A digest of infrastructure 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 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 infrastructure funding implementation-related opportunities in need of philanthropic support. For more information about these opportunities, please contact info@whatworksplus.com.

Engagement Opportunity: The Catalyze Registry

This month, President Biden announced commitments made across the country to expand equitable pathways to quality infrastructure jobs, including over $70 million in aligned philanthropic commitments from foundations working with The Families and Workers Fund, America Achieves, and the Freedman Consulting-supported What Works Plus Collaborative. The announcement highlighted the launch of the Catalyze Registry, a new philanthropic registry and matchmaking service led by America Achieves and the What Works Plus Collaborative to enable philanthropy to scale needed support for initiatives that build a diverse talent pool for quality infrastructure jobs. The Catalyze Registry will function as a concierge service, connecting promising local initiatives—including those who have applied for federal funding—with foundations and other nonprofit organizations that might help fund those efforts. Funders can sign up for a personalized briefing and demo of the registry here. 

Funding Opportunity: Civic Nation - “Broadband Equity Project”

The Gap: While over 40 million households (about 40% of all households) are eligible for BIL’s Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) - which helps low and middle-income households afford reliable broadband - only about 11 million are enrolled, leaving roughly 70% of eligible households and millions of Americans still to reach. Effective implementation of the program will require large-scale and targeted community engagement, education, technical assistance, and organizing support across the country. Research suggests that three key barriers stand in the way of widespread broadband adoption: 1) Lack of awareness; 2) Lack of trust; and 3) Confusion and challenges around the enrollment process.

The Opportunity: Through the Broadband Equity Project, Civic Nation will bring together a large-scale and targeted community engagement effort to build awareness, trust, and technical support to help close the digital divide by enrolling eligible Americans in the Affordable Connectivity Plan. The strategy includes a four-pronged approach: 1) Establish an Independent, Branded Outreach & Marketing Campaign to raise awareness on broadband internet access, the ACP, and help make the enrollment process as simple as possible; 2) Build a Coalition of High-Impact Partners & Trusted Messengers to deploy customized outreach in their communities; 3) Create a National Mobilization Hub & Granting Fund to provide coordination, resources, and support for national, state, and local partners; and 4) Leverage User-Friendly Technology to ensure individuals make it through the enrollment process completely. For more information on the opportunity, please contact info@whatworksplus.com.

Funding Opportunity: U.S. Climate Alliance - “Climate Leadership Grant Program” and “Technical Assistance Fund”

The Gap: States need sufficient capacity, technical expertise, and policy support to deliver on their bold climate agendas and build a clean, equitable, and resilient future for their communities. However, these elements are most frequently cited as key barriers to climate policy enactment and implementation. Adequate staffing and access to effective technical assistance that is tailored to a state’s particular context, specific stage of policy adoption, and unique challenges can help states fully leverage federal funding (such as the incoming funds from Inflation Reduction Act and BIL) to support state climate action, accelerate clean energy deployment, increase resiliency, advance environmental justice, and reduce emissions across all sectors.

The Opportunity: The U.S. Climate Alliance seeks to support state government capacity through: 1) The Climate Leadership Grant Program, which fills critical staffing constraints within states to deliver on their governors’ climate priorities and maximize new federal resources, and 2) The Technical Assistance Fund, which helps states overcome obstacles to advancing climate priorities by providing demand-driven, state-specific technical and policy support to drive transformative climate action.

November Spotlight: News from Core Members & Friends

Have a notable infrastructure-related investment, partnership, or event coming up? Let us know at info@whatworksplus.com and we’ll feature it next month.

• Results for America, a Families and Workers Fund grantee, is holding the “One Year Anniversary of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law: Workforce Opportunities and Strategies” webinar on Tuesday, November 29th, at 2:00pm ET. Results for America is leading the Local Infrastructure Hub to help cities across the country access funds through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL). The session will focus on workforce development opportunities in BIL that can improve job quality nationwide, outlining key strategies for local leaders to tap into workforce funding opportunities. Register for the event here.

• Brookings Metro, Living Cities, and What Works Plus are co-hosting the second webinar of a two part learning series on Monday, December 12th, from 1:00pm-2:15pm ET to discuss how local governments, cities, and counties can make the most of procurement explicitly tied to generational investments in infrastructure and climate action. The conversation will feature thought leaders and leading practitioners who will be exploring the implementation of equitable and inclusive outcomes in infrastructure. Register for the event here.

