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 info@whatworksplus.com.

Funding Opportunity: The State Funding Readiness Project (SFRP) - “Request for Surge Support: Unlocking the Full Potential of Federal Climate Investments”

The Gap: The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) and Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) offer an unprecedented opportunity to implement federal funding in ways that advance climate equity priorities and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Yet, many states are hampered by significant limitations on staff capacity and expertise as they navigate new grant guidance amid rapidly approaching application deadlines. Failing to meet this historic funding moment could leave major opportunities for climate and equity unrealized.

The Opportunity: Led by Hua Nani Partners and the U.S. Climate Alliance, the State Funding Readiness Project (SFRP) provides free technical assistance and capacity to subnational jurisdictions—primarily states, but also cities, counties, and Tribal governments—to help unlock and direct federal funding to ambitious, equitable climate projects. In less than a year, SFRP has already helped nine states; five have since returned seeking additional support. Just in the last month, seven more states have asked for support, and SFRP had its first expressions of interest from tribal governments. This surge of interest reflects the speed at which federal grant programs are being announced, the growth in referrals from those we’ve helped, and greater exposure through SFRP’s  recently launched website—but it is quickly surpassing the project’s current capacity and resourcing.

Without SFRP’s help, states might not apply for or deploy critical funds now, and opportunities could be lost to deliver on the full potential of these historic federal investments. SFRP is seeking additional philanthropic support to ensure it can meet and execute on all of the existing and anticipated requests for assistance. Additional resources will help it accelerate subnational climate action and expand both pro-bono support offerings and state partnerships—ultimately delivering greater impact at scale. Contact SFRP here for more information about the request for surge support and other immediate opportunities.

Funding Opportunity: National Governors Association - Proposal to Help Governors Implement Federal Funds

The Gap: Recent initiatives such as BIL, IRA, and the CHIPS & Science Act (CHIPS) are driving unprecedented federal resources to states and territories. At the same time, infrastructure investments and economic development initiatives are seeking to address more and more diverse socioeconomic and long-term resilience goals than ever before. This is occurring as states and territories, as well as the private sector, are stressed by capacity issues and constrained by long-standing methods and structure to deliver these generational investments. The National Governors Association (NGA), through its infrastructure and workforce development and economic policy teams in NGA’s Center for Best Practices, are partnering to support states and territories as they build the capacity needed to deliver on this moment.

The Opportunity: The NGA Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) will invite Governors’ offices to assemble cross-agency, multi-sector state strategic planning “core teams” to attend a state capacity-building summit (title TBD, referred to here as “Summit”). The Summit will also engage federal partners, private sector leaders, and other experts and stakeholders. At the event, states will be asked for feedback on future assistance in this area and will be offered the opportunity to continue the work catalyzed at the Summit by engaging their state team in a multi-state cohort. Throughout 2023-2024, the NGA Center will also provide ongoing targeted support for this cohort of Governors’ teams as they undertake comprehensive infrastructure, workforce and economic development investments. To learn more about this proposal, please contact Tom Curtin and Rachael Stephens Parker.

April Spotlight: News from Core Members & Friends

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

• United for Infrastructure, a program of Accelerator for America Action advocating for infrastructure investments, has released their events calendar for Infrastructure Week with events taking place from May 15th-19th, 2023. Submit your infrastructure-related event on the Infrastructure Week website to promote it on the Infrastructure Week Calendar.

• The Climate Leadership Initiative, funded by the Hewlett Foundation and other foundations, published a report citing the growth of climate philanthropy in recent years. The report shows a 20 percent increase in global climate philanthropy, with a growth of $1.5 to $2.5 billion between 2020 and 2021.

• New America highlighted an example of co-governance in Petaluma, California, through an interview with City Manager Peggy Flynn. The interview explores the city’s first municipal citizens’ assembly, which brings together 36 citizens to help determine the future of Petaluma’s publicly owned fairgrounds. 

• Bruce Katz (Nowak Metro Finance Lab), Lori Bamberger (ABK City Advisors), Florian Schalliol (Metis Impact), and Brian Reyes (Nowak Lab) identified and developed six multi-sectorial and interdisciplinary strategies to maximize funding from IRA. 

• WW+ Senior Advisor Xavier de Souza Briggs, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, and Madeline Janis, the co-director of Jobs to Move America, identified opportunities and challenges of the federal government’s new industrial strategy – especially funding from IRA, CHIPS, and BIL – in creating good jobs and benefitting workers and communities. Among other actions, the authors cite the need for DOE and other federal agencies to ensure companies provide good jobs and training through enforceable contractual requirements and transparency by providing publicly available proof of compliance.

NEWS UPDATES

A snapshot of this month’s key news.

Climate and Energy:

• The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) released its Strategic Operating Plan (SOP) for implementing $80 billion in funding from the IRA for modernizing and improving how the agency serves the public and tax professionals. The SOP includes details on how the IRS will advance implementation of the IRA’s energy tax credits through improved customer service, technology, data and analytics, and more.

• A new startup is launching a digital marketplace to help climate companies through the complicated process of buying and selling IRA energy tax credits. This could help make tax equity a more accessible source of income for smaller developers building community solar projects. 

• The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released new details about the design of the $27 billion Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF) for investment in clean energy projects. The funding will be distributed through three complementary competitions, including:

  • $14 billion for the National Clean Investment Fund competition to fund two to three national nonprofits to catalyze clean technology projects for energy independence and a net-zero economic future.

