Environmental Health 2002 - 2016
Between 2002-2016, the Cedar Tree Foundation awarded annual dockets of multi-year grants in support of Environmental Health, investing a total of $15.4 million in organizations throughout the United States. As was true across most of Cedar Tree’s program areas, these grants were mostly large and multi-year (typically around $100,000/year for 3 years). Awarding larger grants to fewer organizations over several years was a strategy which allowed Cedar Tree to deepen impact at the organizational level, supporting the build up of organizational capacity to support programming.
Cedar Tree defined Environmental Health very broadly, supporting a range of work including organizations and projects that impacted the health of children and women, school-based environmental health programs and environmental justice. Click on the pictures below for highlights of past Cedar Tree grantees funded through the Environmental Health program.
Healthy Schools Campaign
Healthy Schools Campaign works to ensure that all children have access to healthy school environments where they can learn and thrive. To accomplish this, the organization helps to shape policy on the state and national level by working with the Department of Education and the Environmental Protection Agency.
In 2003, the Cedar Tree Foundation awarded the organization a 3 year general support grant of $300,000 to expand programming and organizational capacity. This grant was renewed several times over the following years, with focus shifting from general support funding to more targeted support around healthy food in schools. By the time that Cedar Tree awarded a last grant to HSC in November 2015 for $350,000, HSC was a healthy and vibrant organization with a full-time staff of 19 and a budget close to $2.5 million.
Oregon Environmental Council
Cedar Tree was an early supporter of Oregon Environmental Council's state based EcoHealthy Childcare program, a certification program which helped daycare and childcare centers create indoor and outdoor environments to intentionally reduce children’s exposures to chemicals and pollutants. The program included an easy to implement checklist of behavior and process changes related to preparation of food, cleaning products, indoor furnishings, pest control and other exposure routes. OEC recognized their program had the potential to impact the national childcare field, and Cedar Tree’s grant included funding to help OEC explore possible national partnerships for the program to expand its reach. In the second grant cycle, OEC formalized a partnership with the Children’s Environmental Health Network (a current Cedar Tree grantee) to run the EcoHealthy ChildCare program nationally. CEHN has successfully expanded and continued to run the program.
Silent spring Institute
Silent Spring Institute is a mission-driven scientific research organization dedicated to uncovering the environmental causes of breast cancer. Cedar Tree first awarded a grant to the organization in 2015 in support of work to advance the identification of chemicals (through a rapid, low cost screening tool) that impact breast cancer. Funding also helped to support the development of a communications strategy to make sure that new research was published and understood.
Center for Health, Environment and Justice
Center for Health, Environment and Justice works to prevent harm to human health by providing technical and organizing support to individuals and communities facing environmental threats. The organization was established in 1981 in response to extreme health challenges posed by toxic chemical exposure in the Love Canal neighborhood of Niagra Falls, NY and has since supported 15,000 groups (comprising of nearly 2.25 million people) to successfully fight similar health threats throughout the country.
Cedar Tree awarded the organization its first grant in 2002 and continued funding for their Childproofing Our Communities program through 2004.
SisterSong
SisterSong is a Southern based, national membership organization; their purpose is to build an effective network of individuals and organizations to improve institutional policies and systems that impact the reproductive lives of marginalized communities.
Cedar Tree approached Sister Song in 2007 to provide funding to explore environmental health impacts experienced by their membership of primarily community based organizations working on women’s health issues in communities of color. The grant fit squarely into Cedar Tree’s environmental justice framework, prioritizing the importance of supporting those most impacted to define and address environmental challenges and solutions. This grant was awarded in tangent with a grant to Planned Parenthood who were also considering environmental health issues relative to women’s health.
Beyond Pesticides
Beyond Pesticides is a national organization that works to reduce human exposures to toxic pesticides, indoors and out. Cedar Tree made its first grant to this organization in 2002 for general operating support, and over time, concentrated funding on BP’s programmatic work specifically related to reducing children’s exposure to pesticides. As part of this work, BP advocated for chemical policy reform, and supported the adoption of healthier land and building management practices across the country, while continuing to identify health hazards and alternatives.
Updated 9/2020