NANFA Gerald C. Corcoran Education Grant

The North American Native Fishes Association (NANFA) has created a cash award program to support development and implementation of educational projects featuring native fish ecology and conservation. Thanks to a generous matching grant from the Corcoran family, this program will provide NANFA members with up to $2000 every other year for environmental education projects such as:

• Production and distribution of educational materials (print and electronic media)
• Education based aquatic surveys
• Lecturing expenses
• Nature Center exhibits
• School materials and displays
• Field and laboratory supplies
• Teacher training workshops

Application Guidelines

• Qualifying applicants must be members in good standing of NANFA. Membership dues will be accepted with funding applications, or paid separately.

• Educational projects require creativity and often require considerable verbiage to describe them accurately. Therefore, no maximum length is defined. Applicants are encouraged to be thorough, yet succinct. As a guide, a suitable proposal, including cover sheet, budget, timeline and accompanying information could total approximately 8 pages of double spaced text.

• Proposal format should be as follows:
• Cover sheet with project title and applicant's name, email and postal addresses and telephone number(s).
• Summary statement of proposed project describing its relevancy to NANFA's stated mission.
• Educational objectives.
• Description of specific and generalized target audience(s) including audience size, age/grade level ranges, and other pertinent demographics.
• Detailed description of proposed project including but not limited to: educational format, planned site(s), project lifespan, expected outcomes, and methods of evaluating project success.
• Timeline.
• Itemized budget.

• Include a list of all cooperating individuals and organizations with contact name, email and postal addresses and telephone numbers. Indicate NANFA memberships where applicable and include a one-two sentence statement of each individual's/organization's expected contribution to the project.

• NANFA regional projects will receive priority, based upon the number of members involved. Of course the project must be competitive and well-planned. If the project is proposed as a NANFA regional project, please include a letter of endorsement from the appropriate regional representative(s). If the applicant is a NANFA regional representative, an endorsement can be obtained from a member of the NANFA Board of Directors.

• If funded, recipient will:
• Be required to provide a financial accounting for all funds expended and held financially responsible for any misuse of NANFA funds.
• Be requested to report on the project in one of the following ways:
  • An article to be published in American Currents
  • A presentation at a future NANFA Conference
  • Text and photographs for the NANFA website.

• Recipient is requested to acknowledge NANFA's financial support in any published materials produced with the funds and in any print or electronic media coverage of the project.

• Application deadline is March 31, 2022 and will be awarded every two years thereafter.  Award(s) will be announced and funds distributed by June 1st of the same year.

Submit copy of the application to, via e-mail:

Scott Schlueter