The Together Outdoors (TO) Coalition, an initiative administered under the auspices of the Outdoor Recreation Roundtable (ORR) with the mission to advance equity and inclusion in all aspects of the outdoor recreation experience, announced this week a new grant program designed to support organizations on the front lines of the effort to build a more accessible, welcoming outdoor ecosystem. The program is made possible thanks to foundational and multi-year support from THOR Industries, with support from Winnebago Industries for the grant opportunity.

Grant focus areas include:

• Research + Resources – Monetary support for the development of effective research and resource tools concerning inclusion in the outdoors (i.e., toolkits, educational resources, audio and video resources, linguistic translations, etc.).
• Activating Change Outdoors – Outdoor recreation-related programming, events and leadership development initiatives that benefit communities of color and intersecting minority groups.

This is TO's inaugural grant program. The initial pilot round will offer $25,000 in funding focused on organizations with revenue under $100,000 that are led by, or serve a majority constituency of, communities of color and/or intersecting minority groups. Applications will be reviewed by Together Outdoors' Advisory and Governance Council members and are due by September 5th, 2022 at 11:59 P.M EST.

Awards will be disbursed by September 30th, 2022. In the first year of the program, projects must take place in one of the following 27 states or territories to be eligible for the grant: Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Tennessee, Texas, U.S. Virgin Islands, West Virginia, and Virginia. Future rounds of this grant program will be open to applicants nationwide.

Written or video submissions will be accepted. Information about the timeline, eligibility and where to submit applications can be found here.

For questions or additional information, please contact togetheroutdoors@recreationroundtable.org.