A digest of news, field updates, 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.

Updates from Philanthropy

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 MacArthur Foundation announced it will increase its grantmaking budget by $150 million over the next two years in response to recent actions by the new federal administration, such as the now-suspended freeze on all federal grants.

• Bloomberg Philanthropies’ James Anderson published an op-ed recommending that The White House focus on streamlining implementation of funds from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL). Anderson suggests improvements the new federal administration could make to federal funding processes – like waiving local procurement provisions and clarifying grant timelines – that would result in timely, effective implementation of local projects. 

• Mosaic opened its 2025 grant cycle. The pooled fund is now accepting concept notes for projects that build bridges within and across environmental movements and also address one or more of the following sub issue areas: 1) building narrative power, 2) leveraging the environmental movement to defend democracy, and 3) breaking down silos between issues. Concepts for grants ranging from $50,000 to $300,000 will be accepted via their online application form through March 5, 2025. 

Highlights from the Field

Climate and Energy:

• WW+ and the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy co-published a new report examining how community-scale clean energy projects can drive economic growth, create jobs, cut carbon emissions, and provide energy savings while empowering communities to build a cleaner, more reliable energy future. The report outlines recommendations for public, private, and nonprofit sector leaders, including 1) enabling more equitable market participation by users of project capital, 2) extending market infrastructure for investors, 3) developing and scaling diverse supplier businesses, and 4) accelerating learning and knowledge exchange networks. Findings for this report were informed by a 2024 collaborative strategy sprint co-chaired by report co-authors R.J. McGrail (Lincoln Institute of Land Policy) and Xav de Souza Briggs (WW+ and Brookings Metro).

• America Is All In is collecting stories from city officials, workers, nonprofit organizations, and others about federally funded clean energy projects, including success stories and concerns. Interested parties can share stories using this form.

• The National Governors Association (NGA) launched a working group to explore issues surrounding permitting reform, infrastructure acceleration, and energy resilience with a particular focus on the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), judicial review, and transmission siting. Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt and Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro will co-chair the working group.

• UndauntedK12 released a “Playbook for State Leaders” that offers actionable steps state leaders can take to maximize the impact of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA)’s elective pay (direct pay) program on schools and provides examples of successful efforts.

• Atlas Public Policy, Lawyers for Good Government (L4GG), and Climate Mayors hosted a webinar to discuss the status of direct pay. L4GG provided an update on the current status of direct pay and potential future risks to the program, Climate Mayors emphasized the importance of storytelling, and Atlas Public Policy shared a new tracker for submitting direct pay project stories. A recording of the webinar is available here.

Good Governance:

• In a piece for Brookings, Xav de Souza Briggs and Laurel Blatchford (Senior Fellow, Delivery Associates) outline five principles for the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and others to keep in mind as they consider changes that impact federal funding implementation. Effective implementation, the authors argue, should 1) make people’s lives easier and better, 2) build and strengthen “implementation muscles”, 3) focus on the state, local, and community levels, 4) blend public and private capital, and 5) share stories of successful implementation efforts.

Workforce:

• A new report from Texas Climate Jobs Project highlights how decarbonization of Texas’ public buildings can save millions of dollars annually while creating thousands of good union jobs. The report provides an explainer on different federal funding streams as well as case studies and research that illustrate how Texas can lower utility costs, improve the health of citizens by reducing air pollution, and spur job growth in nascent industries. 

• The National Fund for Workforce Solutions is launching a collaboration with eight communities as part of Centering Workers in Job Design, an initiative that aims to help employers engage their workforce to co-design new workplace practices that boost job quality, through increased compensation and/or better career navigation services. Four of the projects launched through this collaboration will focus on work to improve job quality and business results in infrastructure (construction, energy, and manufacturing) and the other four will focus on improving career navigation in healthcare.

New Resources

• Grist, a non-profit that reports on climate change, released an interactive map showing all projects funded by IRA and BIL across the US. Where possible, the map indicates whether the funding for a project has been disbursed.

• Atlas Public Policy’s Climate Program Portal published a “federal archives” page that preserves archived federal agency data and resources, including BIL and IRA program webpages, guidance documents and fact sheets, and project links.

News Updates

A snapshot of this month’s key news.

What Works Plus continues to track developments related to the federal funding freeze of certain IRA and BIL funding streams. While this landscape continues to evolve, recent updates at key agencies include:

• As of February 20, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) unfroze the funding from all climate grants except for two of the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF) programs — the $6 billion Clean Communities Investment Accelerator (CCIA) and the $14 billion National Clean Investment Fund (NCIF). The funding from both CCIA and NCIF is currently in accounts at Citibank. Despite the Administration's efforts to claw back GGRF, NCIF grant recipient Power Forward Communities announced it is deploying its initial $539 million disbursement. 

• As of February 18, the Department of Energy (DOE) was still reviewing frozen programs but had released a $782 million first advance under a $1.67 loan guarantee for the development of sustainable aviation fuel from the agency’s Loan Programs Office. This advance is the first significant funding release from the DOE since The White House announced the funding freeze. As of February 26, at least some states were pausing their IRA-funded rebates programs due to the freeze.

• As of February 20, the Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced it will release $20 million in contracts for farmers, specifically contracts under the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, the Conservation Stewardship Program, and the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program. On February 27, the Successful Farming magazine published an analysis of these released funds as they relate to the programs’ total resources, including from the IRA.

The following resources explain potential implications for IRA and BIL funds:

• In an interview with Heatmap, Romany Webb (Deputy Director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law) discusses the implications of the federal funding freeze and ensuing lawsuits for climate initiatives and federal programs at large. Webb explains how related lawsuits could play out in the Supreme Court, the response of private companies, and more.

• Lawyers for Good Government (L4GG) – a legal advocacy nonprofit working to ensure that communities can access and implement IRA and BIL funds – released a statement on The White House’s federal funding freeze. In the first half of February, L4GG received over 200 requests for legal assistance from nonprofits that are unable to access the federal funding they were awarded. These funding disruptions, report L4GG, have forced organizations to shut down programs, lay off workers, and halt essential services.

WW+ Bulletin: February Edition