|
$$PLAIN_TEXT_PREVIEW$$
What Works Plus Bulletin:June Edition
|
|
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: Civic Nation – “The Enrollment Project: Ensuring that New Federal Investments Reach the Communities That Need Them Most”
|
|
The Gap: The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), and executive actions on student borrower relief have created historic opportunities for tens of millions of middle and low-income Americans to access life-changing new benefits including affordable high-speed broadband, student borrower relief, and green tax credits and rebates. These federal policies also present an opportunity to help restore faith in the government’s ability to improve lives and reinvigorate civic participation. But those who would benefit the most are also the most likely to miss out. The Opportunity: Civic Nation is leading a multi-issue, multi-year effort to reach BIPOC and low-income communities and empower them to access new Federal programs via deliberate organizing, engagement, and communication through trusted messengers. In June 2023, Civic Nation launched Online For All, a digital equity campaign working to increase Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) enrollment, in partnership with the White House and the U.S. Department of Education. Through efforts like these, Civic Nation will focus on building deep relationships with partners and grantees, providing them with the resources, messaging, training, tools, and technology to support them in their communities to enroll Americans in powerful government benefits. Please contact Maya Rao with any questions or to learn more about the Enrollment Project.
|
Funding Opportunity: Move LA - “Labor/Environmental Justice Table on High Road Jobs for Clean Air and Climate Health in Southern California”
|
|
The Gap: Transportation is responsible for 50% of all greenhouse gas emissions in California and 80% of smog-forming pollution, which sickens more than 150,000 people in Southern California. The region’s low-income people of color are disproportionately impacted, experiencing higher rates of asthma. Many of these residents also happen to work at the ports, and the sector creates high-road jobs: 1 in 14 residents are employed in goods movement, many in union work. Despite incredible efforts by the state and local governments to fund solutions, the impact on the ground is still being acutely felt by local communities - emissions continue to rise while workers are displaced by the transition to new fuels and power sources. There is a need for dialogue between organized and unionized workers and residents fighting for environmental justice. The Opportunity:In 2022, Move LA began working with labor, community, and environmental/environmental justice organizations to discuss the need for Southern California to transition to clean green hydrogen in transportation and infrastructure applications to ensure a healthy climate. Move LA emphasized that this transition could also provide justice for current workers and their families by producing good unionized jobs, utilizing skills to the skills used in incumbent fossil fuel industries. Move LA seeks funding to build a collaborative and permanent Labor/Environmental Justice Table with the Building Trades and the environmental/environmental justice movement in the region, helping to accelerate the transition to zero-emission goods movement and produce tens of thousands of high-road jobs. Read the full proposal here and contact Eli Lipmen with inquiries.
|
June Spotlight: News from Members & Friends
|
|
Have a notable investment, partnership, or event coming up? Let Let Max Shipman know at shipman@tfreedmanconsulting.com and we’ll feature it next month.
|
WW+ was highlighted in a recent Nonprofit Quarterly piece by Pronita Gupta and Justin Maxson, which outlines strategies for philanthropy to help ensure federal funds get to communities who need them most, especially low-income, BIPOC, and rural areas. Recommended strategies include supporting community readiness, investing in pooled funds and high-leverage opportunities through intermediaries like WW+, Hyphen and PolicyLink, supporting place-based efforts and regional funders, investing in emerging needs through general support grants to organizations working on federal implementation, and increasing transparency through ongoing quality data collection and analysis. In a Brookings Institution piece, WW+ Senior Advisor Xavier de Souza Briggs and Jessika Sherman share lessons from the implementation of President Biden’s executive orders on equity that all levels of government can learn from – including the relevance of initiatives to improve government “customer experience” and access for all, and the need for adequate data and staff capacity. The Center for American Progress (CAP) launched the Biden Administration Investment Tracker tool, which tracks more than 35,000 public and private sector investments generated or supported by BIL, IRA, and the CHIPS and Science Act (CHIPS), and allows users to learn how these laws are being put to work in their counties, states, and across the country. CAP also invites users to submit additional context or information they may have about specific investments using this form. The Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative released the City Leader Guide on Civic Engagement – authored by Hollie Russon Gilman, Jorrit de Jong, Archon Fung, Rebecca Rosen, and Gaylen Moore – which provides city leaders with analytical tools, insights, and step-by-step process support for engaging residents in problem solving. The guide also includes examples of collaborative governance models around the globe, including participatory budgeting models that have empowered residents to make binding recommendations on public infrastructure spending. Results for America released the American Rescue Plan (ARPA) Data and Evidence Dashboard, which examines State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (SLFRF) funding priorities and implementation strategies across the country. This dashboard offers a road map for use of remaining federal SLFRF funding, allowing leaders to look at how other state and local governments have utilized their funds and make decisions based on these results. Jurisdictions have until December 31, 2024, to obligate their funds and until December 31, 2026, to fully expend them.
