The Art and Wilderness Institute is one of the organizations nominated for the 2026 AMCF Women’s Giving Circle cycle. A member of the Circle put their name forward, and the organization went on to successfully complete the application. We publish a feature on each nominee so that voting members know who they are choosing between, and so the wider community can see the range of Muslim-led work our members put forward.
The following was submitted by the Art and Wilderness Institute.
Creating Spaces to Learn, Explore, and Belong
AWI serves people from early childhood through adulthood. Preschool and Kindergarten programs establish a foundation in outdoor learning through exploration, art, science, movement, and observation. Elementary students investigate interconnected systems such as water, nutrients, food webs, regeneration, and relationships between people and ecosystems.
As students grow, the work deepens. Regenerative Suburbia introduces permaculture, soil science, ecological design, and ways neighborhoods can give back more than they take. Mentorship develops leadership through outdoor education, service, public speaking, environmental stewardship, and community engagement. High school and Focus on Forests programming explores forest health, wildlife, carbon, ecosystem services, culture, and our responsibility to these systems.
AWI also brings faith, family, environmental education, and adventure together through Khulafa Al-Ard: Outdoor Islamic School, the Green Masjid Initiative, family camps, backpacking trips, community hikes, and women’s outdoor programming.
The goal is not simply a collection of programs. It is a pathway that moves from nature connection to stewardship, from stewardship to hands-on service, and from service to leadership in action.
What Does Stewardship Look Like?
AWI Mentorship students and their families journeyed to an Altadena property devastated by the Eaton Fire, bringing trees and tools, replanting an orchard, and installing irrigation.
Property owner Linda Ciarimboli later reflected: “While I haven’t rebuilt a house yet, my orchard is fruiting again. This community effort renewed my spirit and gave me a reason to keep moving forward.”
In San Bernardino, Mentorship students helped design, fundraise for, and plant a community garden at Al-Shifa Clinic. Because the surrounding soil is contaminated, food-producing plants and trees were placed in raised beds and containers. With a fountain at its center, the garden provides food while communicating something equally important: the people it serves are worthy of beauty and care.
Stewardship can also mean showing up when a community is hurting. After the shooting at the Islamic Center of San Diego, AWI staff and volunteers came for two consecutive weekends with outdoor and art-based healing activities.
“Having AWI staff and volunteers show up for the ICSD community at a time when everything was so fresh and raw was incredibly healing,” said community member Iman Salem.
For AWI, environmental care and community care are connected. Both ask us to notice what needs attention and participate in its repair.
Creating Space for Women
As a women-founded organization, AWI intentionally creates spaces where women and girls can belong and lead outdoors. Women-centered programs offer hiking, camping, naturalist learning, outdoor skills, friendship, and leadership.
At a Ladies Cabin Camping Retreat in Idyllwild, participants hiked, whittled spoons, worked with clay and watercolors, learned to make sourdough bread, cooked together, played games, and had room to slow down.
Qamar Kathrada described the experience: “When I loosened up and connected, all of that went out the window. My shoulders relaxed. I’m rolling around in the dirt, and I don’t even care because I’m just so happy being with sisters and nature. It’s really what I needed.”
Through girls’ campouts and leadership programs, young women also practice independence, teamwork, problem-solving, responsibility, and service.
Growing a Culture of Stewardship
One of AWI’s proudest achievements is the community growing around this work: students becoming leaders, families serving together, women finding space to explore and belong, and educators bringing creativity into outdoor learning. AWI invests in its educators through competitive compensation, training, support, and annual recognition.
As AWI grows, it seeks to expand access for refugee families, families in frontline communities, and others facing barriers through scholarships, reduced-cost opportunities, and free community programming.
Ultimately, AWI hopes to bring Khulafa Al-Ard, the Islamic concept of our responsibility as stewards of the Earth, back to the forefront of Muslim community life, not simply as an idea, but as something we live: caring for the Earth, caring for one another, and understanding that each of us has something meaningful to contribute.
Why We Are Featuring the Art and Wilderness Institute
AWI is on this list because a Women’s Giving Circle member nominated them and they completed the application. That is the whole reason, and it is the point of the Circle: the organizations we fund are chosen by our members, not selected for us.
Environmental stewardship is one of the least funded areas in American Muslim philanthropy, and organizations working at the intersection of faith, land, and youth development often fall between funding categories entirely. AWI brings environmental stewardship, youth development, and community well-being together through a distinctly faith-rooted approach. That breadth is a strength in practice and a difficulty in fundraising. It is also work that scales through people rather than programs, which makes the scholarships and free community programming central rather than incidental. Whether it receives this cycle’s funding is now a decision for the Circle’s voting members.
How the Women’s Giving Circle Decides
The AMCF Women’s Giving Circle pools the giving of Muslim women and decides together where it goes.
Members who give $5 or more during a cycle can nominate one organization. Voting members, who give $420 or more per cycle or $35 monthly, vote in two rounds: the first narrows the nominees to five finalists, and the second selects three grantees. Finalists and grantees are announced at AMCF’s annual awards ceremony in November.
Meet all of the 2026 nominees and see the full range of work our members put forward this cycle.
Join the Women’s Giving Circle, or upgrade to voting membership, so the choice between these nominees is partly yours.
You can also learn more about the Art and Wilderness Institute and its programs, support AWI directly, or contact info@awicommunity.org.