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Sitka Activator Fund

Announcing the recipients of the 2025 sitka activator fund

The Sitka Foundation is pleased to announce the results of the inaugural Sitka Activator Fund. This philanthropic fund, launched in summer 2025, enables small charitable organizations and communities to engage citizens, members and neighbours in local stewardship actions through volunteering and presence on the land and water. The Sitka Foundation hopes that this will inspire community connections and also encourage British Columbians to protect and restore nature in their own backyard. 

This year thirty-two grants were awarded in amounts between $1,000 and $25,000, totalling $500,000. Each grant offers small organizations that lead community based work in the Salish Sea funding to use in the upcoming year. To qualify, each group shared their plans to generate, amplify and enhance volunteering for nature. The pilot Activator Fund was significantly over subscribed, showing an interest by Salish Sea leaders to encourage place-based stewardship. The call for proposals closed in Fall 2025 and funding has just been sent: all the applicants who took the time to apply are celebrated for their important work. The Sitka Foundation worked hard to make the process quick, easy, short, and transparent. Selection was a tough and demanding process.

Thanks go to the Advisory Circle who played an essential role in shaping, launching, and stewarding this Fund. Their understanding of what communities need and their collective lived experience of the power of community-led nature caregiving has shaped the Activator Fund as a relevant, easy-to-access, and helpful source of grant money. The Sitka Foundation is grateful for their wisdom and time to make decisions for the final recipients of the Fund. 

Below are the Sitka Activator Fund Grant Recipients for its inaugural pilot program 2025-2026:

Átl’ka7tsem/Howe Sound Biosphere Region Initiative Society

To convene the Howe Sound Environmental Educators Network and foster collaboration, knowledge sharing, and resource exchange among educators and academics.
BC Marine Trails Network Association 

To expand the Coastal Caretaker initiative to promote safe, positive stewardship actions and enhance volunteer-led environmental care.
BlueAct Marine Society

To fill data gaps on herring spawning in Gibsons, highlight eelgrass beds, and support Indigenous leadership in coastal stewardship.
Circular Farm and Food Society

To connect hands-on outdoor agriculture with school meal programs, teaching sustainable food-growing practices.
Cowichan Community Land Trust Society

To increase volunteer stewardship of Garry Oak ecosystems while integrating Indigenous priorities around reconciliation and access.
Denman Conservancy Association

To develop a community-based ecosystem monitoring program, engaging volunteers, especially youth, in long-term data collection for sustainable land management.
Discovery Coast Greenways Land Trust

To launch an environmental education program that combines school programs and community Nature Club activities for hands-on conservation learning.
Galiano Conservancy Association

To revitalize volunteer programs by expanding outreach, resources, and learning opportunities to increase community participation.
Gambier Island Conservancy

To provide resources to build and support a volunteer team to launch and sustain a Streamkeepers initiative.
Hornby Island Natural History Center

To advance the Seaweed education and research program, and strengthen youth and family outdoor learning.
Institute for Multidisciplinary Ecological Research in the Salish Sea

To mobilize regional biodiversity data, empowering communities to respond to ecological change.
Lasqueti Island Nature Conservancy

To expand volunteer engagement and lead conservation and monitoring activities.
Marine Life Sanctuaries Society of British Columbia

To maintain and expand citizen science marine monitoring programs using volunteer divers.
Mitlenatch Island Stewardship Team

To support the Volunteer Stewardship Education and Support Project. 
Nanaimo & Area Land Trust Society

To support citizen science Turtle Ambassadors in monitoring nests, documenting activity, and educating park visitors.
Pender Islands Conservancy Association

To carry out land stewardship, ecological restoration, community education, and monitoring programs that build resilience and protect biodiversity.
Rocky Point Bird Observatory Society

To support banders in training volunteers and strengthen Indigenous community relationships.
Salish Sea Regenerative Farm Society

To engage volunteers and youth in ecosystem restoration and community-based food system resilience.
Saturna Island Marine Research & Education Society

To expand community participation in marine research, conservation, and education.
Society of Friends of Strathcona Park

To engage volunteers in hands-on invasive species removal and environmental stewardship.
Stanley Park Ecology Society

