Documenters in Focus profiles how the Wichita Sustainability Integration Board plans to distribute 10 grants of approximately $1,000 next year. The projects must be designed to serve the community and cannot be an individual’s passion project.
By Maleah Evans and Wichita Documenters
Do you have an effort that could advance conservation or sustainability in Wichita?
If so, the Wichita Sustainability Integration Board is offering 10 approximately $1,000 micro-grants to help get your project built. Applications for micro-grants officially open Jan. 1, 2026, and close on Feb. 12, 2026.
The chairman of the board, Ibrahim Abdallah, proposed the micro-grants to help people fund “shovel ready projects” that could be started quickly.
Ethan Kershaw, who serves as the Sustainability Coordinator, said that the opportunity is similar to arts and culture city grants, in that any nonprofit community organization and individual person can apply.
The projects must be designed to serve the community. Some examples of eligible projects include: hosting sustainability workshops and conferences in Wichita, development of a community garden, tree plantings, community clean-ups and “any creative/innovative approach to solving a community environmental challenge.”
Board member Russell Fox said that the process of starting the mirco-grants was designed to heighten knowledge of the work done by the sustainability board.
“There’s a lot going on, most of it is not particularly visible (and) a lot of it has not had a really large impact,” he said, adding that Wichitans do care about these issues and want to do something about them.
Fox also said that the board hopes the grant funds will raise awareness in the community of sustainability issues and incentivize additions to the projects currently underway.
“If you’ve got a greening type project,” Fox said. “Come and talk to us, and we’ll set up a way to make some of this money available to you.”
This month, the board and the City of Wichita has released more information about the proposals for micro-grants and the application process. Advertisements will be posted around the city and on City of Wichita socials.
The rubric for scoring applications will be available to the public. Decisions will be announced in March 2026.
The only residents ineligible for micro-grants are full-time City of Wichita employees.
If there are a small number of applications when the application closes on the 12th, the board will re-open them in an effort to gain more applicants.
“I think it’s fair to do it like this, because we don’t know what the response may be,” Fox said at a previous board meeting.
The board had $10,000 available, and they plan to give out up to $1,000 each for approximately 10 grants awarded to Wichitans, according to Kershaw. The funds for the micro-grants came from an amount of appropriated money from the City, and additional larger grants that the board has applied for.
If selected, applicants will go through city processes to gain access to their funds. Throughout the year, they will need to submit receipts to the city to prove what they are using their funds for.
Kershaw said that depending on the community response, the board would potentially continue the program after the upcoming year. It would also depend on future funding sources, he said.
Fox said a good response could build momentum for sustainability in the community and get the “individual members of the City Council on board.” But that’s not the primary goal.
”For right now, we’re just hoping to be able to make the most out of the funds that we have available,” Fox said.
“Nearly all of the advisory boards are exactly that,” Fox said. “They can make recommendations about budget priorities and policies but they’re not actually involved in doing anything themselves.”
The Sustainability Integration Board found itself in a different situation because of federal funds that were passed down from states to cities, Fox said. The board petitioned to use that money to help boost sustainability projects here in Wichita.
But the future of the program remains murky.
“The city supported us in doing that, it may never happen again,” Fox said.
Maleah Evans is the fall 2025 intern with the Wichita Journalism Collaborative. Maleah is a senior at Wichita State University and is studying journalism and history.
This is part of a series of stories focusing on items of interest emerging from notes being taken by Wichita Documenters, a program that trains and pays residents to take notes at government meetings. In just over a year, Wichita Documenters has dispatched nearly 50 documenters to cover more than 350 meetings, building a better record to keep the public informed. Wichita Documenters is funded through grants from the Wichita Foundation and the Trust for Civic Life as well as contributions from local donors.
This article was republished here with the permission of: KLC Journal