BAND Foundation
/OVERVIEW: The BAND Foundation awards grants international to organizations working in the fields of environmental conservation and epilepsy research. Its environmental grants support locally-led initiatives working to promote biodiversity and preserve natural landscapes in parts of Africa and Asia, while its epilepsy grants prioritize sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP) and access to care for impoverished regions in Africa.
IP TAKE: This funder does not work outside of its very specific focus areas of epilepsy research and conservation of endangered animals and habitats in Africa and Asia. BAND does not accept unsolicited applications, and will be a tough nut to crack, even for nonprofits working in the foundation’s areas of interest. Networking with members of the Lapham family will be necessary here.
PROFILE: Burks and Anthony Lapham, along with their children Nicholas and David, established the BAND Foundation in 1999 to advance their family’s philanthropy. The foundation takes a “flexible, risk-tolerant approach to grantmaking” and seeks to fund “visionary individuals and institutions, promote science-based solutions, catalyze additional funding and operate in a collaborative, adaptive and risk-tolerant manner.” Its two main grantmaking programs are Nature Conservation and Epilepsy Research & Education.
Grants for Environmental Conservation, Animals and Wildlife
BAND’s Nature Conservation program supports organizations that create innovative and replicable conservation models, address the “urgent declines of targeted wildlife and plant communities,” and organizations which build a larger and more forceful conservation movement. It specifically seeks to fund locally-led initiatives that work to “conserve and restore biologically significant natural landscapes,” “arrest urgent declines in and/or seek the recovery of specific wildlife and plant communities,” or “galvanize a more enlightened human relationship with nature and stimulate an increasingly diverse, motivated and forceful global conservation movement.” Past environmental conservation grantees include the Virunga Fund, which received funding for its core park needs; and the Austin Peay State University, which received a grant to help launch its Southeastern Grasslands Initiative. Grantees for animal and wildlife include Friends of Kenya Wildlife Trust, which received funding for its Building Next Generation Impact Across the Maasai Mara’s Community Conservancies project; and Birdlife International for its Preventing Poisoning to Save Africa’s Vultures project.
Grants for Global Health, Brain and Cell Research
The BAND Foundation’s Epilepsy grant program supports cutting-edge research into the detection and treatment of epilepsy, as well as efforts to “narrow the treatment gap” in developing and impoverished regions. The foundation is particularly interested in research concerning Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy (SUDEP) syndrome, which claimed the life of a young member of the founders’ family in 2008. Past grantees include the International Bureau for Epilepsy, which has received funding for epilepsy education and awareness outreach in Africa; Citizens United for Epilepsy Research (CURE), for research into the relation between SUDEP and sleep; and a joint venture between the University of Virginia and Children’s National Medical Center to study co-morbidity and mortality risk related to SUDEP.
Important Grant Details:
The BAND Foundation made about $5.5 million in grants in a recent year, with grants ranging from $15,000 to $500,000. The BAND Foundation provides information about select grantees on its program pages. While the foundation has no stated geographical restrictions, the majority of its giving outside of the United States tends to center on East Africa.
The BAND Foundation does not accept unsolicited grant applications or requests for funding.
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