The Rural Innovation Stronger Economy (RISE) Grant Program offers grant assistance to create and augment high-wage jobs, accelerate the formation of new businesses, support industry clusters and maximize the use of local productive assets in eligible low-income rural areas. RISE grant funds can be used to:

• Build or support a business incubator facility
• Provide worker training to assist in the creation of new jobs
• Train the existing workforce with skills for higher-paying jobs
• Develop a base of skilled workers and improve their opportunities to obtain high-wage jobs in new or existing local industries

The Transformative Climate Communities Program (TCC) invests in community-led climate resilience projects in the California’s most disadvantaged communities. The program objectives are to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, improve public health and the environment, and support economic opportunity and shared prosperity. TCC’s unique, place-based strategy for reducing greenhouse gas emissions is designed to catalyze collective impact through a combination of community-driven climate projects in a single neighborhood. TCC Implementation Grants support an integrated set of projects within a neighborhood project area of approximately five square miles. Projects must reduce greenhouse gas emissions significantly over time, leverage additional funding sources, and provide health, environmental and economic benefits to the community.

This is an opportunity to develop and deploy highly visible and replicable projects that demonstrate community-led, data-driven, and lasting innovation in local climate action through the Action Fund. ICLEI Local Governments for Sustainability USA, Inc. (ICLEI USA) is accepting expressions of interest (EOI) from nonprofit and civil society organizations or consortiums of organizations (located in the US or US territories) that have a plan to accelerate the implementation of a city climate action plan while addressing inequality. Each of the two awardees or consortiums will receive $1,000,000 to fund activities identified by the awardee and ICLEI USA and supported by local government leadership.

The New York State Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) is seeking proposals for technical training, experiential learning, job placement and supportive services that enable New York State to meet the requirements of a clean energy economy and advance the climate equity and just transition goals of New York’s Climate Act. The purpose of this solicitation is to strengthen the pipeline of skilled talent for the Energy Efficiency and Clean Technology (EE&CT) labor market. Projects funded through this solicitation are intended to develop and/or deliver technical training and relevant education, hands-on experience, and placement into paid internships, apprenticeships, full-time jobs, or advanced formal training to ensure that both new and existing workers, apprentices, journeypersons, and students, as applicable, have the skills, experience, and qualifications required to meet industry demand.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), as part of its Science to Achieve Results (STAR) program, is seeking applications proposing community-engaged research that will address the drivers and environmental impacts of energy transitions in underserved communities. For purposes of this competition and the evaluation of applications, “underserved communities” refers to populations sharing a particular characteristic, as well as geographic communities, that have been systematically denied a full opportunity to participate in aspects of economic, social, and civic life, including people of color, low income, rural, tribal, indigenous, and other populations that may be disproportionately impacted by environmental harms and risks.

ETIPP employs a community-driven approach to identify and plan strategic clean energy and energy resilience solutions that address a community’s specific challenges. This approach leverages the experience and expertise of local community leaders, residents, and organizations with the ETIPP partner network. The ETIPP partner network connects selected communities with regional nonprofit or academic organizations, energy experts at DOE research institutions, and DOE offices to navigate options for addressing local clean energy and energy resilience challenges.

By participating in ETIPP, communities receive substantial support from ETIPP experts in the form of technical assistance on energy analysis and planning (see Technical Assistance below). Each community is also supported by an ETIPP regional partner that can assist with identifying and developing a community’s needs and goals.

The Civic Innovation Challenge is a multi-agency, federal government research and action competition that aims to fund ready-to-implement, research-based pilot projects that have the potential for scalable, sustainable, and transferable impact on community-identified priorities. It aims to flip the community-university dynamic, inviting communities to identify civic priorities ripe for innovation and to then partner with researchers to address those priorities. Teams of researchers and civic partners will submit proposals to one of two community-identified tracks by May 5th: ‘Living in a Changing Climate’ and ‘Resource & Service Equity.’

Bloomberg Philanthropies and Kapwa Consulting recently announced the Climate Challenge Justice 40 Capacity Building Fund (J40 Fund). The purpose of the J40 Fund is to provide funding to support community-based organizations to engage and partner with their local government to advance community-led projects that align with the Justice40 Initiative.

Investment areas include: clean energy and energy efficiency, clean transit, affordable and sustainable housing, training and workforce development, the remediation and reduction of legacy pollution, and the development of critical clean water infrastructure.

The fund is managed by Kapwa Consulting, LLC, who will issue approved awards as direct professional service subcontracts to qualified contractors. Contract amounts for community-based organizations are estimated to be up to $30,000. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis until the pool of funds is depleted; to apply to Round 3, do so by April 14th.

The Inclusive Energy Innovation Prize will provide a total of $2.5 million in funding to up to 10 teams to advance ideas for a just and equitable transition. The winners of Phase One will receive cash awards of $200,000 each. Phase One winners will be eligible to participate in a Phase Two of the prize 12 months later, during which time it is anticipated that a total of $500,000 will be awarded to up to three teams. 

CleanFi is a free platform designed to lower the soft costs associated with those commercial building improvements that advance resiliency, environmental health, resource efficiency and resource independence. We help fund hundreds of project scopes that touch on every aspect of a building’s envelope and functionality. We present long-term financing solutions for anything that involves a commercial real estate propertys:

• building envelope (roofs, outside walls, windows and doors,..)
• structural resiliency
• resource efficiency (energy, water, airflow)
• resource independence (renewable energy, storage, thermal,..)
• new transportation (EVcharging, H2 fueling,..)
• internal air quality (heat pumps, HVAC, control,…)
• hundreds of other improvements

Prithvi Ventures is an impact-driven early-stage Climate fund set up to protect our earth and its inhabitants – पृथ्वी / Pṛthvī means “earth” in Sanskrit. To protect our Prithvi, we invest in industries that remove/ reduce the rising GHG emissions. We invest in boring problems with interesting solutions that redesign the way some of the largest industries consume energy and resources. We focus on Capex heavy technologies that are carbon negative, and resource-intensive processes from the supply chain, be that in food, fashion, beauty & more. Investing in ClimateTech presents not only an opportunity for a financial return but is also a chance to help protect our environment, public health, and the overall sustainability of how we live on our Prithvi.