Elephant Conservation & Research Funding Support
The International Elephant Foundation’s Elephant Conservation and Research Funding Support Program is now open for Application Submissions.
To be considered for funding in 2025, applicants are required to complete and submit the ONLINE 2025 IEF Grant Application no later than Friday, August 2, 2024.
On average IEF funds 20 to 25 projects annually. The average Grant Award is $15,000 per year.
IEF is interested in supporting effective, sustainable conservation projects that will make a positive impact for elephants, habitats and the communities that share their land. The application must show that the project goals, methods and intervention are perceived to be or known to be functionally effective, ethically and culturally appropriate, feasible, and the relevant stakeholders are included in the project development and activities. IEF will not fund activities or interventions that have been proven to be ineffective. Therefore make sure you research the methods you are proposing to see what has already been tried and how it has been tried.
General Information
To help guide you through the online application we have created a copy of the application in a Word.doc file which you can use to prepare your draft answers for copying or typing into the online form.
Criteria for funding
To guide you in your project submission, the following criteria have been established:
IEF prefers to support annual and multi-year projects that address:
- Human-Elephant Conflict prevention and mitigation
- Habitat conservation and management;
- Conservation education and community outreach;
- Transfrontier or transboundary elephant conservation;
- Elephant protection programs including anti-poaching patrols, infra-structure development, security, investigation and prosecution;
- Reducing and preventing the ivory and bushmeat trade; and
- Research into elephant diseases.
Before you begin to write your proposal, consider that IEF prefers to fund:
- Community-based programs that show promise for future growth;
- Projects that have an immediate and measurable effect on elephant conservation;
- Projects that can be accomplished and their success initially evaluated within a year, or two years if the proposal indicates a longer timeframe;
- Project investigators’ CV demonstrates experience or a strong indication of their ability to be successful; and
- Project investigator has established field-based operations in the project area.
As you prepare your budget, these are some items that IEF will not fund:
- Out of country travel to project site;
- Purchase of guns and ammunition;
- Paid informants;
- Tuition fees for Advanced Degrees; and
- Overhead, indirect, contingency, and miscellaneous costs.
Files that you are expected to upload:
(Type) / Description
(image) / Country Project Location
(image) / Specific Project Location
(image) / Elephant(s) in Project Location
(document) / Copy of Organization/Entity Country Recognition – if appropriate
(document) / Investigator and Co-Investigator(s) CV
(document) / Permit(s), Letter(s), Endorsement(s)
(document) / Permits or IACUC – if appropriate
PLEASE NOTE:
We strongly suggest you download the draft application sample and use that word document to create the content and answers for your application, then copy and paste your answers, versus only using the application itself. This way if there is an interrupt with your internet connection and if you don’t have an opportunity to save the form you will not have lost your original content.
You are able to save the form and continue to complete it at a later time. If you elect to save and continue you are provided a link and this link can also be sent to an email address. If you return to edit, but do not finish your input and want to continue again at a later time – YOU MUST CLICK the “Save and Continue Later” link again, and provide the email address to be sent. The link will be the same – but your additional information will not be saved if you do not click this link EACH TIME to save.
Be sure to click the “Send Link” button – you will receive the email shortly.
The online application form will guide you through the process of providing the information we are seeking that is valuable to us in determining if IEF will fund your project. We are primarily interested in content, clarity, and well-thought-out methodology. Reviewers will base their evaluations only on the information presented in this application.
If you are unable to use this form, please click HERE to contact us immediately by email to discuss alternatives.
