Wellborn Ecology Fund

Marguerite Wellborn was a naturalist and a writer who believed that knowledge was the key to environmental preservation.

In her will, she left nearly $10 million to create the Wellborn Ecology Fund at the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, “to be used for public awareness of environmental and ecological issues in the Upper Valley.”

What we’re funding

Since its inception in 2001, the fund has awarded grants totaling more than $5.5 million to more than 125 organizations and programs.

• Place-based ecology education is being implemented in schools across the region. Students are tracking wildlife, studying vernal pools and stream ecology, measuring climate – and much more.
• K-12 teachers and early childhood educators get hands-on professional development and resources through a network of professional development providers, including Four Winds Nature Institute, Sullivan County Conservation District, Shelburne Farms and Vermont Institute of Natural Science (VINS).
• Farm-to-school projects bring together educators, farmers, and community members to integrate local food and farms into the classrooms, cafeterias, and communities of the Upper Valley Region.
• “The Outside Story,” a weekly essay series, appears in Northern Woodlands magazine and in newspapers, spreading environmental education to a general audience.
• The Upper Valley Teaching Place Collaborative connects educators, administrators, and school across the Upper Valley to the resources they need in order to meet their place-based education goals.
• The Montshire Museum of Science creates programs that lay the groundwork for children and families to develop a deep love and appreciation for the natural world.

Marguerite’s legacy

“The Wellborn Ecology Fund has done so much to help children connect with the natural environment,” said Sally Wellborn, Marguerite’s daughter. “I think she’d probably be amazed, really, at how efficiently her simple bequest has been organized into something real and effective.”

Each year, The Wellborn Ecology Fund awards $300,000 in grants to support organizations and people that provide experientially-oriented, place-based, ecology-education programs that focus on the people and communities of the Upper Valley.

Learn more