Santa Cruz Bicycles Launches New Grants Program Called ‘PayDirt’
Starting November 19, Santa Cruz Bicycles will begin accepting applications on a rolling basis for their new grants program called PayDirt.
Grantees can include organizations and those seeking funding for building and improving trails and other trail stewardship projects.
The company will award a total of $1 million in grants over the next three years and will approve grants on a quarterly basis.
On November 19, Santa Cruz Bicycles announced its latest trail stewardship project called PayDirt. It’s a grants program that will give back $1 million over the next three years to benefit mountain bikers and trail access across the country.
Specifically, the company is looking to award grants to “trail development projects, local and national advocacy organizations, events, and programs geared toward creating and strengthening access to trails.”
According to Seb Kemp of Santa Cruz Bicycles, grant applications will be accepted on a rolling basis and reviewed on a quarterly basis by the PayDirt committee. The size and number of grants will also depend on the applications that are received.
“It may be a one-time award or a funding stream that is sustaining based on milestones being achieved. Successful applications are likely projects that have both a vision and a clear plan to execute that vision,” Santa Cruz brand manager Katie Zaffke told Bicycling.
“We want to make sure they’re rad projects put together by trail advocacy pros that will lead to better access to mountain biking. It doesn’t even have to be for building or maintaining trails, it could be about getting some people on bikes or giving them a trail experience,” the company also stated in a press release.
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This announcement won’t come as a surprise to those familiar with the company. Santa Cruz has a long history of trail stewardship efforts, including partnering with organizations that support building and maintaining sustainable trails for mountain bikers and other trail users—like the Sierra Buttes Trail Stewardship, the Land Trust of Santa Cruz County, International Mountain Bicycling Association, and the Sustainable Trails Coalition, to name a few.
“Santa Cruz started in a space the size of a garage and has grown to employ a lot of very dedicated mountain bikers and cyclists,” Kemp told Bicycling. “The passion they all have for cycling feeds the business successes of Santa Cruz, and that success allows us to support the work of the many thousands of people and organizations who are doing the quiet, often overlooked and usually underfunded work of making mountain biking possible.”
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