We are proud to announce the five recipients of the 2025-2026 Drawdown Georgia Climate Solutions & Equity Grants, which aim to advance climate solutions and prioritize equity in our state using the Drawdown Georgia research and solutions as a framework.
This year marks the third cohort of grant recipients. To date, a total of $3.2 million has been awarded to projects that are scaling climate solutions with an emphasis on equity across the state.
Read on to be inspired by the ambitious and impactful programs this year’s round of grants will fund.
All of us are impacted by climate change--but that doesn’t mean we all experience those impacts equally. As the effects of climate change continue to grow, these disparities will only be worsened unless we take action.
When done right, climate solutions lift people up and advance community priorities: this is the ultimate goal of the climate justice movement. Focusing on both equity and climate requires that community concerns be addressed and benefits be widely shared. The funding partners behind the Drawdown Georgia Climate Solutions & Equity Grants seek to help nonprofits across the state achieve this ultimate goal.
>> Read more about the origins of the Drawdown Georgia Climate Solutions & Equity Grants.
This year, six Georgia-based family foundations committed to funding a collective $1 million over the next two years for work in our state that is focused on advancing specific climate solutions, including:
Climate-Smart Agriculture
Energy Efficiency
Plant-Based Diets
Rooftop Solar
Tree Planting
Funding for the 2025-2026 round of grants was provided by The Ray C. Anderson Foundation, The Ghanta Family Foundation, The Reilly Family Fund, The Tull Charitable Foundation, The Wilbur & Hilda Glenn Family Foundation and one anonymous donor.
We’d also like to thank the expert panel of Georgia-based equity advisors who worked with the funders throughout the application and judging process, including:
Hermina Glass-Hill, Senior Field Representative at Oceana, and executive director of the Susie King Taylor Women's Institute and Ecology Center
Tamara Jones, Co-Executive Director, Clean Energy Works
Eriqah Vincent, Consultant, Environment, Climate and Social Justice
After reviewing almost 100 submissions, we're proud to announce that five, two-year grants of $100,000 per year will be awarded to fund the following projects from 2025-2026:
Georgia Organics (GO) and McIntosh Sustainable, Environmental and Economic Development (McIntosh S.E.E.D.) were part of the first Climate Solutions & Equity Grant cohort in 2023-24. They launched the Climate Smart Farmer Cohort, a pilot project to prepare and support Black farmers in Coastal Georgia with adaptation and mitigation tools to build resilience and maintain productivity in the face of climate change.
The 2025-2026 grant will be used to extend the Cohort to at least 15 additional farmers within a 30–60-mile radius of Coastal Georgia, essentially covering the southeast quadrant of the state; with special consideration given to farms that have been disproportionately affected by extreme weather events.
In 2025-26, the grantee partners will continue to provide on-farm education on climate-smart agriculture, facilitation of utilizing federal resources, technical assistance, a printable and online solar toolkit, the opportunity to attend Farmer Field Days, and mini-grants to help participating farms close financial gaps to complete their proposed projects.
Georgia WAND Education Fund and two of their existing partners, Concerned Citizens of Shell Bluff Community and BeSMART Home Solutions, will work to extend energy assistance services to residents in rural Burke County, Georgia. These residents are some of the state's most vulnerable populations, with a high percentage of senior citizens living in aging housing stock.
In the first year, the grant partners will introduce weatherization programs, educate residents on the economic and social benefits of energy-efficient retrofits, identify target neighborhoods, and conduct comprehensive energy audits. They will also create detailed plans for implementing energy efficiency measures in at least 10 homes during the second year of their grant.
The Harambee House Community Farm Project will put grant funds to work expanding existing community gardens in the Woodville and Hudson Hill communities in West Savannah. Gardens will be paired with small local farms to increase capacity and provide the support necessary to distribute nutritionally dense produce throughout historically underserved communities.
The preparation, cultivation, processing, and distribution of all produce will be done within the guidelines of regenerative, climate-smart agricultural practices to achieve the overall goal of nutritionally rich and healthy food sovereignty. Harambee House will also create workforce development opportunities at the farm by hiring apprentices from the local communities.
Grant funds will be used to scale existing work in the historic Dewey City neighborhood in Southwest Georgia focused on decreasing the energy cost burdens for residents in 52 senior apartments while improving the health outcomes of hundreds in the surrounding community, which is currently designated as a "food desert."
Thomasville Community Development Corporation (TCDC) will work with the owner of Marathon Market, a nearby Black-owned food market, to implement a neighborhood plant-based food program. TCDC seeks to subsidize produce boxes, prepared meals, and plant-based education programs for neighborhood residents, sourcing the produce from local Black farmers.
Other leaders and stakeholders in the project include Dewey City Neighborhood Watch’s Community Garden and food-based entrepreneurs who graduate from Spark Thomasville, an entrepreneurial training program for underrepresented entrepreneurs.
The Westside Passive Cooling Tree Equity Partnership and Project will establish a community-driven model to address the impact of tree removal on the energy efficiency of residential buildings within the Westside Lead Superfund Site in Atlanta. The Green Team of English Avenue is partnering with the Climate Consortium of the Commons and Carinalis Consulting to assess the impact of trees removed within the Site on residential energy efficiency and thermal comfort of residents.
Grant funds will also be used to co-design tree planting strategies with and for property owners and residents within the Site and to demonstrate tree planting as an effective passive cooling/heating strategy to address energy burdens in English Avenue. The ultimate goal is to develop a replicable, scalable model that can be applied to additional homes in English Avenue, and in other Superfund sites within Georgia, and beyond.
Over the next two years, we will share updates on the inspiring work of all Drawdown Georgia Climate Solutions & Equity Grantees. Don’t miss any of these exciting updates - subscribe to our blog now to be notified when new posts are published.