A digest of news and funding opportunities. 

The What Works Plus (WW+) funder collaborative is a partnership coordination hub across philanthropy, government, and nonprofits to advance equity and climate resilience through thoughtful implementation of historic federal infrastructure, climate, and economic development funding. WW+ is a project of Freedman Consulting, LLC, which provides strategic consulting services to foundations and nonprofit organizations.

OPPORTUNITIES TO ENGAGE WITH WW+

A snapshot of learning events and high-impact federal funding implementation-related opportunities in need of philanthropic support. For more information about these opportunities, please contact Max Shipman at shipman@tfreedmanconsulting.com.

Funding Opportunity:  National Fund For Workforce Solutions - “Activating Industry Leaders to Advance Workforce Equity in Construction and the Building Trades”

The Gap: People of color and women are woefully underrepresented in the construction and skilled trades workforce, an issue that will only worsen as the industry continues to expand in response to new federal funding. Increasing diversity in the industry is a necessity as nationwide labor shortages persist while new infrastructure projects begin. However, achieving a diverse workforce will not be easy. People of color and women face barriers throughout the worker cycle, from recruitment and training to job placement and upskilling for management. With an influx of federal infrastructure and climate-related investments, communities must be intentional about expanding opportunities for these workers in the construction industry, or patterns of exclusion will persist. 

The Opportunity: The National Fund aims to resolve systemic issues that prevent people of color and women from entering and staying in the construction and skilled trades industry. To do so, the National Fund seeks funding to establish a community of practice for regional workforce collaboratives in its network committed to diversifying the construction and skilled trades workforce. The community of practice would give industry leaders and collaboratives the opportunity to exchange practices for sustaining and scaling workforce equity. Through technical assistance and subawards provided by the National Fund, these collaboratives would then take what they learned and transform it into real life systematic change. Read the concept note here. Please contact Amanda Cage (President & CEO) with inquiries.

Funding Opportunity: The American Flood Coalition - “Proposal to Help State Leaders Build Transportation Resilience”

The Gap: The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) could inject more than $90 billion into flood resilience infrastructure projects over the next five years – a historic sum. But state water and resilience leaders rarely control the purse strings. Instead, state departments of transportation are being thrust into administering massive new resilience and adaptation programs with minimal support, on top of overseeing major increases in overall transportation funding. For instance, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (DOT) PROTECT program includes over $100 million that can be used for resilience planning, but some State DOTs  aren’t closely tracking this funding or how they can maximize it. There is a need to connect the expertise of state resilience leaders with transportation departments in the next 5 years before BIL dollars have been spent down.

The Opportunity: The American Flood Coalition (AFC) hosts a regular convening of approximately 12 senior state water and resilience leaders, including Chief Resilience Officers and cabinet secretaries. While AFC has the funds to hold convenings over the next two years, provide in-demand resources and support, and help instruct these leaders on how to navigate FEMA funding streams, it does not currently have the resources to cover critical DOT programs and coordination with transportation leaders. AFC seeks funding to add transportation programs into their scope, including key resilience programs like PROTECT and general surface transportation programs where resilience has become an eligible use. This project is two-thirds funded — AFC is seeking funding for the remaining one-third of costs. Please contact the AFC team with inquiries.

July Spotlight: News from Members & Friends

Have a notable investment, partnership, or event coming up? Let Max Shipman know at shipman@tfreedmanconsulting.com and we’ll feature it next month.

• In a Route Fifty piece, Irvine Foundation CEO Don Howard analyzes California’s approach to inclusive economic development, which emphasizes community-driven planning through state programs like the Community Economic Resilience Fund (CERF), and includes philanthropically backed initiatives like the Community Economic Mobilization Initiative (CEMI) that support community-led efforts to advocate for a fair share of investment.