To renew Stanley Park’s nest box program by engaging volunteers in building, monitoring, and cultural walks to support bird populations.
Stewards of Sc’ainew Society Incorporated

To use trail cameras to monitor wildlife and collect data that will guide conservation and management decisions.
Sunshine Coast Conservation Association

To expand volunteer opportunities and respond to community requests for conservation support across the Sunshine Coast.
The Loon Foundation

To engage community volunteers in hands-on ecological monitoring of marine and freshwater ecosystems.
The Starfish Environmental Society

To mobilize more than 500 youth under 25 to take action against shoreline pollution while developing leadership and environmental skills.
Transition Salt Spring Society

To formalize and increase volunteer engagement in coordination with restoration programs to meet growing community interest.
Tsolum River Restoration Society

To engage citizen scientists in monitoring fish and habitat, providing data to inform restoration and emergency response efforts.
Vancouver Botanical Gardens Association

To support the volunteer-run Learning Garden and provide hands-on education on biodiversity, sustainable gardening, and urban ecosystem health.
WildResearch Society 

To enable skilled, permitted banders to coordinate and train volunteers, manage data and site access, and provide hands-on experiences.
Wild Bird Trust of British Columbia

To support and train volunteers to safely take on leadership roles in restoration and work events.
W̱SÁNEĆ Lands Trust Society

To revitalize community-led wetland and riparian restoration at W̱SÁNEĆ owned sites.
Young Naturalists Club of British Columbia Society

To support volunteers, strengthen outreach, and sustain programming that connects families to air, land, and sea.

Applications for the Activator Fund are now closed.

Qualifying specifications/eligibility

  • Focussed on the Salish Sea (e.g. Metro Vancouver, Southern Vancouver Island to Campbell River, through Desolation Sound and south via the Sunshine Coast and Howe Sound)
  • Request for funding between $1,000-$25,000 to be spent in 12 months
  • Applicant must be a qualified donee or connected to a qualified donee
  • Inclusions: funding can be used for:
    • Human resource costs (time/salary for coordination, management, operations, etc.)
    • Materials
    • Event costs
    • Digital infrastructure or communications
    • Restoration or knowledge gathering activities
    • Community-based monitoring
    • Other place-based community stewardship expenses
  • Exclusions: funding cannot be used for:
    • General fundraising campaigns
    • Organizations currently receiving a Sitka Foundation grant
    • Operational, staffing, project, program, or other costs of the organization not related to volunteerism
    • Endowment funding
    • Funding of scholarships or fellowships
    • Partisan activities
    • Emergency needs or for a deficit
    • Capital building infrastructure costs

Advisory Circle Members

We thank the following advisors for their integral role in guiding the creation, launch, and decision making for the first Sitka Activator Fund.

  • Trisha Beaty

    Trisha Beaty is the co-founder and Vice-President of the Sitka Foundation.  Trisha also sits on the board of Ecojustice, the Nature Trust of BC, and Birds Canada. Trisha has a particular love of hiking in the Coastal and Rocky Mountains, kayaking British Columbia’s coastline, and biking through the interior and on Vancouver Island. Trisha lives in Átl’ḵa7tsem / Howe Sound.

    Trisha Website

  • Shauna Johnson

    Shauna is the marine use planner for the W̱SÁNEĆ Leadership Council. She is a registered professional planner and holds degrees in environmental science and Indigenous community planning. She is also an Adjunct Professor at the UBC in the School of Community of Regional Planning’s Indigenous Community Planning (ICP) program. Shauna sits on the boards of Native Land and the Real Estate Foundation of BC. Shauna lives in Vancouver, BC.

    Shauna Johnson

  • Nikki Wright

    Nikki is the founder and former executive director of SeaChange and initiated the seagrass conservation working group.  Nikki now works as the Eelgrass habitat coordinator for the Pacific Salmon Foundation on eelgrass conservation efforts in the Salish Sea. Nikki lives in Brentwood Bay, BC.

    Nikki Wright

Questions? Contact info@sitkafoundation.org with “Activator Fund” in the subject heading.