Green Stormwater Infrastructure Grant

The William Penn Foundation's Green Stormwater Infrastructure initiative aims to enhance community resilience in Philadelphia by funding projects that mitigate climate change impacts. This includes the installation of green roofs, rain gardens, and trees to improve water quality and reduce flooding risks. The Foundation encourages innovative solutions from local organizations to maximize the benefits of its significant public investment in sustainable infrastructure. The initiative aligns with the city's ongoing commitments under the Clean Water Act.

NOTE: Organizations that apply through the open application process must still advance a specific Foundation objective and should only apply through our open grantmaking if it is for an urgent opportunity that would not be possible through a future RFP. Applications submitted through this process are considered on a rolling basis. We expect the timeline between application submissions and grant decisions to be about 90 days.
Environment and Public Space Program
The Environment and Public Space program invests to help communities reduce harmful impacts to their natural environments, improve the quality of their natural and community spaces, and prepare for the impacts of climate change.
Green stormwater infrastructure (GSI) addresses community greening and cooling, reduces flood risk, and improves water quality through the installation of trees, rain gardens, green roofs, and a variety of basins, wetlands, and other low-lying terrain features that capture and manage rainfall and runoff. It is a proven approach for communities vulnerable to climate-related stresses tied to rising temperatures and severe flood risks.
Through 2036, the City of Philadelphia is obligated to spend more than $1 billion on additional stormwater infrastructure improvements as part of its obligations under the U.S. Clean Water Act. These are public dollars, funded by residents’ water bills. The blueprint for this work is Philadelphia’s Green Cities Clean Waters plan, which is held up as a national model. There is great opportunity to ensure the plan and this massive public investment maximize community greening and climate resilience and yield equitable benefits for the communities most in need.
Given this continued public investment and the benefits of green stormwater infrastructure, we have focused on increasing the amount of GSI installed.
We recognize that there are many ways that organizations and communities can contribute to advancing this objective and are looking for Philadelphians’ best ideas about how to accomplish this across the city. We are especially interested in supporting work in neighborhoods with the greatest needs and most well-positioned to welcome and capitalize on the multiple positive impacts of GSI.
We measure progress for this objective via grantee reporting on the acreage of GSI projects that have been created.

Eligibility

Geographic FocusThe Foundation’s funding is very much focused on Philadelphia and the surrounding regionApplicants may use a fiscal sponsor for fiduciary and administrative oversight of a grant.