The Botanical Society of America is a non-profit, 501c3 organization and your gifts/donations are tax deductible. A tax receipt will be provided for all contributions.

BSA Unrestricted Gifts

Your unrestricted contribution to the BSA investment account is more important than ever before. With an exciting new strategic plan in place, we are doing more than we ever have to achieve our mission. And, looking forward, we project that we will need to draw on the unrestricted gifts and the earnings in our investment account to support our publications, especially as we transition more fully to open access articles in American Journal of Botany.

A.J. Harris Award Fund

This award is named in honor of the late Dr. AJ Harris whose research spanned traditional specimen-based science, paleobotany, phylogenomics, biogeography, and computational biology. This award will be given in conjunction with the Graduate Student Research Awards, and will be given to a graduate student whose research is representative of one of the areas above. 

A.J. Sharp Award Fund

Named in honor of the late Dr. Jack Sharp. This award is given for the best student paper presented in the Bryological and Lichenological sessions of the BSA annual meeting. Click here for more information.

The Bill Dahl Graduate Student Research Awards

The BSA is making a concerted effort to provide more substantial research funding for our graduate students. A contribution to the Bill Dahl GSRA directly impacts the future of our science. Our goal is to provide an additional $25,000 in funding for student research. An optional $25 increase was added to the annual dues for Professional members to support the Graduate Student Research Awards. If you would like to provide additional support to the Bill Dahl Graduate Student Research Awards you can do so here. Every bit helps and will allow us to provide more awards. We are grateful for your willingness to invest in our students. Please consider a gift to the GSRA this year.

The BSA Endowment Fund

A contribution to the Endowment impacts all of our society's existing and planned programs. With an exciting new strategic plan in place, we urge you to support the BSA mission through a donation to the Endowment and secure the future of the Society and our ability to support the next generation of botanical scientists.

Cichan Postdoc Research Award Fund

In honor of Michael Cichan, this fund provides an award to a young scholar for a paper published during the previous year in the fields of evolutionary and/or structural botany. Click here for more information.

Edgar T. Wherry Award Fund

This award is in honor of Dr. Wherry's many contributions to the floristics and patterns of evolutions of ferns. This award is given for the best paper presented during the contributed papers session of the Pteridological Section during the BSA annual meeting. Click here for more information.

Grady L. Webster and Barbara D. Webster Structural Botany Publication Award

Established in 2006 by BSA President (1983) Dr. Barbara D. Webster and daughter Dr. Susan V. Webster to honor the life and work of husband and father, Dr. Grady L. Webster. The award was renamed in 2018 to include Dr. Barbara D. Webster as an equal partner.

The award recognizes the most outstanding paper published in the American Journal of Botany in the field of structural and developmental botany (i.e., anatomy and morphology) over the two-year period prior to the award year. Click here for more information.

Human Diversity Fund

This fund was established through an anonymous gift and is to be used to support diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives specified by the DEI Committee and/or efforts affiliated with the PLANTS program such as supporting PLANTS peer mentors who do not have alternative funding.

Isabel Cookson Award Fund

Established in 1976 by a bequest from Isabel Cookson and is augmented by ongoing contributions. The fund supports the Isabel Cookson Paleobotanical Award, which is given to the student who delivers the best contributed paper in paleobotany or palynology at the annual meeting. Click here for more information.

James M. and Esther N. Schopf Fund

Endowment fund whose earnings are used to enhance the collegiality and effectiveness of the annual meeting of the Paleobotanical Section. This could include, but is not limited to, funding refreshments or other aspects of the Section's annual dinner, Section field trips, attendance at the annual meeting of specially invited guests, and/or any other costs involved in the Section's annual meeting The initial gift establishing the fund was for $50,000. Please feel free to support its growth as you go through the process of renewing your membership. Click here for more information.

John S. Karling Fund

Made possible in 1997 by a gift from the late Dr. John Sidney Karling and supplemented by member contributions. This fund provides a $1500 research award to the best research proposal in the graduate student research award category. Click here for more information.

Katherine Esau Fund

This award was established in 1985 with a gift from Dr. Esau and is augmented by ongoing contributions. It is given to the graduate student who presents an outstanding paper in developmental and structural botany at the BSA annual meeting. Click here for more information.

Maynard Moseley Fund

This fund was established in 1995 to honor Maynard Moseley. The award is given to the best student paper, presented in either the Paleobotanical or Developmental and Structural sessions of the BSA annual meeting. Click here for more information.

Past Presidents' and Botanical Friends Fund

This fund was launched in 2002 to collect donations so that the proceeds from the fund may be utilized for rapidly emerging needs or special initiatives launched by the President in conjunction with BSA leadership. You do not need to be a past BSA President to make a donation.

PlantingScience.org

PlantingScience is a free online resource to teachers and schools that was developed as an educational outreach program to bring plants and scientist mentors into classrooms. It offers a unique opportunity for middle and high school teachers and administrators to provide inquiry experiences for their students, by connecting volunteer scientists to small student teams for student-centered research projects. PlantingScience is a simple, effective and efficient avenue for outreach, and for scientists to share the passion for what they do with burgeoning young scientists and citizens. The program has been funded with a combination of NSF grants and BSA support. www.plantingscience.org

Remy, Remy, and Winslow Award Fund

Student Travel Award Funds

These sections regularly fund travel awards for students to assist with their expenses to attend the BOTANY conference.

Vernon Cheadle Student Travel Award Fund

This fund provides up to four travel awards to undergraduate and graduate students who will be attending and presenting a paper or poster at the annual meeting of the Botanical Society of America. Students presenting in the Developmental and Structural section topics will be provided the highest priority. Click here for more information. 

Click here to see the full list of BSA Awards as well as the application calendar.