Accelerator For America, Brookings Metro, and the National Association of Counties released a report reviewing local governments’ implementation of the $350 billion ARPA SLFRF program. They found that local governments set priorities for driving equity and inclusion with these funds. Many are also utilizing a “dual track” investment plan that 1) stabilizes existing governments and implements emergency relief, and 2) invests in rebuilding the economy. Local governments are also upgrading their evaluation and tracking capabilities to better measure project impact.
|
|
A snapshot of this month’s key news.
|
The U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced a $2.6 billion framework for investing in coastal resilience through the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). The framework outlines investments in capacity building, resilience projects, job creation, and increased climate services to support coastal communities as climate change brings more extreme weather conditions. Funding programs include: BIL and IRA allocated over $7 billion to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI), and NOAA to mitigate and respond to the threat posed by wildfires. President Biden’s 2024 budget request proposes to increase wildland firefighters’ pay, provide wildland firefighters with housing, and increase funding for hazardous fuels treatment and DOI’s wildland fire management programs. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the $7 billion Solar for All Grant Competition. Part of the $27 billion Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund created by IRA, the competition will award up to 60 grants to states, territories, Tribal governments, municipalities, and eligible nonprofits to create and expand low-income solar programs that provide financing and technical assistance, such as workforce development, to enable low-income and disadvantaged communities to deploy and benefit from residential solar. Potential applicants must submit a letter of intent by July 31, August 14, or August 28, 2023 (depending on applicant type), and full applications are due September 26, 2023. EPA is hosting a webinar on the opportunity from 1:00-3:00pm ET on July 12, 2023. The The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) released important guidance on: Direct (elective) pay and transferability, two new credit delivery mechanisms that were created for many IRA clean energy tax credits. Direct / elective pay allows entities to receive a payment equal to the value of a tax credit, and transferability enables businesses to transfer tax credits to a third party and simplify financing for clean energy projects. These mechanisms are intended to open new doors for tax-exempt entities like nonprofits, state, local and Tribal governments, publicly owned utilities, and rural electric cooperatives that previously could not access credits, and for smaller energy developers to build projects faster and more affordably. The Qualifying Advanced Energy Project credit is a $10 billion credit from the IRA to incentivize clean energy manufacturing and recycling, industrial decarbonization, and critical materials processing. To be eligible for funding, taxpayers must submit a concept paper between June 30, 2023 and July 31, 2023.
The Department of Treasury and the White House are hosting a briefing on the proposed guidance on direct pay and transferability mechanisms today (June 29th) at 3:00pm ET. Register for the briefing here. The White House released the U.S. National Clean Hydrogen Strategy and Roadmap, a plan for accelerating the deployment of hydrogen in the U.S. The Roadmap identifies three strategies for hydrogen development and adoption: targeting high-impact uses for clean hydrogen, reducing hydrogen’s cost, and focusing on regional networks. Through these strategies, the White House is aiming to make the grid carbon-free by 2035 and have a net-zero emissions economy by 2050. The roadmap complements the BIL’s $9.5 billion investment in clean hydrogen, which is also supported by the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Hydrogen Program.
