Environmental Justice Thriving Communities Grantmaking Program

    • Title: Philanthropy Northwest & the EPA Environmental Justice Thriving Communities Grantmaking Program
    • Estimated Funding Range per Award: $150,000-$350,000
      • • Type 1 (Assessment): up to $150,000
      • • Type 2 (Planning): up to $250,000
      • • Type 3 (Development): up to $350,000
  • Eligible Applicants: Nonprofit organizations, community-based organizations, tribal governments, and Native American organizations.
  • Expected Period of Performance: 1- or 2-year grants; May 2025 – June 2027

Philanthropy Northwest, a regional philanthropic network based in Seattle, will be distributing $40 million in grants over the next three years to chronically underinvested communities that have been negatively impacted by environmental changes in our region—including, but not limited to, air quality, water quality, drought, flooding, fires, or types of events that have an impact on access to safe housing, healthy food or water, subsistence practices or quality of life.

Projects could address a range of environmental issues and promote healthy communities such as small local cleanups, emergency preparedness and disaster relief, green jobs and youth programs, air and water quality projects and healthy homes. The region covered includes Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, and tribal nations in these four states.

The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Environmental Justice Thriving Communities Grantmaking Program aims to make it easier for community-based organizations to access federal environmental justice funding. The program was created to respond to feedback from communities about the need to reduce barriers to federal funds and improve the efficiency of the awards process to ensure underinvested communities can access the grants.

Project Award Levels

There are three types of grants that potential sub-awardees could apply for:

  • Type 1 (Assessment Projects) for up to $150,000 (1-year project period): grants focused on gathering information, assessing and understanding the problem(s) before developing a plan.
  • Type 2 (Planning Projects) for up to $250,000 (1- to 2-year project period): grants for those who already have a strong understanding of the local environmental and/or public health issues and are ready to formulate a community-wide plan to address those issues.
  • Type 3 (Project Development) for up to $350,000 (2-year project period): grants for those who already have a strong understanding of the local environmental and/or public health issues, have already formulated a community-wide plan addressing those issues, and/or are now ready to develop the technical aspects of the project (i.e., implement the project on the ground).

A limited number of $75,000 non-competitive fixed-amount subawards will be available for severely capacity-constrained community-based organizations.

Learn more and apply: https://philanthropynw.org/epa-environmental-justice-thriving-communities-grantmaking-program