Participants will be actively involved in PLACCE activities specified below over a two-year timeframe, from October 2024 – September 2026.

We anticipate engaging a small group of about five (5) participating gardens and arboreta. USBG will also participate.

No, we are not prioritizing specific audiences. Your planned project, activity, or interpretation should benefit a public audience (or audiences) that you describe in your application.

At this time, we intend to maintain the August 30th deadline. In the event of any unanticipated changes to previously published information about the PLACCE program timeline, we will update this webpage. We hope that organizations will find the application concise and easy to complete. For a preview of the application, see the documents section above.

No, PLACCE is an opportunity to participate in a peer learning group on plant-centered climate change education. Selected applicants will receive award funds made available through a partnership between the U.S. Botanic Garden and the American Public Gardens Association. Funds must be used to support the applicant’s proposed plant-centered climate change education project and the awarded organization’s staff’s participation in cohort activities.

There will be two in-person gatherings for the cohort. The first will be an in-person cohort meeting January 8-10, 2025 in Washington, D.C. The second will be an in-person presentation during Summer 2026 (date and location TBD). All other cohort meetings will be virtual. See the Program Information and Criteria for Participation document for more details. You may use PLACCE funds for staff participation in PLACCE Peer Learning Group activities, including participation in virtual and in-person meetings and presentations. This includes staff time (list under Personnel on budget template) and travel (list under Travel on budget template).

We anticipate that the Peer Learning Group will meet monthly between October 2024 – April 2025, then will meet every other month from May 2025 – May 2026. We anticipate the group will also meet several times in Summer 2026 as members work together to plan and implement their end-of-program presentations, including one in-person presentation. Please see the Anticipated Program Timeline on the Program Information and Criteria for Participation document.

No, organizations that have previously participated in PLACCE are not eligible to apply.

This program is intended to work directly with botanical gardens or arboreta. However, there might be cases where your organization supports a network of gardens or arboreta. In this case we’d suggest that you consider applying with one of the gardens or arboreta in your network and partnering with them to support the proposed program, activity, or interpretation. At this time eligibility is limited to botanic gardens and arboreta

Volunteers at your garden or arboretum whose volunteer roles function similarly to staff roles (e.g., volunteer gardeners, volunteer docents) would not be considered a public/external audience for PLACCE. However, proposed programs or activities that engage external audiences (e.g., students) in volunteering their time for a project/activity related to plants and climate change would be eligible.

No, all botanic gardens and arboreta, as long as they meet all criteria, are eligible.

All eligible applicants must be in the U.S.

We are defining public audiences as external audiences (i.e., the target audience is not your garden or arboretum’s employees, board, interns, or volunteers). Schools and teachers would qualify.

Botanic gardens or arboreta based at institutions of higher education, even state-supported, are eligible to apply. The garden or arboretum should be the applicant.

While accreditation is not a criterion for PLACCE applicants, botanic garden and arboretum accreditation resources can provide applicants with information about what distinguishes botanic gardens and arboreta from other types of public garden organizations: Botanic Gardens Conservation International’s Botanic Garden Accreditation Standards (see Examples of Evidence for components), American Alliance of Museums and ArbNet’s Levels of Accreditation.

Yes, please see the PDF preview of the application here.

The application platform will allow you to exceed the suggested word limit, but please keep your responses as concise as possible while also providing all of the requested information.

On the application, you will be asked to include the following information about your proposed program, activity, or interpretation: goals, target audience, focal topic(s)/content that your plant-centered climate change education will address, high-level overview of how you will engage your target audience with this content, and anticipated outcomes. A PDF preview of the application questions is available here.

We are not offering individual application advice beyond what we have available to all applicants in our criteria and q&a section on our website. You are welcome to send your questions via email if they are not answered on our site at Bailee Neese at bneese@publicgardens.org

The PLACCE criteria state that priority will be given to applicants demonstrating strong potential to provide models for other gardens and arboreta interested in plant-relevant climate change education. If you are proposing to create and test multiple program models through your participation in PLACCE, please  ensure that your application describes how each program model you are creating and testing would be able to serve as a model for other gardens and arboreta by the end of the PLACCE timeframe. Please also ensure you describe the feasibility of creating and implementing multiple program models within the PLACCE timeframe and budget.

Yes, with your application materials, you will be asked to complete a provided budget template detailing proposed uses of funds.

Budget categories can include: personnel, fringe benefits, travel, equipment, supplies, contractual, construction, and other. All expenses must further the proposed work described in your application. PLACCE programs, activities, or interpretation may not include policy advocacy or lobbying of any kind.

All awards will be $50,000. Your budget total must equal $50,000.

At the end of the program, you will be asked to report: expenses, general program information (number of participants, audiences engaged, number and types of engagements), responses to reflection questions about your team’s learning from the PLACCE experience. You will also be asked to share program products and communications materials, described in Phase 4 of the Anticipated Program Timeline within the Program Information and Criteria for Participation document (see Documents section on this page). Finally, you will be asked to participate in up to two presentations. We anticipate one of these will be in-person (see above).