WNTI 2025 Small Grants Program Request for Proposals (RFP)
The 2025 Small Grants Program Request for Proposals closed on November 16, 2025. Thank you to all who applied!
The application portal will open on October 1, 2025. Applications are due by 5:00 p.m. mountain time on November 16, 2025. Late applications are not accepted.
The Western Native Trout Initiative (WNTI) and our partners are proud to announce our 2025 Small Grants Program Request for Proposals. The purpose of the WNTI’s Small Grants Program is to catalyze or accelerate smaller, high-impact efforts to restore or recover western native trout. The small project funding program specifically supports collaborative approaches and partnerships involved in local efforts or community-based programs that provide for outreach or educational activities, volunteer engagement opportunities, or project design/monitoring activities that contribute to the Initiative’s efforts to conserve western native trout.
The focus of WNTI’s Small Grants Program is on projects with a strong element or focus on community outreach, education and/or volunteer engagement; or design/planning/monitoring work. Outreach is our top priority for this program and outreach projects will be ranked the highest, all other things being equal. WNTI’s Small Grants program funding is not intended to pay for a small portion of a large habitat restoration or construction project. Habitat project activities that are requesting support from this program should primarily involve outreach, education, or volunteer engagement, a community outreach event or work day, or project design/planning/monitoring tasks. READ the full Request for Proposals (RFP).
Approximately $20,000 in funding is available for projects that benefit one or more of WNTI’s 21 focal native trout or char species in their historic ranges in 12 western states. Individual projects can be funded at a maximum of $5,000.
WNTI gratefully thanks our partners at RepYourWater, Wilderness Lite Float Tubes, Wild Fly Productions, Western Native Trout Challenge anglers’ registrations and donations, and all WNTI individual donors for contributing funds in support of the Small Grants Program this year.
If your application is selected for funding, you will receive your grant agreement early in 2026. Project funds must be expended by July 1, 2027. Project funds are awarded on a reimbursable basis.
Organizations that have received WNTI funding in the past must have interim or final reports on file with WNTI in order to be eligible for funding during this cycle.
Questions about your project’s eligibility for the program? Contact Martin Koenig, WNTI’s Coordinator WNTI.Coordinator@wafwa.org
WNTI 2025 Small Grants Project Selection Guidelines, Criteria and Process
The WNTI Steering Committee will review and evaluate proposals based on the attached criteria and considerations. Project proponents must address these requirements, guidelines, and criteria in their project applications in order to be competitive in their application. READ MORE
WNTI 2025 Small Grants Project Application Instructions
All applications for WNTI’s Small Grants RFP are submitted through our online application portal, using Survey 123. This is different from the online portal WNTI has used over the past few years and hopefully easier to use. Here is a downloadable template of our online application form that is intended to assist you in collecting and organizing the information you will need to enter your application into our online application form. You will also need to use the WNTI budget template to upload into Survey 123 or you can create your own in Word.
Please do not wait until the last minute on deadline day to begin your application!
Technical questions about the online portal or need assistance with the application in Survey 123? Contact Selena Barrett reflectiongeospatial@gmail.com