|
The U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) released a fact sheet for the Recompete Pilot Program, a CHIPS and Science Act program to spur economic activity in geographically diverse and persistently distressed areas. The $200 million opportunity will launch in the coming months with a three-month application window. The fact sheet provides resources, such as the Recompete Eligibility Mapping Tool, to prospective applicants ahead of the notice of funding opportunity, expected to be released this winter. Local and Tribal governments, D.C., territories, political subdivisions of states, public entities, and nonprofits are all eligible to submit an application. The DOC released a report that revealed an increase in geographic income inequality of more than 40 percent from 1980 to 2021. Income gains across locations were not consistent: wealthier areas had much higher income growth than poorer areas, and large metropolitan areas tend to have much higher incomes than other areas (even after adjusting for cost of living). This has led to a concentration of American economic activity in a small number of large metropolitan areas. DOC competitions like the Economic Development Administration’s regional Tech Hubs program are designed to help address this gap by spreading economic opportunity and innovation to communities outside the dominant economic centers.
|
The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) announced state funding allocations for BIL’s Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program. Through the $42.5 billion, states will administer grant programs to deploy or upgrade broadband networks to ensure access to reliable, affordable, high-speed Internet service. Once deployment goals are met, any remaining funds can be used to pursue eligible access-, adoption-, and equity-related uses. Beginning on June 30, states have 180 days to submit their initial proposals for how they plan to run their grant programs. The Brookings Institution released a report analyzing rural communities’ needs in gaining access to broadband. The report provides recommendations to ensure that NTIA properly administers the BEAD program. Recommendations include: mandating annual BEAD implementation reporting, creating a community advisory committee for NTIA, encouraging dedicated resources for community engagement in underserved communities, ensuring matching requirements are not a barrier to entry for underserved communities, and addressing permitting barriers.
|
Atlas Public Policy released an issue brief exploring equity and emissions concerns related to BIL highway funding. Climate, equity, and social justice advocates have raised the potential risk for BIL’s $432 billion in highway and bridge investments to perpetuate car dependency (furthering emissions) and to disproportionately impact communities of color and other disadvantaged communities, based on impacts of previous highway expansions. The brief suggests that state transportation agencies distributing BIL funds take these concerns into account.
|
The White House launched Invest.gov, a new website that tracks and maps private investments and public infrastructure projects across the country. This site is an effort to demonstrate the positive impacts of the Administration’s Investing in America Agenda on the U.S. economy. In a Brookings Institution piece, Manann Donoghoe, Andre M. Perry, and Hannah Stephens analyze the IRA’s potential for U.S. environmental policy to move past its “one-size-fits-all” approach, which has resulted in greater pollution for low-income communities and communities of color. The authors suggest that the IRA’s rigid approach inhibits it from distributing benefits neutrally, achieving climate equity, and adapting policy to specific areas. State and local implementation efforts could increase equitable outcomes by working with community partners in vulnerable areas, investing in community based organizations, and pursuing racial justice initiatives. Atlas Public Policy launched the Outcomes Dashboard, which records the funding awarded by BIL and IRA climate programs. Users can search funding awards by state, climate element, program, or sector. Dartmouth and Princeton researchers, aided by funding from BlueGreen Alliance, released a new study on the potential impacts of the IRA on U.S. wind and solar industries. They found that IRA provisions could support 1.6 million new wind and solar jobs, provide cheaper domestic renewable energy materials, and reduce costs for solar, on-shore wind, and off-shore wind projects that meet labor standards. Rewiring America released their first “Pace of Progress” report, which assesses the current state of the electrification market and energy consumption and maps it against what is necessary to meet the White House’s goal of achieving a net-zero emissions economy by 2050. The report finds a gap of 14 million machines (such as heat pumps and induction stoves) over the next three years above baseline market adoption projections.
|
|
WW+ Bulletin: June Edition
|
|
|
|
