Please scroll to the bottom of this article to hear more from Manitoba Wildlife Federation Managing Director, Carly Deacon, as she shares about the FWEF selection process, and the letter of intent process.

If your community is looking for provincial funding to improve, promote or enhance local fish or wildlife projects, you might want to check out the Province’s Fish and Wildlife Enhancement Fund (FWEF). The initiative comes out each Fall, however it takes some work to put an application together with sourcing materials and supplies, researching material costs, and wording the application to properly to get the best results – that being to land the grant! 

The Manitoba Wildlife Federation (MWF) will be holding a free seminar this coming Thursday evening, April 21st, to help those who are looking at completing a FWEF application for the upcoming Fall intake. 

MWF Managing Director, Carly Deacon, says there are some really great projects in many of our communities who could really benefit from this type of funding, but filling out the application can be a daunting process. The MWF is here to help! 

The Fish and Wildlife Enhancement Fund (FWEF) provides funding to non-profit groups, local organizations, and research organizations with financial support annually for categories named below, through the important contributions from licensed anglers, hunters, and trappers. 

“Additional money from our licenses, from fishing or hunting, go into this endowment fund for the investment to use annually to distribute towards conservation programs or hunting / angling recruitment education programs in the province,” explains Deacon. 

Projects that fall under the following categories are eligible for funding: 

  • conserving and enhancing Manitoba’s fish and wildlife populations, 

  • scientific study of fish and wildlife populations, 

  • promoting sustainable and ethical hunting and angling practices through education, 

  • protecting or improving critical fish and wildlife production habitat, and 

  • securing property or an interest in property to provide public access to angling and hunting opportunities or to protect critical fish and    wildlife production habitat. 

New to this year’s application process is a ‘letter of intent’, a precursor to the actual grant application where you present your idea to the FWEF to determine whether it would be eligible, at the beginning of the process before time is spent completing an application. 

“So, you write your letter of intent out, which is a shorter version of the idea with your budget,” explains Deacon. “It’s not as detailed so you don’t have to put all the work into it yet, but you still have to have the concept as to what you want to do, and then you submit that, and it goes through a review process and they say, ‘yes, you are eligible to apply’ or ‘no, you’re not.’” 

“This eliminates people having to go through the entire application process and then getting denied if they’re not eligible,” she adds. 

This endowment trust was created in 2020 with an investment of $20 million. It is managed by The Winnipeg Foundation, with Manitoba Habitat Heritage Corporation (MHHC) administering the FWEF trust, along with the other trusts Manitoba has created, including the Conservation and Growing Outcomes in Watersheds (GROW) and Wetlands GROW trusts, significant investments will be made to projects year-after-year. 

On Thursday evening's virtual seminar, FWEF Grant Associates, Taylor Toffan and Megan Porath, will help groups to get familiarized with the grant writing process. Information on FWEF grant eligibility, how to apply, timelines and procedures, and tips and techniques on writing grants will help to assist with creating successful project applications.  

“So there’s lots of potential there for smaller, local, community-based projects and available money for those projects,” adds Deacon. 

For more information on the April 21st evening seminar (7:00-8:00 pm) visit: 

FWEF Grant Application Review - Manitoba Wildlife Federation (mwf.mb.ca)