Climate Justice Organizing Fund - Track One: Capacity Building and Strategy Development Fund Grant

The Climate Justice Organizing Fund aims to support grassroots organizations working towards climate justice by providing essential resources for capacity building and strategic development. This initiative focuses on addressing interconnected issues such as racial and health equity, food security, and affordable housing, ensuring that communities most affected by climate change have the tools and training needed to advocate for their rights and implement effective strategies for long-term success.

About the Climate Justice Organizing Fund
The Climate Justice Organizing Fund will provide resources to groups organizing to advance climate justice in a variety of issue areas. This may include interconnected issues like:
Racial Justice and Climate Justice: Environmental disparities stem from historical redlining, disinvestment, and discriminatory policies that have placed polluting industries, hazardous waste sites, and inadequate infrastructure in predominantly Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) and low-income neighborhoods. Food Security and Climate Justice: Extreme weather caused by climate change (fires, floods, and extreme heat) disrupts food supply chains, which leads to higher and unpredictable prices and more food scarcity for communities that often live in food deserts or lack resources to access healthy food, compounding pre-existing environmental and economic injustice.Affordable Housing and Climate Justice: Populations most at risk for climate impacts are the ones experiencing the most significant housing affordability, maintenance, and displacement issues. For instance, Black, Latinx, and Native households spend between 25-45 percent of their income on energy costs. This is referred to as energy poverty. As extreme heat increases, so does energy poverty. Health Equity and Climate Justice: Climate change disproportionately harms communities facing systemic health disparities—who bear the most significant health burdens from pollution, extreme weather, and environmental hazards.Public Transportation and Climate Justice: Public transportation is critical in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, improving air quality, and promoting climate resilience. However, disparities in transit access disproportionately affect communities also the most impacted by climate change.
Climate Justice Organizing Fund - Track One: Capacity Building and Strategy Development
Track One is designed to strengthen the foundational work necessary for effective climate organizing, ensuring that movements have the preparation and strategic alignment needed for long-term success. These grants will:

1. Support capacity-building activities through climate justice organizing training for community-based organizations, community members, coalitions, and/or other stakeholders. The organizing and training funded by these grants must result in a strengthened capacity for actually implementing a climate justice organizing strategy.

Example activities could include:
Hire a trainer or consultant who will increase the effectiveness of future organizing activities by training and educating staff, volunteers, youth, and/or community members in community organizing, online organizing training, climate justice, environmental racism, or climate change.Provide community organizing 101 and/or climate justice training to community members, youth, or community-based organizations to increase their capacity, knowledge, and organizing skills to address climate justice issues.Build relationships with technical experts, climate justice researchers, or policy leads to strengthening the organization’s climate justice strategy and organizing effectiveness.

1. Support community-led organizations in developing a climate justice strategy. Climate justice organizing strategies should leverage Bread & Roses’ sample organizing tactics, which include facilitating community meetings and listening sessions to unearth community climate justice needs and build relationships with technical experts and policy analysts. The outcome of this activity must be a clearly defined climate justice strategy and plan for implementation.

Eligibility

An annual operating budget of $500,000 or less.Leadership must reflect the organizational membership base, include people directly affected by the climate crisis, and represent communities affected by the climate crisis.  Eligible organizations must use or plan to use community organizing that centers the experiences and voices of climate-impacted communities. Specifically, eligible organizations build power by and with grassroots communities to hold corporations and policymakers accountable to impacted communities.Eligible applicants should demonstrate that they understand climate justice and environmental racism and how the issues they are organizing around promote climate justice.Eligible applicants include new organizations focusing on climate justice or existing grassroots organization expanding their work to focus on climate justice.

Grassroots organizations in the Philadelphia region with an annual operating budget of $500,000 or less; new organizations focused on climate justice or existing groups expanding into climate justice.