Protect Wildlife on Campus

The Request for Proposals is Open for the 2025 Wild Kingdom College and University Grant Program

Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom and National Wildlife Federation (NWF) have teamed up to inspire and support the efforts of the next generation of conservation leadership. To that end, we are collaborating on a series of grants that support Universities and Colleges throughout the country to showcase and fund innovative and solutions-based programs or strategies that help protect and/or restore wildlife and/or their key habitats.

Review Request for Proposals. Applications are due March 15, 2025 by 12 a.m. Pacific Standard Time.

Please send any questions to Kristy Jones, jonesk@nwf.org.

Read about the 2024 Wild Kingdom grant projects.

Protecting Wildlife On Campus

The National Wildlife Federation’s Higher Education Programs is a cornerstone of our mission to ensure wildlife thrive in a rapidly changing world. Working with students, staff and faculty at nearly all of the 4,100 colleges and universities across the U.S., the National Wildlife Federation’s campus team fosters appreciation and protection of wildlife in ways that advance student leadership, restore habitat and conserve natural resources on and beyond the campus, and prepare the next generation of wildlife and conservation professionals. Working with the nation’s leading land grant and natural resource schools, minority-serving institutions and professional societies, the National Wildlife Federation’s Higher Education programs is a pioneer in helping college and university leaders define the state of the art in what it means to be sustainable and wildlife-friendly.

Take action for wildlife on campus:

Campus Pollinator Pledge – Take action on campus to provide healthy habitat for pollinators
Become a Certified Wildlife Habitat® Campus — highlight your campus efforts to protect wildlife and provide food, water, cover and places to raise young.

Check out the Allegheny College Campus Wildlife Management Plan. Allegheny College conducted this study to determine how well their campus met the NWF Certified Wildlife Habitat criteria; this report includes assets identified for each criteria along with suggested improvements.

In addition to habitat loss and climate change, pollution, specifically plastic pollution, is rising as a critical threat to the world’s wildlife and to human health, with an estimated one million marine birds and 100,000 marine animals ingesting plastic each year. And 5.25 million plastic particles can be found in the ocean and the fish we eat from food and beverage containers, personal care products, etc. There are few solutions to this problem as important as engaging America’s higher education institutions on the dangers of plastics build-up, and how the problem can be addressed through the reduction of purchase and use in campus dining facilities, laboratories, academic buildings, and more.

Take action to reduce plastics and other trash in the environment:

Host a Clean-Up on Campus – Take the Clean Earth Challenge
Become a Plastics Reduction Partner – Get certified for campus actions to reduce the purchase and use of single-use plastics