Civic Improvement

The GCA's Civic Improvement Committee provides guidance and administers monetary grants to projects in local communities whose efforts are in line with the GCA’s purpose, vision, mission, and values. Grants are available to member clubs in the following areas:

Common Ground Collaborative

The Common Ground Collaborative (CGC) was created to support GCA member clubs in building long-term relationships with diverse community groups to develop, improve, and maintain public land and programs.

Founders Fund

These are monetary grants to projects in local communities proposed by clubs; each member club votes for their finalist choice. Read all about the most recent Founders Fund winner.

Partners for Plants

The purpose of Partners for Plants is to facilitate hands-on projects between local GCA clubs and land managers on federal, state, local, and other significant public lands. 

Partners for Plants (P4P) projects are developed to monitor and conserve rare plants, restore native habitats and remove invasive weeds on federal, state and local public lands. P4P volunteers have partnered with land agencies to conserve a variety of natural open spaces throughout the United States. Since the program's beginning in 1992, the GCA has funded 210 projects with grant funds ranging from $1,000 to $3,000 each. Over the past five years, the GCA has granted $250,000 for P4P.

Coordinated by a GCA member club, each Partners for Plants project is as unique as the group undertaking the task. Volunteers work with professional botanists and land managers who supervise activities and share their knowledge and expertise. Projects can involve inventorying, mapping, monitoring, propagating, and transplanting endangered plants. Requiring a time commitment ranging from days to weeks or even years, each project serves as a catalyst for accomplishing important endangered plant work that in many cases could not have been accomplished otherwise. 

Restoration Initiative

These grants are for eligible landscape restoration and conservation projects in communities devastated by natural disasters.