Dear Friends & Colleagues:

After an intensive strategic planning process in 2004, the W. C. Kenney Watershed Protection Foundation is initiating a new grantmaking program this year.

Since 1995, the Kenney Foundation has operated out of a California office, where dedicated staff and an engaged Board of Directors helped the Foundation grant over 2.5 million dollars to nearly one hundred excellent river protection groups.

Yet, the Foundation found that because so few people work on water from a West-wide perspective, our staff consistently needed more time to develop regional projects and rally funders and activists around western water issues. Given limited resources, the Foundation is curbing operational and staffing costs to invest more in grassroots groups working in their local watersheds.

The Foundation will set up an Advisory Committee in 2005 comprised of experts and activists who intimately know western grassroots river groups. The Committee will meet every three years, recommending groups for significant multi-year grants. The Foundation is giving grantmaking power to experts working in the field because we think those most closely engaged with western rivers are best suited to help distribute our charitable funds.

Because the Advisory Committee will select and recommend grantees, the Kenney Foundation will no longer accept unsolicited applications or funding inquiries for the bulk of our grantmaking. By dispensing with lengthy scoping and application processes, we can operate the Foundation without an office or staff, thereby making more funds available to grassroots groups. Grantees benefit by receiving larger, dependable three-year funding commitments.

Some small grants will also be given to projects that fit within our discretionary or policy grant guidelines.

While we are excited about our new grantmaking program, we realize that this shift means less direct contact with river activists. We hope that our Advisory Committee's experiences and connections will provide a window through which activists can inform and shape our future grantmaking. We would like to thank our past grantees for their exceptional efforts to protect and restore the West's most precious resource.

Regards,

Jay Kenney
Chair, W. C. Kenney Foundation