the AZADVAbout the application Eligibility: Any organizational member of AZADV with an active membership. Organizational affiliates are ineligible to apply for or receive AZADV education grants. No zoo/aquarium may receive the grant during the time a docent/volunteer at their zoo/aquarium is serving as a member of the committee.
Restrictions: The grant fund monies are restricted to the development and implementation of programs and/or activities. These programs and/or activities are to involve docents/volunteers as much as possible, preferably docent/volunteer led as opposed to staff led. No purchase of charts/figures or costs of transportation, unless they are integral to the grant program, should be recompensed or paid for from the grant funds. Nor should any salaries be recompensed or paid for from the grant funds.
About the conference presentation The AZADV docent/volunteer representing the organization member awarded the grant will present a paper, workshop or poster session to share the newly developed education program/activity with the conference attendees at the annual conference following their recent awarding of the grant (usually the same year). One docent/volunteer conference registration per paper presented will be reimbursed. All conference speaker rules apply to grant papers/presenters.
Alternatives to presenting in person include video conferencing, or some variation of electronic video file with speaker notes or slide presentation allowing the presenter to choose if attending in person or by video. This video can remain on the AZADV website as future reference to replicate project/activity.
Proposal guidelines Your proposal will be evaluated on how well it meets AZADV’s grant objective. Maximum value will be awarded to innovative and creative concepts and approaches that can help other AZADV organizations and volunteers in developing new approaches to education and conservation.
Please include the following information in your proposal:
Describe (in as much detail as possible) the program/activity.
Explain why the program is a unique education program/activity for an AZA zoo.
Delineate what is needed to develop the program/activity.
Describe the level of volunteer involvement in the project/activity, i.e., how many volunteers, docents, and staff do you expect to use?
Delineate the costs of development and presentation.
Describe the educational value to your zoo/aquarium visitor.
Describe the value to other AZADV organizational members and volunteers. What can they learn from your proposal?
Specify how the program will be presented at the AZADV conference: paper, work shop or poster presentation?
Note: the presenter is required to register for the conference. The speaker release form is included in the application.
How to apply Any organizational member interested in applying for the grant needs to submit acompleted application and their associated proposal (separate essay-type document). Please submit these electronically to the the AZADV Education Grant Committee Chair at [email protected](Hard copy submissions require an original and four copies. Please contact the committee chair for the current mailing address.)
