Nature-Centrism as a Lens for Organizational Behavior and Decision-Making – Feb 3

Posted by V. Kann Rasmussen Foundation on January 21, 2025

V. Kann Rasmussen Foundation issues open call for Nature-Centrism as a Lens for Organizational Behavior and Decision-Making

Founded in 1991, the V. Kann Rasmussen Foundation (VKRF) works from the premises that human activities lie at the core of most environmental problems, and human creativity and collaboration are at the heart of solving the problems these activities create. The environmental mission of the foundation is to support the transition to a more environmentally resilient, stable, and sustainable planet.

The foundation has issued its spring 2025 open call for proposals Nature-Centrism as a Lens for Organizational Behavior and Decision-Making.

In its next rounds of grantmaking, the foundation will continue its recent work at the systems level, further exploring the consequences of, and solutions to, humanity’s anthropocentric departure from value structures based on our kinship with nature. As an entry point for its upcoming spring 2025 grantmaking round, the foundation will explore whether a more mainstream adoption of a nature-centric worldview is possible, either within our current structures or in the future, when the escalating polycrisis prepares the ground for a broader re-examination of our current paradigm.

This call for proposals focuses on nature-centric decision making, in which nature’s inherent value becomes a central principle and informs institutions’ practices across their activities. VKRF seeks to identify grantees who are ready to make the recognition of interbeing, interdependence, and interconnectedness central to their strategy development, decision making, and day-to-day operations.

Projects could include, but are not limited to: participatory research on governance frameworks for nature-centric decision making; participatory social research on nature-centric cultural shifts, design principles, and management practices; planning and learning processes that will facilitate an organization’s application of a nature-centric lens to its strategy and planning processes, day-to-day operations, and relationships with external partners and stakeholders; building organizational capacity for buy-in of nature-centric strategies at the highest levels of organizational decision-making and governance; peer learning in the form of workshops, convenings and conferences that will allow multiple organizations to co-create and share methodologies, approaches, tool-building, and practices that make a nature-centric lens prominent in behaviors and decision-making; or related visionary work exploring scenarios moving us toward a mainstream nature-centric future.

The foundation’s total grantmaking budget for the spring 2025 funding round is $6 million, and the foundation anticipates funding 12 to 15 projects.

The foundation is especially interested in funding academics collaborating with stakeholders and influencing actual decision-making processes; alliances, networks, and associations that have the range to influence entire fields or sectors; and large organizations and institutions that are willing to develop and test the application of nature-centric principles as a decision-making lens in their own organizations and in their engagement with external stakeholders.

As a private U.S. foundation, VKRF is only allowed to fund projects that are hosted by qualified nonprofits with U.S. 501(c)(3) status or non-U.S. organizations that go through the “equivalency determination” process. Most universities will also qualify, even if government funded.

Letters of intent are due February 3, 2025, at 5:00 p.m. ET. Upon review, selected applicants will be invited to submit a full proposal, due April 9, 2025, at 5:00 p.m. ET.

For complete program guidelines and application instructions, see the V. Kann Rasmussen Foundation website.

Deadline: February 3, 2025 at 5:00 p.m. ET