• Inside Philanthropy covered the launch of the Invest in Our Future fund, a $180 million fund to ensure federal clean energy investments strengthen communities across the country, reduce pollution, and transform our nation’s economy. The fund was launched by five of the largest climate funders in the nation: Hewlett, MacArthur, Packard, and Rockefeller foundations, as well as Breakthrough Energy. Invest in Our Future will contribute $60 million in grants each year over the next three years.

• In an Accelerator for America article, Bruce Katz, Elijah Davis, and Anne Bovaird Nevins discuss neighborhood commercial corridors and their revival in low-income communities. They hypothesize that the revival of these corridors in low-income communities will serve as a test for governments and institutions to follow through on commitments to racial equality.

NEWS UPDATES

A snapshot of this month’s key news.

Climate and Energy:

• The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced $60 million in available Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) funds for the Climate Ready Workforce for Coastal States, Tribes, and Territories Initiative. Focused on coastal areas, the initiative includes $50 million for a competitive funding opportunity to fund worker training for climate resilience jobs and $10 million for technical assistance to support interested applicants and potential grantees. There will be particular emphasis on job creation and training in underserved communities. Letters of intent are due November 30, 2023, and applications are due February 13, 2024. 

• The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released Notice of Funding Opportunities for two grant competitions from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF):

  • The $14 billion National Clean Investment Fund will fund 2 to 3 national nonprofit financing entities to partner with the private sector and provide affordable financing for clean technology projects. At least 40 percent of the funds will be dedicated to disadvantaged and low-income communities.  

  • The $6 billion Clean Communities Investment Accelerator will fund 2 to 7 nonprofits to provide support – including technical assistance – to community lenders in low-income and disadvantaged communities. 

  The application deadline is October 12, 2023, for both competitions. These opportunities complement the GGRF’s third competitive funding opportunity – the $7 billion dollar Solar for All program – which opened on June 28, 2023. 

• The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) released a Notice of Intent for an anticipated $1 billion demand-side initiative to support the Regional Clean Hydrogen Hubs (H2Hubs) funded by BIL. The new initiative will enable  hydrogen producers to gain private investments and help meet the needs of end users. DOE will announce the 6 to 10 H2Hubs receiving a total of $7 billion later this year. DOE seeks input on the initiative’s design by July 31, 2023.

• The DOE released the 2023 U.S. Energy & Employment Jobs Report (USEER) which includes current workforce data on energy sectors in the United States. The report’s key findings include: 

  • Clean energy jobs are growing in all 50 states and have employed 3.1 million workers.

  • Union construction firms find it much easier to find workers than non-union construction firms do. 84-95% of energy efficiency firms reported at least some difficulty finding workers, with construction firms reporting the highest difficulty.

  • More than half of the new clean energy jobs were jobs filled by women. 

  • Non-white workers made up 24 percent of the workers in energy, compared to 23 percent in the entire workforce. 

• The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced $300 million in investments in greenhouse gas emission measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification for agriculture and forestry sectors to help achieve the White House’s goal for a 50 to 52 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. These investments will advance a new federal strategy for greenhouse gas monitoring and measurement in these sectors. Public comments on the strategy are due August 11, 2023. 

• The EPA will host Investing in America: Climate Action Funding Fair from August 7 - 11, 2023. The fair is a virtual series of events to help states, local governments, Tribes, and territories effectively leverage available federal funding opportunities as they develop climate action plans required under EPA’s Climate Pollution Grant program. Sessions will cover electric power, agriculture and working lands, tribal programs, transportation, buildings, and industrial and waste.

Economic Development:

• The U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA) released the Notice of Funding Opportunity for the Recompete Pilot Program. Created by the CHIPS and Science Act (CHIPS), the program will invest $200 million to bolster economic development in persistently distressed communities. Phase 1 will accept applications for strategy development grants, Recompete Plan approvals, or both by October 5, 2023. Those who receive Recompete Plan approval can apply for implementation grants and technical assistance during Phase 2, expected to be released in Winter 2023. To be approved, Recompete Plans must demonstrate a high probability of success in reducing the ​​prime-age employment gap in the community.

