Since June of 1997, the Community Foundation has had an active interest in environmental challenges that affect the Muskegon County region. Through a significant joint effort by the Council of Michigan Foundations, Great Lakes Protection Fund, C.S. Mott Foundation, and the Joyce Foundation, an Environmental Collaborative consisting of 21 Community Foundations including the Community Foundation for Muskegon County was formed. The Collaborative builds and promotes the involvement of Community Foundations in environmental issues that affect the Great Lakes Watershed Basin. Each of the participation Community Foundations provides community leadership in convening community meetings, leading community initiatives and conducting grant making activity in support of local and regional environmental issues. Their lessons learned are shared in a document available at www.cmif.org.

The Trustees of the Muskegon Foundation recognized the importance of moving into the environmental interest area and have taken two important steps to institutionalize this aspect of Foundation program activity. First, the Trustees established a permanent Environmental Committee that advises the Trustees on environmental issues and grant opportunities.

As a second step the Trustees established a permanent Environmental Endowment Fund, advised by the Environmental Committee of the Foundation. Seeded with an initial gift from the Great Lakes CF Environmental Collaborative, the Environmental Endowment has grown to $300,000. It is the intent of the Trustees that this Fund will continue to grow to a size so as to be able to make significant impact on a variety of environmental opportunities in the Muskegon region.With an emphasis on collaboration, regional cooperation and resource leveraging, the Environmental Committee of the Foundation has established the following program priorities:

• To educate young people and adults about environmental issues, both urban and rural.
• Promote conservation and restoration of natural areas, habitats, green space and watersheds.
• To improve the quality of the environment through reduced pollution and waste as well as the active conservation of natural resources.
• Support balanced and innovative approaches to local and regional land-use planning.
• To support projects designed to protect, preserve and restore green spaces, air quality, shorelines, critical dune areas, wildlife habitat and water quality.