  • $6 billion for the Clean Communities Investment Accelerator competition to fund two to seven hub nonprofits to build the clean financing capacity of specific networks of public, quasi-public, and non-profit community lenders to ensure access to financing for pollution-reducing clean technology projects.

  • $7 billion for the Solar for All competition to provide grants to States, Tribal governments, municipalities, and nonprofits to expand solar power in low income and disadvantaged communities 

  EPA is preparing the program’s Notices of Funding Opportunity for release as soon as June 2023, and is inviting written technical feedback and comments on the competition descriptions. Stakeholders may send their written feedback to ggrf@epa.gov by May 12.

Economic Development:

• The Just Transition Fund (JTF) launched the Coal Communities Get Ready! Challenge to support organizations that are building readiness to apply for federal investment in locally-led economic solutions in frontline communities and workers hardest hit by the transition away from coal. JTF will identify a cohort of 8-10 organizations that are building readiness to apply for federal funds within approximately one year. Each organization will receive one-year grants of $150,000 and customized technical assistance, and JTF will create opportunities for peer learning and exchange for the cohort members. The opportunity is designed for organizations with little to no experience applying for federal funds. Interest inquiries are accepted through May 31, 2023.

• The U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration (EDA) released a fact sheet with details on the $500 million Regional Technology and Innovation Hub (Tech Hubs) Program, which was authorized as part CHIPS to help position communities throughout the country to lead in high-growth, high-wage sectors such as advanced manufacturing and clean energy technology. Phase 1 of the program will designate at least 20 Tech Hubs and provide strategy development awards to accelerate their development. Phase 2 will provide strategy implementation awards to help Tech Hubs with additional impact. Applications for Phase 1 will open by early May 2023, with a breakneck two month application window, and Phase 2 is expected to open by the end of summer 2023.

Workforce:

• The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) announced $80 million in funding for its Building Pathways to Infrastructure Jobs Grant Program, which will fund public-private partnerships to develop, strengthen, and scale promising and evidence-based training models for job seekers in advanced manufacturing; information technology; and professional, scientific, and technical services occupations that support renewable energy, transportation, and broadband infrastructure sectors. Applications are due July 7, 2023. 

• The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced $54 million in available funds through the Industrial Assessment Centers (IAC) Program for community colleges, trade schools, and union training programs to create new Building Training and Assessment Centers (BTACs). Applications are due July 31st, 2023. The announcement also named five higher education institutions receiving a combined $18.7 million to serve as Centers of Excellence through the IAC Program. 

• The U.S Economic Development Administration opened applications for their STEM Talent Challenge to award $4.5 million in grants to build STEM talent training. Funding will support development and expansion of regional workforce capacity to support high-growth, high-wage entrepreneurial ventures, industries of the future, and other innovation driven businesses that will accelerate economic competitiveness and job creation. Applications close June 12, 2023. 

Transportation:

• The U.S. Environmental Agency (EPA) proposed rules for new standards to reduce harmful air pollutant emissions from light-duty and medium-duty vehicles, starting with model year 2027 through 2032. The rules include more stringent emissions standards for certain pollutants and greenhouse gasses and changes to certain optional credit programs, among other policies. The EPA will hold virtual public hearings about the new standards on May 9th and May 10th, 2023. 

• The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) announced a Request for Information (RFI) seeking public input on the improvement of environmental review processes under the IRA to reduce transportation project delays. DOT also seeks information on program areas that would benefit from further research, how to make resources available in an equitable manner, and the types of assistance that would support more efficiency for projects. Comments are due June 1st, 2023.

New Resources:

• The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) Map Dashboard was recently updated to show funding distributed to communities across the U.S., including all announced funding as of March 17, 2023 and select awarded funding as of January 31, 2023. The Dashboard also includes a state-level summary map that shows breakdowns of funding by sector.

• The White House released a map listing private sector investment across the U.S. Since 2021, at least 16 states have seen private investments in over 240 projects totaling $435 billion across the semiconductor manufacturing, clean energy, and biomanufacturing industries.

• The Department of Energy (DOE) released a mapping tool that shows places across the United States that potentially qualify as energy communities for purposes of the IRA’s Energy Community Tax Credit Bonus. These include Census tracts and directly adjoining tracts that have had coal mine closures since 1999 or coal-fired electric generating unit retirements since 2009, as well as communities with at least 0.17% fossil fuel employment.

• The White House released the Guidebook to the Inflation Reduction Act’s Clean Energy and Climate Investments in Indian Country. With the IRA providing over $720 million dedicated to Tribal lands and Native communities, the guide provides an overview of the clean energy, climate mitigation and resilience, agriculture, and conservation funding programs for which Tribes are eligible, including energy tax credits.

• The BlueGreen Alliance released a fact sheet that showcases key programs available to energy communities through BIL and IRA, including for mine land reclamation, economic development, manufacturing, clean energy, and black lung disease.

• Code for America released the Benefits Enrollment Field Guide, which shares  best practices for online benefits enrollment across states. Communities can learn from these best practices as they explore ways to drive enrollment in the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) and IRA tax credits. 

• The Rapid Energy Policy Evaluation and Analysis Toolkit (REPEAT) Project released an updated analysis of the emission impact of BIL and IRA. . The analysis finds that BIL and IRA could roughly double the pace of annual U.S. decarbonization to ~4% per year and get the U.S. to ~37-41% below 2005 historical GHG emissions (versus the national target of 50-52%).

WW+ Bulletin: April Edition