Starting June 7, 2023, a new round of the Drawdown Georgia Climate Solutions & Equity grants, which aim to advance climate solutions and prioritize equity in Georgia, will open for applications.
Why the Focus on Equity?
Climate change impacts all of us, but some of our neighbors bear the brunt more than others.
In just one example, a 2021 study by the EPA found that BIPOC and low-income communities are disproportionately impacted by air pollution and the extreme temperatures and flooding that are becoming more common in our changing climate.
Disparities like these are the reasons why the climate justice movement was born, which calls upon all of us to solve for equity and climate at the same time.
The Drawdown Georgia Climate Solutions & Equity Grant
Here in Georgia, a group of five family foundations is helping to answer the call for climate justice, and we are doing it collaboratively.
Funding for this year’s round of grants will be provided by the R. Howard Dobbs, Jr. Foundation and its Dobbs Fund, The Wilbur & Hilda Glenn Family Foundation, The Ray C. Anderson Foundation’s NextGen Committee, and by two new funding partners: The Ghanta Family Foundation and The Reilly Family Foundation.
Using the Drawdown Georgia research as a framework, these Georgia-based family foundations commit to funding a collective $1 million over the next two years for work in our state that is focused on advancing climate solutions, including:
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Alternative Transportation
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Composting
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Climate-Smart Agriculture
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Wetlands Protection
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Energy Efficiency Improvements
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Food Waste Reduction
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Large-Scale Solar
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Plant-Based Diets
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Rooftop Solar
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Tree Planting
Successful proposals will focus on efforts to advance or expand access to at least one of these solutions in low-income BIPOC communities across Georgia.
Why Focus on Climate Solutions x Equity?
The disparities that different communities face around climate change are why the climate justice movement was born, which calls upon all of us to solve for equity and climate at the same time.
When done right, climate solutions can lift people up and advance community priorities. Focusing on equity requires community concerns to be addressed, and benefits to be widely shared.
2023-2024 Climate Solutions & Equity Grant Recipients
What makes a winning grant proposal?
In the inaugural cycle of the Drawdown Georgia Climate Solutions & Equity grants, there were proposals around increasing composting and reducing food waste, expanding rooftop and large-scale solar, training young workers, making homes more energy efficient and engaging stakeholders in the leadership roles available to them to drive cleaner energy options for the state grid. After reviewing almost 100 submissions, five, two-year grants of $100,000 per year were awarded to fund the following projects from 2023-2024:
Truly Living Well Center for Natural Urban Agriculture
Based in Atlanta’s Westside, Truly Living Well focuses on urban agriculture as a place-based strategy to address food injustice. Through this grant, the organization will partner with Think Green, Inc. and Historic Westside Gardens to upgrade and expand Truly Living Well’s Community Compost Lab, support training for local residents to engage their neighbors in composting, and train new urban growers.
Georgia Organics
Working in close partnership with McIntosh SEED, these two organizations are partnering to create a Climate-Smart Farmer Cohort project in Southeast Georgia. Georgia Organics and McIntosh SEED will conduct outreach and education to Black farmers in the Southeastern part of the state, focusing on conservation agriculture and rooftop solar.
Georgia Conservation Voters Education Fund
This grant will support Georgia Conservation Voters Education Fund’s statewide EMC Organizing Campaign, a project working to advance sustainability and drive a transition to clean energy production among Georgia’s 41 member-owned electric membership corporations (EMCs).
Gwinnett Housing Corporation
Alongside the Georgia Hispanic Construction Association and the Southeast Energy Efficiency Alliance, the Gwinnett Housing Corporation will develop a comprehensive federal investment and workforce development plan to invest federal funds in energy-insecure communities that will expand access to weatherization and build energy efficiency and clean energy minority job pipelines.
Athens Land Trust
This grant will support Athens Land Trust’s work in the West Broad neighborhood as well as communities in North Athens. This includes programs to deliver home repair, weatherization, and energy efficiency improvements; expand workforce development capacity through their Young Urban Builders program; and assist low-income homeowners in applying to the state Weatherization Assistance Program for deep energy retrofits.
Apply for a 2024-2025 Drawdown Georgia Climate Solutions & Equity Grant
Are you ready to take action on climate justice in Georgia? Submit a Letter of Introduction on our grants page by July 7th and tell us about your project! Finalists will be notified August 11th.
In the meantime, stay up to date with the latest from Drawdown Georgia and climate & equity news from across the state by subscribing to the Georgia Climate Digest, the twice-monthly email that is a must-read if you care about climate in our state.
