The Bob Swanson Memorial Grant
Let us help fund your adventure
Are you looking to check the next adventure off your bucket list?
Do you keep coming back to the same crazy idea that seems just out of reach?
We’re here to help!
The Bob Swanson Memorial Grant is dedicated to helping adventurers, explorers, and go-getters tackle their next big endeavor. To honor the memory of Bob Swanson, an icon in the outdoor industry and tent design, the grant committee seeks to help those who seem to best embody Bob’s spirit, love of life, and adventure.
The grant awards funds of varying amounts depending on the prospective project needs and its budget. Grants generally falls between the $500 to $1,000 dollar range and are awarded once a year. Applications open in the fall for adventures occuring the following year.
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Check Back Next Year!
The application period for the 2023 Bob Swanson Memorial Grant is now closed. Check back Fall 2023 to apply for the 2024 grant!
Thank your for your submission, and stay tuned for details about future grant applications. Good luck!
Abandon Anchor!
A Bob Swanson Grant Winner Story
Madison Williams, the 2022 Bob Swanson Grant Winner, headed out on a solo trip taking her over 1,600 miles from Minneapolis, Minnesota, to York Factory, Manitoba in Canada up on the Hudson Bay by kayak. Partnering with the North Dakota Department of Environmental Quality to take water samples, she shares some of the challenges she faced on her journey.
Big Agnes | Mother of Comfort
Bob Swanson, The Tent Guy.
Few in the outdoor industry today know of Bob Swanson or his major contributions to our industry. He co-founded Sierra Designs, founded Walrus tents, then sold that to REI and followed it up by working for REI for several years before going out on his own as a consultant. Big Agnes was fortunate enough to connect with him, and a long relationship was born.
His passion for design centered on tents and tent architecture. He is widely recognized for ushering in the use of hubs into tent architecture and represented the cutting edge of shelter designers.
We had the pleasure of working with Bob at Big Agnes for more than a decade. His business card included the title, ‘The Tent Guy’. And while that was fitting professionally, he meant so much more to us as a friend, role model, sage and pioneer of the outdoor industry.
This grant was created by the owners and staff of Big Agnes in honor of our adventurous and worldly colleague Bob Swanson who passed away in 2016.
Learn more about Bob