Chesapeake Bay Trust

The Chesapeake Bay Trust is a nonprofit grant-making organization dedicated to improving the watersheds of the Chesapeake Bay, Maryland Coastal Bays, and Youghiogheny River. Created in 1985 by the Maryland General Assembly, our goal is to increase stewardship through grant programs, special initiatives, and partnerships that support K-12 environmental education, on-the ground watershed restoration, community engagement, and the underlying science of these three realms. Through our grants, the Trust engages hundreds of thousands of students and volunteers in projects that have a measurable impact on the natural resources of our region. Grantees include schools, local governments, community groups, faith-based groups, watershed organizations, and other not-for-profit entities.

The Chesapeake Bay and local watersheds are healthy and safe, our waters are fishable and swimmable

Goal One: Offer services in convening, network building, training/technical assistance, and capacity-building to address climate change, bay habitat, water quality, and limited attention and resources.

Goal Two: Grantmaking to support efforts of other organizations to convene, collaborate, network build, train, assist, and build capacity, through the lenses of equity/justice, sustainability, and science.

Goal Three: The Trust will remain a well-run, fiscally responsible, well-resourced organization and will be supported by long-term, perpetual sources of revenue.

The Trust's senior management team receives leadership training and coaching. Staff at all levels have individual professional development plans with a $5,000 annual budget that is often used for leadership development or other relevant continuing education as tailored to each position and staff member. The staff holds multiple annual leadership development, team building, or professional development exercises together (e.g. a staff-wide exploration of Clifton Strengths). Finally, the Trust has a long-term Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice (DEIJ)-specific engagement to guide all operations and leadership development through the DEIJ lens.

The Chesapeake Bay Trust has a long history and the strong, stable infrastructure needed to execute a wide scope of environmental grantmaking strategically and efficiently. This stability also gives us the capacity to be nimble and adapt to new opportunities and challenges. In the past year, we adapted to COVID-19 quickly and easily so we could be positioned to support our grantees and applicants, many of whom were experiencing more dire challenges than the Trust was. We adjusted our outreach and engagement for applicants, the way we leverage the technical expertise of environmental leaders for grant review, and the methods we use to support grantees now pivoting to virtual or socially distant projects. In another program area, the Trust reimagined our 2020-2021 Chesapeake Conservation Corps cohort to virtual convenings and remote service delivery for a program otherwise entirely executed in-person. The Trust is nimble enough to leverage new opportunities, including the Tree Solutions Now Act of 2021, passed by the Maryland General Assembly to direct the planting of 500,000 trees in urban and under-served areas of Maryland in the next eight years. Due to the combination of our efficient and extensive grantmaking infrastructure and our long history of adaptability and innovation, the Trust was selected to administer this Urban Trees Program.