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Toyota-SCI Foundation Partnership: how to apply

By Andrew Holden

The Toyota-SCI Foundation Partnership is a wildlife conservation grant programme managed by the Safari Club International Foundation (SCIF), with Toyota providing corporate backing. If you work in wildlife research, habitat management, anti-poaching, or related conservation fields, this is a programme worth tracking, even though several key details, the grant amount and the application deadline, are not publicly disclosed at this stage. That transparency gap is worth naming upfront: this is a live partnership with active grant-supported projects, but it requires direct engagement with SCIF to understand the current cycle.

Whether you are running a small wildlife NGO or a conservation-focused nonprofit, the combination of SCIF's subject-matter depth and Toyota's corporate reach suggests meaningful resources behind the programme. What follows is a guide to what is known, how to position your organisation, and how to move forward without waiting for full details to surface publicly.

Who should apply

SCIF explicitly supports nonprofits and charities, and the programme is noted as open to organisations at any stage, including early-stage nonprofits. There is no minimum track record listed in the source material, which is encouraging for smaller organisations that often get screened out by tenure requirements alone.

Geographically, the programme operates globally. SCIF's broader portfolio spans African big cats, elephant conservation, North American carnivores and cervids, and anti-poaching work, so there is no single region that dominates.

The ideal applicant profile looks something like this: a registered nonprofit or charity whose core work centres on wildlife research, species management, or conservation field operations. SCIF frames sustainable hunting as a legitimate conservation tool, so organisations whose work sits within that philosophical frame, or at least does not conflict with it, will find stronger alignment. Academic research institutions and community-based conservation groups should check SCIF's broader eligibility guidance directly; the data available here is specific to nonprofits and charities.

If your organisation works primarily in, say, renewable energy or circular economy supply chains, this is not the right fit. The programme is tightly scoped to wildlife and biodiversity.

What they are looking for

SCIF's own portfolio signals where the partnership's priorities sit: African big cats, North American carnivores, North American cervids, elephant conservation, and anti-poaching programmes. Wildlife research that improves management practices is a consistent thread across these focus areas.

The phrase "partnership alignment with Safari Club International Foundation and Toyota priorities" in the programme requirements is worth reading carefully. It means your project should map onto at least one of the thematic areas SCIF has already invested in, and it should demonstrate why a corporate-philanthropic partnership (rather than a purely philanthropic grant) is an appropriate vehicle for your work. Think about how your project connects to on-the-ground conservation impact that both a foundation and a corporate partner would want associated with their name.

A strong application will typically do the following:

  • Demonstrate specific conservation outcomes, not just activities. "We will tag and monitor 40 mountain lions over 24 months, producing population density data for three state wildlife agencies" is stronger than "we will conduct carnivore research".
  • Show organisational credibility relevant to the thematic area. Peer-reviewed outputs, government conservation partnerships, or field experience in the relevant geography all count. If you are early-stage, lead with the team's credentials rather than the organisation's age.
  • Articulate alignment with sustainable wildlife management, since that framing is central to SCIF's mission. You do not need to be a hunting-related organisation, but your project should be comfortable sitting within a portfolio that includes sustainable hunting as a conservation mechanism.
  • Be specific about geography and species, because SCIF's funded programmes are species- and region-specific. Vague "global biodiversity" framing is less likely to resonate than a focused project with a clear field site.

How to apply

Because the grant amount and deadline are not published in the source material, and no letter of intent or pre-application call process is documented here, the first step is direct outreach to SCIF before preparing any formal materials.

Step 1: Contact SCIF directly. Visit the Safari Club International Foundation's website and identify the programme contact for conservation grants. Ask specifically about the Toyota-SCI Foundation Partnership: whether it is accepting new applications, what the current cycle looks like, and what documentation is required. Do this now rather than waiting, because undisclosed deadlines can move quickly once a cycle opens.

Step 2: Review SCIF's existing conservation portfolio. Familiarise yourself with the specific programmes SCIF has funded in your thematic area. This informs how you frame your project and helps you identify the right internal contact at SCIF.

Step 3: Prepare a concise project summary. Even without a formal application open, having a one-to-two page project summary ready, covering your conservation objective, target species or ecosystem, geographic scope, methodology, and expected outcomes, means you can respond quickly when a window opens. Keep it outcome-focused and tie it explicitly to SCIF's published conservation priorities.

Step 4: Gather organisational documents. Standard grant documentation for conservation programmes typically includes proof of nonprofit status (e.g. 501(c)(3) determination letter or equivalent), recent financial statements, a list of key personnel and their relevant field experience, and any letters of support from government wildlife agencies or research partners. Prepare these now so they are not a bottleneck.

Step 5: Follow the programme directly. Sign up for SCIF's communications and monitor their website for any formal request for proposals linked to the Toyota partnership. Corporate-backed conservation grants sometimes announce cycles through the corporate partner's CSR channels as well, so it is worth watching Toyota's philanthropy and sustainability communications too.

Use this in Raise Lens

Start by saving this opportunity's detail page to your account so you can set a deadline alert the moment that information becomes available. Raise Lens will notify you when the listing is updated, which is the most practical way to manage an opportunity where timing is currently unclear.

From the /opportunities feed, filter by the biodiversity and nature sector and the grant funding type to surface other live wildlife conservation grants running in parallel. Applying to one undisclosed-deadline programme in isolation is a risk; building a short pipeline of two or three aligned opportunities in the same cycle is a better use of your preparation work.

Use the /funders directory to research SCIF's broader funding history and to find other foundations and corporate philanthropy programmes backing wildlife conservation. Understanding how SCIF relates to other funders in the space helps you sequence outreach and avoid conflicts of interest across applications.

Finally, follow /wire for funding news and signals in the biodiversity and nature space. Corporate-foundation partnerships in conservation often announce new cycles through press releases before they appear on grant portals, and the Wire briefings surface those signals early.

The Toyota-SCI Foundation Partnership is worth the effort to pursue, particularly for nonprofits with specific wildlife research or management programmes that align with SCIF's portfolio. The key constraint right now is information: go get it directly from SCIF, then come back and track this opportunity on Raise Lens so you are ready to move when the cycle opens.