SOS has built a dynamic network of student university groups by providing grant opportunities and by creating a transparent, decentralized and accessible process.
See their Progress Report for 2003 for examples.

Donors: Katherine Gould-Martin, New York State [August 2003; March 2004; April 2004]; Asia Foundation [April 2004]

Green SOS Small Grant Fund, 2006

Goal: Through an annual student-run grant competition, to support projects initiated by Chinese university student groups throughout southwest China
Region: China
Status: Funded and Ongoing Budget: $3300
Comment: The Green SOS organization has worked for four years to encourage student environmental groups throughout their region of China. This project gives students - the future leaders of China - valuable experience in working with communities and local government agencies, and carrying out their ideas from start to finish.

Donors:: Katherine Gould-Martin, New York State [February, April,June 2005]; The Olive Branch Fund at the Schwab Fund for Charitable Giving, California [July 2005]; For the wedding of Chris Langer and Pearl Liao Hong, New York State [September 2005]; Katherine Gould-Martin [October 2005; April 2006]

Green SOS Small Grant Fund - 2002

Goal: To support Chinese university student organizations as they develop and carry out environmental improvement projects on their campuses or in their communities. The "Mid-Term Reports" [July 8, 2002; April 19, 2002] show the evolution of this project.
Region: China
Status: Funded and Ongoing Budget: $3000

Donors: Ford Foundation [March 2002], through the Virtual Foundation's Regional Grantmaking Program.

Chinese Environmental Leader Travels to U.S.

Result: To enable Wang Yongchen, a dynamic environmental leader, to travel to the United States to participate in an international peace conference in June 2005, and to inform American audiences about her work.
Region: China
Status: Completed - Final Report Budget: $1877 Comment: Wang Yongchen is an award-winning journalist and public speaker. For over a decade she has traveled around China documenting environmental damage and remediation efforts. She has won numerous cash awards, which she donates to Chinese environmental organizations. This is a wonderful opportunity for her to bring her message of hope and conviction to the United States.

Donors: The Olive Branch Fund through the Schwab Fund for Charitable Giving [California], May 2005

Leadership Growth for Green SOS Council

Result: To encourage Chinese student initiatives by developing young people's capacity to run a small grants program
Region: China
Status: Completed - Final Report Budget: $1760
Donors: Ford Foundation, through Virtual Foundation's Regional Grant-Making Program [July 2002]

Trees for Life - Grow a Tree (Fourth Project)

Goal: To continue this education and reforestation project, in response to increasing interest from new schools in the Beijing and Xinjiang areas.
Region: China
Status: Funded and Ongoing Budget: $1430
Comment: Previous activities of "Trees for Life" involved hundreds of schoolchildren in planting and caring for their own trees. See the "Funded Projects" section for reports and photographs.

Donors: Ron Blum, Massachusetts [September 2002]; Lydia Thompson and the 6th floor MADEP, Massachusetts [October 2002]; Rachael Sharon for the Fifth Anniversary (wood) of Andrew and Ria Sharon, Missouri [October 2002];Esther Schmidt, New Jersey [October 2002]; Trace Foundation

Black Necked Cranes

Goal: To support the efforts of The Volunteers' Association for Black-Necked Cranes Protection in Zhaotong Prefecture of China to preserve this endangered species and its habitat
Region: China
Status: Funded and Ongoing Budget: $1200
Comment: In October 2001, Virtual Foundation staff members traveled with Sun De-hui to the cranes' migratory habitat in Da Shan Bao, Yunnan Province. We met personally with local officials, farmers and village residents in this beautiful but impoverished region. Sun De-hui has made impressive progress in gathering local support for these birds; now international action and support would greatly help.

Donors: Rachel Golden, Illinois [October 2002], Alene Case, Pennsylvania, in memory of her parents, Phil and Lola Nordstrom [October 2002]; Diane and Dave Schnaars, Pennsylvania [October 2002]; Trace Foundation; Sam Evans, Washington State [November 2002]

Bird Banding by Volunteers

Goal: To organize and train volunteers to participate in bird-banding activities in different regions of China; to raise public awareness of the value of ecosystems used by migrating birds
Region: China
Status: Funded and Ongoing Budget: $1139
Comment: This would be the first-ever volunteer group to participate in the Chinese national bird-banding activities. Support for their costs for equipment and reference materials will enable them to educate themselves and contribute to this program.

Donors: Peter Lynch, Vermont [October 2002]; Tom Moran, Vermont [October 2002]; Trace Foundation; Shelley and David Hamel, Aleutian Islands, Alaska [December 2002]; For wedding of Tsu-Yu Tsao and Lisa Yuen [January 2005]; For Liu Feng and Chris Winham; For Yoko Matsuda in memory of the life of Tomo Matsuda [Japan]; For Stellah red Trestle Marienthal-LeGendre; For Owen Christopher Stier; For Rafael Sylvan Kunreuther Karpowitz - Bard College, New York State [September 2005]; With Thanks to Jianjun Fang, Bard College [March 2006]; For Rosalind Seneca, New Jersey [August 2006]; In Memory of Paul and Josephine Lee [October 2006]; In Memory of Eleanor Winograd Judd; In Memory of Eunice Smith Whittlesey [February 2007]

