TCF Grants

As one of its main functions, TCF administers a turtle conservation and research grants program.
Awards are granted to organizations or individuals for specific conservation or research projects dealing with
highly endangered tortoises or freshwater turtles, but not marine turtles,
with either partial or full support as funding allows.

From 2003 through 2025
the TCF has awarded a total of US $1.62 million to 379 worthy turtle conservation projects.

For a listing of grants supported since 2003, please click here.

TCF Grant Program

Priority for TCF funding is given to projects that focus on tortoises or freshwater turtles that are highly threatened according to the IUCN Red List or the TFTSG Provisional Red List, as either Critically Endangered or Endangered, or which may be highly threatened but not yet officially classified as such on the Red List. We do not support work on marine turtles. TCF Awards are approximately in the $1000 to $5000 range per project (with full or partial funding depending on full project costs) to support conservation initiatives for tortoises and freshwater turtles.

Award recipients enter into contractual agreement with either Re:wild or Chelonian Research Foundation to produce the proposed work (these non-profit organizations serve as TCF’s financial umbrella organizations). Award recipients are also encouraged to publish at least partial results of the supported research in the international scientific turtle journal, Chelonian Conservation and Biology, published by Chelonian Research Foundation and Turtle Conservancy (www.chelonian.org).

There are two funding cycles annually. Total disbursement has averaged between $20,000 to $50,000 per funding cycle, or $40,000 to $100,000 per year to date.

Since our first funding cycle in 2003 through 2025 we have awarded US $1.62 million to 379 deserving turtle conservation projects.

Grant Application Deadlines: June 1 and December 1.
For detailed information and instructions on the Grant Application process, please click here.

For a listing of grants supported since 2003, please click here.

TCF Focuses its Grant Awards on
Species (or Subspecies) as Follows:

a. Species that are assessed as either Critically Endangered (CR) or Endangered (EN) on the IUCN Red List (see www.iucnredlist.org) or provisionally CR or EN by the IUCN Tortoise and Freshwater Turtle Specialist Group (see TTWG 2025 Turtles of the World Checklist and Atlas; www.iucn-tftsg.org/checklist/). These species are the primary focus for TCF.

b. Species that are assessed as Data Deficient (DD) or Not Evaluated (NE) on the IUCN Red List (www.iucnredlist.org) or provisionally DD by the IUCN Tortoise and Freshwater Turtle Specialist Group (www.iucn-tftsg.org/checklist/); OR species that have previously been assessed as LC, NT, or VU, but now have outdated IUCN or TFTSG Red List assessments (>10 years old) that specifically appear to need updating to reflect a significantly higher threatened level. Such projects need to provide a convincing rationale why the species’ conservation status may have changed and merits funding from the TCF. These species are a secondary but also important focus for TCF.

Please note that TCF does NOT fund work on Marine Turtles. In addition, TCF is unlikely to fund proposals for Gopherus agassizii (Mojave Desert Tortoise – USA), although it is assessed as Critically Endangered; but instead recommends that prospective applicants for projects concerning this species investigate potential grants available from the Desert Tortoise Council (http://deserttortoise.org) and other sources.