Wildlife Conservation Society

About Wildlife Conservation Society

A flagship feature of Wildlife Conservation Society’s recent grantmaking is a large conservation grant to World Wildlife Fund in Washington, DC, followed by another major award to The Nature Conservancy in Arlington, VA. Those grants sit within a portfolio that backs conservation work across science, field action, protected areas, and species protection. The foundation’s active programs also show a strong interest in training the next generation of conservation practitioners, from graduate scholarships and fellowships to partnerships that support early-career teams working on threatened species. Recent awards point to a funder that mixes large institutional support with smaller, project-based grants. In addition to major national conservation organizations, Wildlife Conservation Society has supported research and implementation partners such as Woods Hole Research Center in Falmouth, MA and Internews Network in Arcata, CA. It also funds capacity-building programs tied to specific regions and taxa, including reptile research, climate adaptation, and graduate education in wildlife conservation. Across the portfolio, the common thread is conservation-only funding: wildlife, wild places, and the organizations and researchers working on them. The grants support both direct conservation action and the scientific and educational pipeline that feeds it.

What Wildlife Conservation Society Funds

Wildlife Conservation Society gives across several linked conservation areas. In research and field science, it awarded $714,457 to Woods Hole Research Center in Falmouth, MA for conservation work, and it runs the WCS Research Fellowship Program for individual field research tied to threatened wildlife and wild places. In species-focused work, the John Thorbjarnarson Fellowship for Reptile Research supports reptile research and conservation capacity building, while the Conservation Leadership Programme backs early-career teams working on threatened species. For education and training, WCS India Graduate Program and WCS Graduate Scholarship Program provide graduate-level support for conservationists, including international study opportunities and advanced training. The foundation also supports implementation-oriented conservation work. Its Climate Adaptation Fund makes competitive grants to nonprofit conservation organizations in the United States for landscape-scale climate adaptation actions.

How Wildlife Conservation Society Gives