Flagstaff Sustainability Grants ( formerly Neighborhood Sustainability Grants )

The Flagstaff Sustainability Grants, formerly known as Neighborhood Sustainability Grants, support innovative community projects aimed at enhancing sustainability and promoting healthy lifestyles. Funded by the Environmental Management Fee, these grants encourage initiatives that involve volunteer engagement, community partnerships, and address the needs of underserved populations. Eligible applicants include individuals and organizations within Flagstaff city limits. Successful projects will align with categories such as food, waste reduction, climate action, and public health, fostering long-term community benefits.

The Neighborhood Sustainability Grant Program inspires creative projects that enhance community sustainability and promote healthy lifestyles through community partnerships.
Neighborhood Sustainability Grants can help launch or continue existing community sustainability projects. Successful projects will further sustainability goals, facilitate volunteer engagement or management, build community partnerships, and/or meaningfully involve underserved communities, diverse groups, or vulnerable populations.
The Neighborhood Sustainability Grant is funded through the Environmental Management Fee.
Grant Project Categories & Objectives
The Sustainability Commission seeks projects in the following seven categories. Each of the seven categories has specific objectives and is included as follows. Projects will be evaluated on how well they meet at least two of these objectives, with the best projects meeting all three objectives.
Food
Promotes, through education and engagement, improved access to a sustainable and equitable food system that produces healthy food for the community.
Increases food recovery efforts, especially for communities experiencing food insecurity.
Increases pollinator habitat through conservation and/or education efforts.
Waste Reduction
Promotes proper recycling, composting, and/or waste prevention behavior through education and infrastructure development.
Promotes circular economy business models or other solutions that creatively redirect materials away from the landfill.
Increases access to and knowledge of the sharing economy and reuse opportunities, such as tool lending libraries or fix-it clinics.
Climate Action
Educates and engages community members on the impacts of climate change in Flagstaff and/or reducing emissions.
Reduces greenhouse gas emissions associated with energy use in buildings, transportation, or consumption.
Encourages participants or community members to take local climate action through behavior change, community actions, or workforce development.
Resilience
Provides learning opportunities for community members on resilience and adaptation concepts.
Provides opportunities for community members to connect with each other and/or share knowledge and skill sets.
Strengthens community systems, improving community preparation for or response to extreme weather, economic uncertainty, natural disasters, or other events.
Building Energy
Promotes, through education and engagement, the conservation of energy and/or water in buildings.
Increases use of renewable energy in community buildings.
Reduces building energy and/or building water use.
Public Health
Educates or engages community members on the intersection of public health and environmental issues.
Increases accessibility to public health resources.
Improves social environmental conditions in ways likely to result in improved public health or improved preparation/adaptation against public health emergencies, such as climate-related health threats.
Transportation
Educates or engages community members on ways to walk, bike, roll, and take transit more often.
Increases access and/or reduces barriers to walking, biking, rolling, and transit options.
Improves neighborhood mobility or transportation options infrastructure.

Eligibility

Individuals, groups of individuals, community groups, educational groups, not-for-profit organizations, and locally owned businesses whose projects are within Flagstaff city limits are eligible to apply.Applicants are eligible for a maximum of one award. Applicants are eligible for other City awards in the same year. Successful applicants are eligible for one NSG grant award every other fiscal year.Applicants must disclose any conflicts of interest.
Applicants are required to abide by all City, State, and Federal laws and regulations.Eligible Projects:Projects must align with two or more of the following overarching goals of the Neighborhood Sustainability Grant Program:Facilitating volunteer engagement or managementBuilding community partnershipsMeaningfully involve underserved communities, diverse groups, or vulnerable populationsApplicants must choose a project category, and clearly demonstrate their project aligns with the Category Objectives:Food; Waste; Climate Action; Building Energy; Transportation; Public Health; Resilience.Projects can help launch a new or continue an existing community sustainability project.Projects should aim to exist beyond the life of the grant.

Ineligibility

Grants will NOT be awarded to:Political or partisan groups, exclusive clubs, or associations.Applicants who have failed to successfully carry out a previous grant project unless appropriate justification is made.Applicantsthat discriminate based on race, color, religion, gender, age, citizenship, non-disqualifying disability, national origin, or sexual orientation.Grant funding CAN NOT be used for the following (Exceptions to this policy may be made solely at the discretion of the Sustainability Commission):To pay compensation, salaries, commissions, fees, prizes, premiums, or similar expenses with more than 50% of funds awardedTo purchase land or buildings
To retroactively pay for activities completed before the award is received