To be eligible, all candidates must submit a pre-application through the submission form by the deadline of April 25, 2025, 11:59 p.m. EDT. Applicants whose pre-applications are successful will be invited to submit a full application. All candidates will receive a decision on their pre-application end of May 2025.

Eligibility Criteria

  • Applicants must be members of any group/agency/NGO that has submitted a Reverse the Red Species Pledge 

  • Projects must focus on species recovery for animal, fungi, or plant species. The species must be threatened with extinction and be classified as endangered, critically endangered, or extinct in the wild by the IUCN Red List, or evidence of these categories in a National Red List if the species is endemic and has not yet been assessed for the Global Red List.

  • For species of animals, fungi, or plants classified as data deficient or absent from the Red List altogether, a strong justification for urgent conservation assessment, recovery plan, or conservation action must be included. 

  • Projects must aim to address at least one of the threats listed in the IUCN Red List for the species and show how implementing actions will help reduce that threat.

  • Projects implementing in-situ and/or ex-situ conservation actions for the focus species are eligible

  • Project must be completed within 12 months of receipt of funding and no later than December 1, 2026

  • Award funding must be used for a 12-month project or initiative, not general operating budget.

Evaluation of pre-application will take into account:

  • Alignment with the goal of halting extinctions, reversing declines, recovering populations

  • Reasonable scale of achievement based on time and resources

  • Clarity of planning, implementation, and measures of success

  • Creativity and innovation in accelerating species recovery

Application process and project timeline:

  • Pre-application deadline: April 25, 2025

  • Notifications pre-applications and invitations to submit full application: End of May, 2025

  • Full application deadline: June 30, 2025

  • Notifications: September 2025

  • Project work to begin as early as October 2025

  • Work completed by December 1, 2026

  • Final report completed January 15, 2027

You may submit only one proposal per species that you've pledged. If you have pledged 5 species, you may submit a separate proposal for each species. We only accept applications that are submitted through our submission form. Please do not mail or email your application.

In future years, we hope to offer applications in additional languages. For this year, please submit your responses in English.

If you have questions not answered here or in the Frequently Asked Questions, please email us at megan.joyce@reversethered.org with “Reverse the Red Accelerator Award” in the subject line.

Helpful Links:

Thank you for your interest in the Reverse the Red Accelerator Award. This pre-application opportunity has now closed. All applicants will be notified by the end of May whether or not they will be invited to submit final applications.