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.

• Over 117 philanthropic organizations signed the “Meet the Moment” pledge, a collaborative call to action led by the Trust-Based Philanthropy Project, Grantmakers for Effective Organizations, and the National Center for Family Philanthropy, to increase grant sizes and trust-based work with nonprofits in response to federal funding cuts. Pledge signatories include the Surdna and MacArthur foundations.
  

  • With a similar goal, the Marguerite Casey Foundation also announced plans to draw from its endowment to significantly increase donations this year to $130 million.
    
    

• Inside Philanthropy published a piece describing how pivotal philanthropic support has been and continues to be for climate groups that were awarded funding from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA)’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF). According to the piece, philanthropy helped lay the groundwork for GGRF by backing national policy work, the development of regional green banks, and the involvement of local communities. Now, in the face of much uncertainty on status of these federal funds, several GGRF awardees describe philanthropy’s emergency stopgap support as critical to keeping them afloat, and argue additional philanthropic funding could help sustain stalled clean energy projects.
  
  

• The Kresge Foundation published a piece on how nonprofits can navigate the impact of federal spending cuts and improve financial resilience. The foundation’s Social Investing Practice recommends six steps for nonprofits to take: 1) Review your directors and officers (D&O) insurance policy, 2) Diversify banking relationships, 3) Open lines of credit for liquidity, 4) Review cost allocations on current grants, 5) Speak with funders about converting project support to general operating support, and 6) Budget for uncertainty. 

Highlights from the Field

• Accelerator for America Action is excited to announce United for Infrastructure’s 13th annual Infrastructure Week from May 12-16, 2025. This nationwide event focuses on raising awareness about the importance of infrastructure and advocating for improvements that address some of the nation’s toughest challenges in transit and transportation, water systems, energy, connectivity, and more. Organizations interested in participating in  Infrastructure Week 2025 can submit their events here and email questions to Ross van Dongen at ross@acceleratoraction.org. 

Climate and Energy:

• In a piece for Heatmap, former senior official at the U.S. Department of Energy Karen Skelton and former senior official at the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Rob Gramlich describe six big ideas for achieving an affordable, reliable, and secure grid. These ideas were developed as part of a recent convening that Freedman Consulting supported at Stanford University with more than 80 top energy experts and are further detailed in a report released this month. Highlights include: 1) Ensure American security remains at the heart of the nation’s energy strategy; 2) Advance a true all-of-the-above energy strategy; 3) Create a new federal and state grid investment trust fund; 4) Reform permitting processes to expedite grid infrastructure projects; 5) Promote and scale innovative, flexible grid policies; and 6) Prioritize affordability through modernized utility operations and business models.
  

Good Governance:

• Work For America’s Civic Match initiative, which connects outgoing federal employees with jobs in local and state government, released new survey results demonstrating that, despite job insecurity and ongoing fear of layoffs, federal workers remain deeply committed to continuing their careers in public service. Drawing from this survey, Civic Match also outlined five specific insights for state and local government hiring managers.

Workforce & Economic Development:

• The Center for Energy Workforce Development (CEWD) released a three-year strategic plan to tackle talent shortages in the energy sector, which includes a focus on 1) career awareness and promotion to inspire interest and attract new candidates to the sector; and 2) helping develop and retain the industry’s talent pipeline.

Transportation:

• Brookings Metro published a report examining the disparities between locally owned roads and state roads. Despite carrying 34% of all vehicle miles traveled, local roads receive just 16% of state transportation spending. Meanwhile, the report suggests, federal funding formulas continue to prioritize state discretion, leaving localities underfunded. To address this discrepancy, the report recommends federal and state leaders 1) direct federal allocations to local governments and 2) implement a more equitable distribution of Highway Trust Fund dollars.
  
  

• The Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) is hosting a briefing on May 20, 2025 from 3PM-4PM ET to highlight federal programs and research that help expand public transit and make it more accessible. All interested members of the public can RSVP here to join either in-person or virtually.

New Resources:

• Atlas Public Policy released several new tools and resources, including:
  

  • The Local Government Direct Pay Tracker, which compiles success stories of local governments leveraging the Inflation Reduction Act’s (IRA) direct pay provision to implement more affordable clean energy projects in their communities. The tracker includes a map of projects supported by federal tax credits via direct pay, and invites ongoing submissions through this form.
    
    

  • The Clean Economy Tracker, which tracks private-led investments and jobs in clean energy and technology manufacturing, now compiles public statements from lawmakers in support of federal clean energy manufacturing incentives. 

  • The American Energy Stories storybank, which compiles stories of unprecedented innovation and growth catalyzed by recent federal investment. Stories can be submitted through this form.
    
    

  • The “Risks from Vehicle Tax Incentive Reform in 2025” report, which examines the potential risks of significantly reforming or eliminating federal tax credits for electric vehicle and battery supply chains on the U.S. economy and national security.

    
    

• The Urban Institute released Spending on Infrastructure Toward Equity (SITE), a new data tool to evaluate the equity implications of the distribution of federal infrastructure funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) across sectors.
  
  

• The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) published its third brief on Residential Retrofit Programs to Complement Federal Rebate Programs that addresses coordination of state implementation of federal residential retrofit incentives with utility efforts. This third brief focuses on utility-state collaboration to leverage long-term market transformation. 

News Updates

A snapshot of this month’s key news.

Federal Funding:

What Works Plus continues to track developments related to the federal funding freeze of certain Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) funding streams. Key updates from April include:

• On April 15, the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island granted a preliminary injunction against several federal agencies that have frozen funding from the IRA and BIL. The injunction orders that the Department of Energy (DOE), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Department of the Interior (DOI), and Department of Agriculture (USDA) “take immediate steps to resume the processing, disbursement, and payment of already-awarded funding…and release awarded funds previously withheld or rendered inaccessible.”
  

  • The Environmental Protection Network is providing resources to federal awardees to help them access impacted funds following this court decision.

• Several developments have unfolded regarding a lawsuit challenging the EPA’s freezing of $20 billion in awards from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF):
  

  • On April 15, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia granted a preliminary injunction preventing the EPA from terminating their GGRF grants, and ordering immediate disbursement of expenses incurred after the funding freeze.
    
    

  • On April 16, an appellate court issued a stay ordering that no party take any action with regard to the disputed contracts, grants, awards, or funds.

  • On April 28, the appellate court maintained this stay. A hearing is scheduled for May 19 and the court’s final ruling is possible by the end of May.

Permitting:

• The White House released a memorandum directing The White House’s Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) to issue and implement a Permitting Technology Action Plan – covering process automation, interagency coordination, and more – and establish a Permitting Innovation Center, which will design and test prototype tools for implementing the Permitting Technology Action Plan and other environmental permits. These efforts are intended to reshape federal permitting processes for a variety of infrastructure projects, such as roads, bridges, mines, factories, and power plants.

Good Governance:

• The Internal Revenue Service plans to eliminate the agency’ Direct File program, a free digital tool allowing households to file tax returns directly to the agency. Piloted during the 2024 tax season, Direct File was expanded to 25 states for the 2025 tax season, making more than 30 million taxpayers eligible to use the tool. Several organizations, including Code for America, have commented on the IRS’s decision to eliminate the tool. 

WW+ Bulletin: April Edition