What is The PIG Difference Program?

The PIG Difference grant program was established by New Pig to help customers and friends restore, conserve and protect America’s most important habitats:  streams, rivers, ponds, swamps and wetlands. Several times a year, New Pig identifies worthy new and ongoing projects in this field, and provides funding in the form of cash and in-kind donations of New Pig products. We look for innovative groups in local communities working to make their corner of the world more sustainable.

We award approximately $25,000 annually to deserving projects.  Cash grants would total approximately $4,000 - $7,000 per funding round; 3x per year.  The remainder would be PIG product donations.

Funding priorities

Projects we fund:

• Projects that improve sustainability of waterways, watersheds, estuaries, tidal pools or wetlands, or the wildlife that are directly affected by them. Most anything that improves sustainability of a body of water will be considered.  Must be hands-on projects in local communities.
• Combinations of cash and in-kind donations of New Pig products are preferred. We will, however, consider grants for one or the other.
• We will consider both new projects or continuing projects.

Projects we do not fund:

• Advocacy groups or media projects.
• Political causes, candidates, organizations or campaigns.
• Individuals (solely for the benefit of one person on family).
• Endowments or general operating funds.
• Conferences, workshops, temporary exhibits, travel, surveys, films or publishing activities.
• Fundraising dinners or events.

Grant Sizes

Generally we entertain grant applications of less than $5,000, but we will entertain larger grant requests where appropriate on a per-case basis.

Eligibility

Groups and organizations of any type may apply, whether they are non-profits, businesses, or loosely-organized groups. The following rules apply:

Types of Grants

Cash Grants may be made to organizations recognized by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service. The organization must have an EIN and be one of the following types of entities to receive a cash grant:

• 501(c)3
• Government tax-exempt
• C-Corp or S-Corp
• LLC
• Partnership

In-Kind Grants of New Pig products may be made to organizations of any kind.

Direct Payment to Vendors for materials or services will be considered for groups that do not meet cash grant guidelines.

Organizations must be based in the United States.

Applicants do not have to be a New Pig customer to be eligible.

Applicants must be 18 or older.

Applications must be completed in full and submitted online to be considered.

Prior winners may continue to submit proposals without a waiting period.

How to Apply

Applications are accepted and reviewed on an ongoing basis throughout the year, with consideration given to three deadlines for that term’s application pool: 

• February 19
• June 17
• October 14

Applications are made online at pigdifference.org/apply

Application questions include the following:

• Project Summary - Overall intent of the project and scope of the effort.
• Description of Organization – Provide a brief overview of the organization’s mission and objectives, history/background, scope of current programs and services what they have done that they feel is noteworthy. When applicable, indicate if your organization is part of another organization and briefly describe the relationship between the organizations.
• Project Plan – Provide an overview of goals and objectives for the project.
• Project Location - The primary location for the project work to take place.
• Budget – Provide a detailed project budget and describe what role the grant will play in the overall budget.
• Timing – Outline the timeline and key milestones.
• Attachments – You may send extra items like audio/video, news articles, etc. Photos are encouraged.

Tax documentation is not required in the application process, but will be requested at the time an award is made.

Project Review and Selection Process

The review process typically takes about two months, and the pool of applicants and selected recipients will be notified of decisions approximately 8 weeks after each term’s application due date.

The Overall Process:

1. Open Submission Period. Program announcements are sent out and we accept grant submissions.
2. First Cut.  The PIG Difference Committee pre-reviews each submission, and de-selects any that do not meet the guidelines of the program.  
3. Crowdsourcing Period.  Full, unrevised applications are each linked on their own page on pigdifference.org for review or download, and will be introduced by a brief summary.  For a roughly two-week period, the public and outside experts are invited to evaluate the applications and comment on the page with any suggestions for project improvement.
4. Final Revisions.  Each organization may then elect to revise their application based on the suggestions from the Crowdsourcing Period.  We will then re-post the revised application version.
5. Public Voting.  The application pages are then opened to public voting.  This voting will not require the public to login to vote, but will limit an IP address to one vote per day, per device.  Our goal was to allow open and repeat voting, but to prevent abuse.
6. Award of Vote-based Grants.  The dollar amount of the round of funding will then be divided between the applications/organizations receiving 10% or more of votes.  Furthermore, the amount of each grant will be determined by the percent of votes.  For example, if three of eight organizations receive more than 10% of votes in a $5000 grant round, and they receive 6755, 4522 and 1804 votes, then they would receive 51.6% ($2580), 34.6% ($1730), and 13.8% ($690), respectively.
7. Notification.  Applicants will be notified of the status of their application via e-mail or postal mail after funding decisions are made

Suggested evaluation criteria for voting:

• Fulfillment of the purpose of the PIG Difference mission
• Project cost and scope
• Overall project impact
• Innovativeness of project
• Confidence that the project will come to fruition
• Worthiness as deemed by public vote

Publicity

Shortly after selection, a press release and publicity photo of the winners receiving the check will be sent to national trade media, New Pig customers and media in the community where the project will be done. New Pig will make arrangements with each winner to have the publicity photo taken.

New Pig will contact winners during the timeframe in which the project is happening to secure photos and quotes for stories in New Pig materials.

Reporting

Grant recipients must submit a one-page project update and at least 3 photos of the project within six months of the award date. The summary should explain how funds were used, as well as the overall impact of the project. If the project is not complete within six months, they will submit summaries each six months until the project is complete.

New Pig staff will follow-up with each grant recipient each 6 months until the project is complete to learn about progress and remind them of the summaries.

Contact Information

Andy James, Sustainability Manager

andrewj@newpig.com 

Doug Laplante, Chief Innovation Officer and VP, Strategy

doug@newpig.com