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.

WW+ Highlights This Month

• The What Works Plus (WW+) team helped coordinate philanthropy and intermediaries' participation in an October workshop at The White House with nearly 200 in-person and virtual representatives from outside-of-government organizations dedicated to ensuring equitable local implementation of federal funding. The convening was hosted by Senior Advisors John Podesta and Mitch Landrieu, and highlighted tools and approaches to support programs in disadvantaged and economically challenged places, including tribal nations, energy, rural, and Justice 40 communities across the U.S.

• In partnership with The Heinz Endowments and The Pittsburgh Foundation, WW+ developed “Maximizing Impact from the Inflation Reduction Act: Opportunities for Pennsylvania.” The resource serves as a primer for Pennsylvania’s state and local elected officials about the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA); Pennsylvania’s major needs, barriers, and opportunities; and what they can do to support its implementation in the Commonwealth.

• The White House highlighted WW+’s partnership with Accelerating Community Investments (ACI) – an initiative of the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy – to mobilize private and nonprofit leaders to support equitable implementation of the IRA’s Low-Income Community Bonus Credit Program in a fact sheet announcing new efforts to expand capital access and contracting opportunities for minority-owned and underserved businesses. 

• As part of a WW+ strategy sprint on inclusive procurement, WW+ Senior Advisor Xavier De Souza Briggs, Drexel University’s Bruce Katz, and Next Street’s Charisse Conanan Johnson released an op-ed describing the implications of historic federal investments for small and medium-sized businesses, and the once-in-a-generation opportunities these investments provide for diverse businesses to narrow the racial wealth gap.

October 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.

• The Kresge Foundation and Brookings Metro held the joint Helping Communities Make the Most of Historic Public Investment convening. In his opening remarks, Kresge CEO Rip Rapson shared three elements his foundation views as essential to effective and equitable implementation of federal funding: 1) activating cross-sector and cross-disciplinary responses, 2) re-imagining capital configurations and deployment channels, and 3) redistributing risk.

• The Hewlett Foundation’s Ali Noorani, Brian Kettenring, and Carrie Doyle wrote a piece describing the foundation’s approach to making the most of historic federal funding to strengthen our nation’s economy, democracy and climate.

• The Funders Network’s GREEN, Urban Water Funders and Mobility and Access Collaborative will host a convening focused on the equitable implementation of federal infrastructure funding from March 27th-28th in Austin, Texas. Registration is open to donors, staff, directors, and trustees of all grantmaking institutions.

• Rewiring America partnered with Enterprise Community Partners, Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), United Way, and Habitat for Humanity International to form a coalition - Power Forward Communities - to apply for $9.5 billion from the IRA’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF) for residential decarbonization and electrification. The coalition’s application is already supported by 321 partners including unions, private sector businesses, and rural and tribal communities who have pledged to decarbonize housing units across 46 states and every EPA region.

• Accelerator for America (AFA), Drexel University Nowak Metro Finance Lab and the Local Infrastructure Hub partnered to launch a Case Stories series showcasing local infrastructure projects eligible under or funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) and IRA. The series’ first two case stories highlight innovative broadband initiatives in Mesa, AZ and Waterloo, IA. 

NEWS UPDATES

A snapshot of this month’s key news.

Climate and Energy:

• The Department of the Treasury (USDT), Department of Energy (DOE) and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) opened applications for the IRA funded Low-Income Communities Bonus Credit Program — the most significant tax incentive in U.S. history to boost solar and wind projects in low-income communities, on Tribal Land, and within affordable housing. Eligible applicants can participate in the program immediately through the program’s new applicant portal.

• The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced nearly $128 million in mostly IRA funding to support 186 environmental justice-related projects in historically disadvantaged communities across the country - the largest investment ever made through EPA’s Environmental Justice Collaborative Problem Solving Cooperative Agreement and Environmental Justice Government-to-Government grant program. 

• The DOE announced several significant BIL investments, including:

  • $7 billion to establish 7 Regional Clean Hydrogen Hubs (H2Hubs). The selected hubs,  located in California and the Appalachian, Gulf Coast, Heartland, Mid-Atlantic, Midwest, and Pacific Northwest regions, will support the production of clean hydrogen for hard to decarbonize industrial sectors and are expected to catalyze over $40 billion in private investment and create tens of thousands of good-paying jobs.

  • $3.5 billion through the Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnerships (GRIP) Program for 58 projects across 44 states to strengthen electric grid resilience and reliability across the country.

• The DOE is hosting “Justice Week 2023: Equity Empowered,” a series of virtual and in-person events on October 30th through November 3rd, to highlight the agency’s progress in advancing equity and environmental justice in the clean energy transition and ensuring climate change investments benefit the communities often left behind.

Economic Development:

• The Economic Development Administration (EDA) announced the designation of 31 Regional Innovation and Technology Hubs (Tech Hubs). These hubs were selected among 370 applicants to become Phase 1 winners of the competitive Tech Hub Program, funded by the CHIPS and Science Act, to develop and grow innovative industries like clean energy and semiconductor manufacturing locally. EDA is now launching a second Tech Hubs Notice of Funding Opportunity, allowing these designated Tech Hubs to receive technical assistance through various federal agencies and apply to receive between $40 million and $70 million each for implementation funding. Additionally, EDA awarded 29 strategy development grants to regional consortia to further develop their innovation-based economic development plans.

Workforce:

• Three trade unions – International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), the Laborers International Union of North America, and the International Union of Operating Engineers – signed an historic agreement to delineate each union’s responsibilities on utility-scale solar projects across the United States (California excluded) to streamline processes for developers, contractors, and unions, and ensure local hire. 

Transportation:

• The Department of Transportation (DOT)’s Federal Highway Administration allocated $61 billion in BIL funding for 12 formula programs to support infrastructure investments across the country including roads, bridges, carbon emission reduction, safety enhancements, and workforce development.

• TransitCenter compiled a list of more than 100 equitable transportation projects across the country that could be funded by BIL, and inventoried projects deemed “wasteful” that state Department of Transportations (DOTs) have either proposed or already begun building, often with little input from the residents those efforts would impact the most.

Good Governance:

• The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced the launch of the IRA-funded Direct File Pilot Program for the 2024 tax season, which will allow eligible taxpayers in 13 states (AK, AZ, CA, FL, MA, NH, NV, NY, SD, TN, TX, WA, WY) to file their federal returns directly with the IRS online and for free. Through this pilot, the IRS hopes to gather important information about customer needs and the future direction of the Direct File program.

• As part of their series on “co-governance in practice,” New America highlighted the Rural Partners Network (RPN) - an all-of-government program helping rural communities identify community-driven solutions, navigate government programs, and develop successful applications for funding to create jobs, build infrastructure, and support long-term economic stability on their own terms.

New Resources:

• The World Resources Institute created a roadmap for state and local officials aiming to bring IRA funding to their states. The roadmap includes a detailed breakdown of new clean energy tax credits and bonuses available to local governments and also provides a number of case studies that show how local governments can use these incentives in their clean energy planning.

• Build America Center released the BIL Launchpad, which provides customized information on available funding, interactive technical support, and data on successful awards for local governments aiming to secure BIL funding.

WW+ Bulletin: October Edition