For every brilliant idea, there has to be someone who believes in it and, more importantly, is willing to provide the funds to make the idea come to fruition.
Wild Trails, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, began offering grant funding in 2011 that would help bring to life short-term ideas on how to promote, expand and protect trails in greater Chattanooga.
“We started this whole adventure out of the Rock/Creek Trail Series,” says Mark McKnight, Rock/Creek ecommerce and marketing director and Wild Trails board member. “We had a couple of races that were generating a lot of proceeds and we had always donated that money, but Rock/Creek really wanted more accountability in terms of wanting to see really concrete evidence of what our money was doing and we wanted to have a hand in shaping how our resources were going to be used in the future.”
Micah Morrison clears the trial at Lula LakeWild Trails awards five grants of up to $2,000 over two cycles (one in the summer and one in the winter) to fund projects such as trail building, buying equipment or making repairs. Grant recipients are required to provide an update midway through and at the conclusion of their project.
“The real point that Wild Trails is trying to make is to find short-term measurable success,” says Chad Wamack, president of the board of directors for Wild Trails. “We want to see short-term projects that can hopefully be done in a year’s time.”