UPLIFT Climate and Environmental Community Action Grant Program (US)

The UPLIFT Grant will support the development of a community of practice that will bring together IHEs, including Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and other Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs), CBOs, philanthropy, the private sector, and government entities to learn from one another about the climate and environmental justice challenges that disadvantaged communities face, identify solutions, develop partnerships, and engage with government (at the local, state, and/or federal levels) through a variety of public processes such as advisory councils, rulemaking processes, grant opportunities, to ensure that their vital voices are a part of and help to inform decisions that impact disadvantaged communities.

Additionally, the UPLIFT Grant will support the development of a sub award program that will support community-driven projects in disadvantaged communities that address climate challenges and reduce pollution while strengthening communities through thoughtful and collaborative implementation. The historic support provided by this grant will enable disadvantaged communities and their partners to work together to build capacity and collaborative partnerships to help them begin to address longstanding environmental challenges and implement meaningful solutions to meet their needs now and for generations to come.

Priorities

• The following two program priorities outline the specific goals and objectives for each program:
  • UPLIFT Climate and Environmental Action Community of Practice (UPLIFT Community of Practice): Section 138(b)(2)(E) of the CAA provides that grants may be awarded for the purpose of “facilitating engagement of disadvantaged communities in State and Federal advisory groups, workshops, rulemakings, and other public processes.” Activities include:
    • Design a UPLIFT Community of Practice that will take on project(s) focused on building the capacity of disadvantaged communities and governments to evaluate and redress environmental and climate injustices by giving disadvantaged communities a meaningful voice in government decision-making processes.
    • Develop a communications plan and conduct outreach activities (e.g., hosting conference calls, webinars, and/or in-person outreach events) to solicit membership of stakeholders from disadvantaged communities to participate in the Community of Practice.
    • Develop and implement policies to ensure that members of the UPLIFT Community of Practice who may not be in or from a disadvantage community, demonstrate a strong commitment to supporting disadvantage communities and will utilize their membership in the community of practice for the benefit of those disadvantage communities.
    • Developing an efficient onboarding process for members of the UPLIFT Community of Practice to maximize the amount of time within the 3-year project period members have to interact and learn from one another and impact government decision-making processes.
  • Example Projects:
    • Educational and Training Programs: These projects prepare, train, and educate members of disadvantaged communities on how to engage in government processes related to environmental and climate justice activities.
    • Environmental Advisory Boards (EABs): These are projects that facilitate the engagement of disadvantaged communities in environmental decision-making by establishing advisory councils, taskforces, or similar bodies to engage with government.
    • Participation in Governmental Funding and Budgeting Processes: These are projects that use participatory budgeting to inform public spending on environmental priorities.
  • Climate and Environmental Community Action (CECA) Sub award Program: All applications must include a project that designs and manages a new competitive sub award program, Climate and Environmental Community Action (CECA) Sub award Program, focused on funding community projects benefiting disadvantaged communities via sub awards that address longstanding environmental concerns; reduce and prevent pollution; build resilience to climate change and mitigate current and future climate risks; or advance environmental justice. Activities include:
    • Designing a competitive application submission and evaluation process for community projects addressing local environmental issues and related public health issues in disadvantaged communities.
    • Developing communications plans and conducting outreach activities (e.g., hosting conference calls, webinars, and/or in-person outreach events to notify communities) to reach disadvantaged communities, especially urban, rural, and remote communities.
    • Developing an efficient sub award process to make funds available to selected subrecipients quickly, monitoring progress of fund expenditures in compliance with federal regulations, terms and conditions of the cooperative agreement, and ensuring that all funds received by the pass-through entities are expended within the 3-year project period per the requirements of section 138(b)(1) of the CAA.
    • Designing and implementing a project management process, in collaboration with EPA, which includes quality project oversight for funding subrecipients to ensure the projects support climate action and pollution reduction and that the benefits are experienced by a disadvantaged communities per the requirements of section 138(b)(1) of the CAA and a tracking and reporting process that reduces reporting burden on community recipients.

Funding Information

• It is anticipated that up to one award(s) will be made under this announcement. Awards are expected to be $2.5 Million, depending on Agency funding levels, the quality of applications received, agency priorities, and other applicable considerations. Awards funded under this opportunity are required to be completed within a three year (3-yrs) project period.

Eligibility Criteria

• Only these types of organizations may apply.
• Community-Based Nonprofit Organization (CBO):
  • Applicants must include documentation in their application demonstrating that they are a nonprofit organization by:
    • a written determination by the Internal Revenue Service that they are exempt from taxation under Section 501 of the Internal Revenue Code, Nonprofit organizations described in Section 501 (c) (4) of the Internal Revenue Code that engage in lobbying activities as defined in Section 3 of the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995 are not eligible to apply or
    • based on a written determination by the state, territory, commonwealth, Tribe, or other United States governmental entity in which they are located. This can be done, for example, by submitting a letter, certificate, or articles of incorporation from the state where the organization is located that recognizes them as a nonprofit organization.

Ineligibility Criteria

• Foreign nonprofit organizations cannot qualify as a CBO for eligibility purposes.

For more information, visit Grants.gov.