Workforce:

• The White House launched a Workforce Hub in Columbus, Ohio, as part of its Investing in America Workforce Initiatives. Partnering with Columbus State Community College, Intel, and the Ohio Semiconductor Collaboration Network, the Hub is committed to training students for engineering technology and semiconductor technician jobs, preparing skilled construction trades workers, and investing in health care occupations. The White House’s remaining four workforce hubs – in Phoenix, AZ; Baltimore, MD; Augusta, GA; and Pittsburgh, PA – are expected to kick off this summer. This month, First Lady Jill Biden visited a site in Augusta and a site in Pittsburgh as they prepare to launch their workforce hubs.

Broadband:

• National Digital Inclusion Alliance's Digital Inclusion Week will take place from October 2-6, 2023 to promote and increase digital equity. From now until September 2023, the National Digital Inclusion Alliance is asking organizations to sign up as participating or sponsoring organizations. 

• Net Inclusion 2024, a digital inclusion conference hosted by National Digital Inclusion Alliance, will take place from February 13-15, 2024 in Philadelphia, PA. Early registration will open on September 1, 2023. Organizations may sign up to be sponsors and can find up-to-date information through the event’s website.

Transportation:

• The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) released a joint Notice of Funding Opportunity for the Reconnecting Communities Pilot (RCP) program and the Neighborhood Access and Equity (NAE) program, allowing projects to apply for both the RCP and NAE programs at the same time. The new combined program will be known as the Reconnecting Communities and Neighborhoods (RCN) program. Three types of grants will be offered: 

  • Capital Construction grants ($1.15 billion total) for projects focused on the reduction of environmental harm and improving underserved communities’ access. 

  • Community Planning grants ($185 billion total) for construction and community planning projects that address localized transportation problems. 

  • Regional Partnerships Challenge grants ($450 million total) to incentivize strong partnerships of local and Tribal governments, MPOs, RPOs, state Departments of Transportation, and community partners. These partnerships should focus on equitable access and greenhouse gas emissions reductions. 

• Atlas Public Policy, Evergreen Action, EVHYbridNoire, and GreenLatinos released a report on how Justice40 goals have been implemented in state plans developed for the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) Program, which provides $5 billion to states to build electric vehicle charging stations. The report analyzes equity considerations in NEVI plans across 27 states and provides a number of strategy recommendations for states as they develop updated NEVI plans ahead of the August 1, 2023 deadline, including conducting outreach to disadvantaged communities, providing accessible education, using community input to inform decision making, ensuring agency capacity, and communicating transparently about the plan development process.

New Resources:

• The U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) published their BIL Projects Map, which tracks daily the total amount of BIL funding distributed by DOI and the total number of projects that have been funded. It includes projects addressing drought, ecosystem restoration, Indian water rights settlements, legacy pollution, scientific innovation, tribal investments, and wildland fires.

• New America released a toolkit for collaborative governance aimed at local leaders who would like to implement collaborative governance in their communities. The toolkit utilizes a framework that sees civic education, relationship building, and leadership development as essential for civic and community engagement and offers actionable steps to implement effective collaborative governance. 

• DOT, DOE, and the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation released a new toolkit to help urban communities take advantage of federal funding for electric vehicle (EV) charging stations. The guide provides information on how to scope, plan, and identify ways to best leverage billions of BIL’s EV funds for communities, metropolitan planning organizations, transportation providers, businesses, and property owners and developers.

• Alliance for a Sustainable Future released a new report that provides a number of suggestions for using IRA’s direct pay provisions for tax credits to fund climate and resilience projects. The report suggests that cities should consider project locations and project timelines, be intentional in procurement, understand how tax credits interact with other financing methods, and work with tax counsel.

• Atlas Public Policy and the Water Foundation launched the Water Program Portal to track BIL and IRA investments in water projects. The portal includes resources to help organizations and public agencies to find water programs, open public requests, research, and reports on federal water funding.

WW+ Bulletin: July Edition