Grant Opportunities

TGIF Grants

TGIF logo

The Green Initiative Fund (TGIF)

UC Berkeley's Campus Green Initiative Fund (TGIF) provides grants for student, faculty, and staff-initiated sustainability projects. TGIF allocates funds to projects that promote sustainable modes of transportation, increase energy and water efficiency, restore habitat, promote environmental and food justice, and reduce waste. Portions of the fund also support education and behavior change initiatives, student aid, and student internships. TGIF is funded by student fees.

Since its inaugural grant cycle in the spring of 2008, TGIF has awarded more than $3.4 million in grants to 251 grant projects. These projects have included the funding of 464 student sustainability internships.

As of Spring 2020, 182 TGIF projects have successfully concluded and 63 are currently in progress. 

You can find further information about TGIF, including information about how to obtain grants, by going directly to their website.

Chancellor’s Community Partnership Fund

The UC Berkeley Chancellor’s Community Partnership Fund (the Fund) invests in projects and programs that:

  • Establish partnerships between UC Berkeley and Berkeley community entities.

  • Improve the quality of life for people who live or work in Berkeley. 

  • Further social justice and racial equity. Projects that benefit specific neighborhoods or groups of Berkeleyans are preferred.

Thematic areas include:

  • Arts, Culture and Placemaking

  • Community Health and Community Safety

  • Economic Development and Economic Empowerment

  • Education and Youth Development

  • Environmental Stewardship and Climate Resilience

  • Leadership Development and Civic Engagement

All grants will be for one-year projects or programs.

Further details are on the Chancellor’s Community Partnership Fund’s website.

StopWaste Waste Prevention Grants

StopWaste offers grants to nonprofits, businesses, and institutions for projects aid waste prevention within Alameda County, for residents/businesses of the county.

The grants fund projects that focus on:

  •  Waste prevention

  • Reuse and recovery of food, goods and materials 

  • Development, marketing, and use of recovered products

For details, see the StopWaste website

Have an idea for a project that involves campus facilities?

Part of UC Berkeley's research mission is to ensure that the campus environment serves as a learning laboratory for students and researchers.  The campus has a review processto ensure that facility-related teaching and class and research projects respect and protect this common good. Examples of projects that require this review are community gardens, art installations, et cetera.

Do you know of other funding opportunities?

If you find other grants that might be of interest to the UC Berkeley sustainability community, please let us know by emailing sustainability@berkeley.edu.

TGIF's Legacy

UC Berkeley engineers drill a borehole for geothermal exploration

Supported by a TGIF grant, a small team of UC Berkeley engineers, led by Kenichi Soga, the Chancellor’s Professor and Donald H. McLaughlin Chair in Mineral Engineering,  drilled a 400 foot deep borehole on campus. The purpose of the effort is to study the properties of the bedrock below campus and determine whether a geothermal heat pump system would be a feasible addition to long-term plans for decarbonizing the campus energy system.