• The What Works Plus Collaborative, Families and Workers Fund, Energy Foundation, and Joyce Foundation are hosting a virtual discussion on Wednesday, December 14th from 11:30am-12:30pm ET to explore how philanthropy can collaborate across climate and workforce portfolios to help build a diverse pipeline of talent, target workforce investments, and make quality jobs universal. The event will include presentations from and candid conversation with implementers, thought leaders, and philanthropic partners. Register for the event here.

INFRASTRUCTURE NEWS UPDATES

A snapshot of this month’s key infrastructure news. 

A Year in Review: The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law

• November 15th marked the one year anniversary of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL). The Biden-Harris Administration released a fact sheet outlining implementation efforts thus far. Key highlights of the BIL’s first year include the implementation of 2,800 bridge repair and replacement projects across the country, the release of funds for over 5,000 new, clean alternative fuel or zero-emission buses for public transit and schools, and approved state plans for water funding, EV charging networks, and high-speed internet deployment. 

  • The White House also released interactive maps to track federal funding announced to date in each state. State-by-state fact sheets with announced and anticipated funding and projects can be accessed here. 

• Senior Advisor for Implementation of BIL Mitch Landrieu reflected on the first year of BIL implementation, emphasizing that the early stages of implementation have prioritized building teams (including federal, state, local, nonprofit, and for-profit partners), allocating BIL funding, and spreading awareness of upcoming projects and incentives.

Climate:

• The Biden-Harris Administration announced that 389 school districts across all 50 states will be the recipients of nearly $1 billion from BIL in the first round of funding from the EPA’s Clean School Bus Program. The program will fund nearly 2,500 school bus replacements in the switch to electric, low emission options by October 2024. An interactive map outlining selected schools can be found here.

• The Biden-Harris Administration announced $84.5 million in funding from BIL through the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Renew America’s Schools grant program to make clean energy improvements to K-12 schools. Funds will support school districts in making upgrades that will improve health and learning outcomes for students, while lowering facilities’ energy costs and bringing good-paying jobs to the community.

• The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) hosted two public listening sessions this month seeking input on the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, which was created by the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) to provide grants to mobilize private capital for climate and clean energy projects. During these sessions, members of the public and key stakeholder groups provided guidance to EPA staff on the implementation of the program. Recordings are available for the first and second sessions. The EPA is also accepting public comments on core design aspects until the deadline on December 5th, 2022.

Broadband:

• The Biden-Harris Administration announced the timeline for allocating $65 billion in BIL broadband funding under the Internet for All initiative, which is a commitment to providing affordable, reliable, high-speed internet for everyone in America by the end of the decade. This month, the Federal Communications Agency (FCC) released a draft National Broadband Map, a location-by-location view of high-speed Internet availability in America. Funding allocations will be announced by June 30th, 2023.

New Resources:

• The Biden-Harris Administration launched version 1.0 of the Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool (CEJST). The CEJST will help Federal agencies better identify disadvantaged communities overburdened by pollution and historic underinvestment in order to ensure they can benefit from the Justice40 Initiative. The tool currently identifies over 27,000 communities as disadvantaged or partially disadvantaged using indicators of burden such as projected climate risk, transportation barriers, lack of greenspace and indoor plumbing, redlining, legacy pollution, and water pollution.  

• The Brookings Institution released an interactive dashboard scoring the level of detail in the decarbonization plans for 50 major U.S. cities. The report was created in response to “yawning gaps between city ambitions and their preparedness to act,” specifically in terms of funding decarbonization initiatives and incorporating detailed sector-specific strategies for decarbonization. The report also includes several recommendations to address these gaps, such as standardizing climate data measurements and establishing clear funding sources and financing rules.

• Harvard’s Environmental & Energy Law Program (EELP) created a table that outlines provisions within the IRA that have the potential to provide federal benefits to communities with environmental justice (EJ) concerns. The table breaks down criteria including eligible applicants, benefits, federal share cost, and whether EJ criteria is defined by statute for the designated program type.

WW+ Infrastructure Bulletin: November Edition