Sample Grant 1
Citizens Campaign Fund for the Environment
Long Island OffShore Wind Initiative - $22,500 for one year
Formed in 1985 by a small group of concerned citizens who recognized the need for greater public involvement in environmental policy, Citizen’s Campaign Fund for the Environment (CCFE) has since grown into an 80,000 member, state-wide, nonprofit organization with 15 full-time employees located in five offices throughout New York State. Through public education, research, organizing and advocacy, CCFE works to accomplish its mission of “building widespread citizen understanding and advocacy for policies and actions designed to manage and protect interdependent land and water resources, wildlife and public health.
In 1999, Citizens Campaign joined with several other environmental organizations in recommending that the Long Island Power Authority (LIPA) study the potential for generation of clean and renewable electricity from offshore winds. The optimistic results of the study, Long Island’s Offshore Wind Energy Development Potential: A preliminary Assessment, led LIPA to propose the construction of a moderately sized offshore wind farm capable of generating approximately 140MW, enough to power 44,000 homes. Since that time, over thirty local, regional, and national environmental, civic, health, business and faith-based organizations have come together under the banner of the Long Island Offshore Wind Initiative (LIOWI) to advocate for bringing the environmental, economic and public health benefits of offshore wind energy to Long Island.
This Rauch Foundation grant allowed the LIOWI coalition to hire a graphic designer to both design and produce informational materials about renewable energies, the proposed offshore wind project and the federal process surrounding the project. Coalition members have used these materials to assist in educating political leaders, local press and the general public. An additional aim of this grant was to help make the federal review process associate with this first of its kind project as rigorous, comprehensive and inclusive as possible so that it may be held as a standard for all future offshore wind development proposals.
