The Great Lakes Protection Fund aims to protect and restore the ecological health of the Great Lakes by advancing the next generation of actions. It adapts its investments to evolving Great Lakes issues, exploring new themes, making strategic investments, and exiting areas when objectives achieve sustainable momentum.
The grant program supports innovative projects that aim to ensure sustainable use of water resources, control pollution from diffuse sources, stop the introduction and spread of non-native aquatic invasive species, and pursue unexpected environmental challenges. It seeks projects with meaningful ecological outcomes, involving collaborative teams that take concrete actions to address Great Lakes problems through solution-focused and action-oriented approaches. Projects must demonstrate potential for significant ecological improvements, employ a strategy for systemic change to create basin-wide impact, and be grounded in scientific rigor. The Fund prioritizes projects that prototype new approaches, test novel techniques in unexplored areas, or change the economics of an industry to solve regional problems.