Dive Brief:
- The Biden administration on Wednesday announced the selection of 11 “grantmakers” that will help distribute $600 million in grants for local environmental justice projects.
- The grantmakers are community-based nonprofits, some of which have partnered with a federally recognized tribal government or institution of higher education. They will design competitive application and submission processes, award subgrants, implement a tracking and reporting system and provide support to their communities.
- The Environmental Protection Agency says that by selecting grantmakers as pass-through entities for the grants, it is reducing barriers to receiving federal grant funding and improving the efficiency of the award process. Subgrants are expected to be available by summer 2024.
Dive Insight:
While the Biden administration has made billions of dollars available for environmental justice and climate change-related projects, some communities have said they struggle to access the funding because they don’t have the capacity or resources to apply for competitive grants.
Vice President Kamala Harris said in a statement that the grantmaker program will ensure that “critical resources to fund environmental justice projects across the country reach the organizations that know their communities best.”
Local governments, community-based and grassroots nonprofits, tribal governments, institutions of higher education, U.S. territories and Native American organizations are among the eligible applicants for the subgrants. The EPA points to potential projects the subgrants can support, such as small local clean-ups, emergency preparedness programs, workforce development programs for local jobs reducing greenhouse gas emissions and projects addressing illegal dumping.
The selected grantmakers, which will serve different EPA regions or groups of regions, are:
- The Institute for Sustainable Communities.
- The Research Triangle Institute.
- The Climate Justice Alliance.
- Health Resources in Action.
- Fordham University.
- The Green & Healthy Homes Initiative.
- The Minneapolis Foundation.
- Texas Southern University.
- JSI Research and Training Institute.
- Social and Environmental Entrepreneurs.
- Philanthropy Northwest.