Students Monitor Air in Beijing

Goal: Twenty students and 2 teachers will sample and test air in industrial and residential sites of Beijing. Students will use their project to raise awareness of air quality issues among other students and encourage environmental protection activities.
Region: China
Status: Funded and Ongoing Budget: $1100

Donors: Derek Chung Fund, San Francisco Foundation, California; Anonymous, California; and matching funds from the Trace Foundation [June 2002]

Trees for Life - Grow a Tree (Second Year)

Result: Children learn to respect the natural environment through caring for their own small trees, from germinating in their classrooms, to planting outdoors.
Region: China
Status: Completed - Final Report Budget: $1100 Comment: This year's expansion of "Trees for Life" enabled children from 10 elementary schools in Xinjiang Autonomous Province to participate.

Donors: "Friends of the Fragile Earth", Church of the Epiphany, Clarks Summit, Pennsylvania [December 1999] with Virtual Foundation Matching Funds

"Green Wall" to Stop Desertification of the En Ge Bei Desert in China

Result: To organize 20-30 Beijing students and their parents to plant trees during their summer vacation and create a "Green Wall" barrier against desertification.
Region: China
Status: Completed - Final Report Budget: $1040 Comment: Desertification at the edges of the En Ge Bei Desert, located in China's Northwest, is causing sandstorms and altering the weather of China's interior.

Donors: Upper Mohawk Valley Model United Nations Conference at Hamilton College [December 1997], and the Upper Mohawk Valley chapter of the UNA-USA, with Virtual Foundation Matching Funds

2001 Survey on Student Environmental Groups in China

Result: To document the concerns and activities of university groups concerned about environmental issues, and to encourage environmental education in Chinese universities
Region: China
Status: Completed - Final Report Budget: $990 Comment: See the Progress Report, July 2001.

Donors: Ford Foundation, April 2001

Trees for Life-- Grow a Tree (First Year)

Result: This project provided funding for 140 elementary school students to grow saplings in their schoolyard, which were later planted in the countryside.
Region: China
Status: Completed - Final Report Budget: $825 Comment: This project was so successful that it has inspired the original funders to support its continuation and expansion in future years. See "Trees for Life - Grow a Tree" second and third year funded projects.

Donors: "Friends of the Fragile Earth", Church of the Epiphany, Clarks Summit, Pennsylvania [December 1997], with Virtual Foundation Matching Funds

Adopt Trees

Result: The thousands of saplings that the government planted in a national park near Beijing, China were cultivated. Volunteers paid for the travel to care for the trees. Funding paid for tools.
Region: China
Status: Completed - Final Report Budget: $792
Donors: Esther Schmidt, New York City [December 1996]

Bills and Feathers: Environmental Education Exchange with China

Result: To supply bird watching materials to young students in China and to develop international linkages between young bird watchers in the U.S. and China.
Region: China
Status: Completed - Final Report Budget: $550
Donors: Kirk Davis [August 1997]

Trees for Life - Grow a Tree (Third Year, 2001)

Goal: Children from different elementary schools throughout China participate in this project, which consists of germinating and planting their own trees. They will also write short papers on their experiences.
Region: China
Status: Funded and Ongoing Budget: $500
Comment: The American donor, "Friends of the Fragile Earth", has ensured that this project was replicated and expanded to involve more schools and children in the coming year.

View the Progress Report, July 2001.

Donors: "Friends of the Fragile Earth", Church of the Epiphany, Clarks Summit, Pennsylvania [January 2001]

Ark Newsletter (Fengzhou Newsletter)

Goal: To support the creation of a newspaper on ecological issues
Region: China
Status: Funded and Ongoing Budget: $500
Comment: Students at South West Forestry School in Kunming, Yunnan Province have recently formed an environmental group. The creation and distribution of a newspaper on local ecological issues was their own idea.

Donors: Virtual Foundation Regional Grantmaking Program - Ford Foundation funding through ECOLOGIA [October 2001]

The Chinese American Friendship Forest

Goal: To create a memorial for the three Chinese journalists killed during the accidental NATO bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, in May 1999. This project has no set budget. Your donation will add trees, one by one, to the forest. To date, a total of $2430 has been collected.
Region: China
Status: Funded and Ongoing Budget: $0
Comment: People from the United States found a way to build bridges to the Chinese people in the aftermath of the NATO bombing. This on-going project supports citizen-to-citizen international cooperation; see the Progress Report.

Donors: [1999 - 2001]
Anonymous (3)
Andrea Crescente
Allan and Carolyn Harris
Lory Harris,
on behalf of Colin and Jessica;
Josephine Hay
Willis Hay
Joe and Kim Ksyniak
Bonnie Mac Donald
David and Andy Nowakowski
Linda Oot
Joe Pierpont
Esther Mathews Schmidt
Charles Scott
Diane Schnaars
Lori Shemanski
Matthew, Sarah, and Bradley Sopinski;
Lydia Thompson,
in memory of Nate Krueger;
Barbara Tinker
Thomas Walski
Clara Wolf
Kimberly Wolf
Richard Wolf
James Woodworth.

Note: If you can't decide which project to support, why not support the Foundation itself or let the Foundation decide? You can even design a project.

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