Scaling the Community Climate Fund Model
Summary
In 2025, CIV:LAB committed to expand its innovative Community Climate Funds model to Los Angeles and Miami, championing place-based climate action in urban environments. In the coming decades, the vast majority of the world’s population will live in cities, and as urbanization increases, innovative and locally relevant climate solutions and technologies will be essential to reacting to novel issues. CIV:LAB supports this growing need by producing climate solutions in studio sessions which provide forums for developing solutions, hosting events for networking and capacity-building, and offering unrestricted grants made through participatory mechanisms across climate-related focus areas of education, workforce development, and technology. By 2027, six new projects will be funded with grants ranging from $10,000 to $100,000, providing place-based, community-driven solutions with valuable capital and access to a trusted network of peers, experts, and funders.
Approach
CIV:LAB will create a new CCF focused on strengthening community resilience and adaptation in response to the gap that FEMA Cuts are leaving and the escalation in climate disasters. CIV:LAB’s CCFs strengthen local climate ecosystems by directly funding place-based initiatives and championing environmental justice leaders through a three-pillar approach that includes grantmaking, studios, and events.
The pilot of this Resilience Response Fund (RRF) will focus on providing unrestricted grants and rapid funding to local organizations advancing place-based climate solutions in adaptation and resilience. CIV:LAB’s ethos is that community members know what climate solutions are most needed in their communities. CIV:LAB first conducts eligibility checks on all applicants, then, through a participatory process, CIV:LAB convenes Additional Reviewers and Advisory Committees in each grantmaking location to review applications and make final grant size decisions, respectively.
CCFs provide grants ranging from $10,000 to $100,000. Grant decisions are made three months after applications close to distribute funding quickly. During three pilot rounds of grantmaking in NYC, LA County, and Michigan, the average grant size was $62,500, with an average request size of $79,251 for those same applicants. Grantees’ operating budgets ranged from less than $250,000 to over $5,000,000, with the majority between $250,001 and $5,000,000.
Studios convene cross-sector stakeholders to develop actionable, locally relevant climate solutions. Events include large multi-day summits, smaller networking happy hours, and breakfast showcases that provide our grantees and ecosystem members with opportunities to network, share ideas, showcase their work, learn from, and collaborate with each other.
Grantmaking, studios, and events enable climate organizations to scale and grow their work by providing needed forms of direct support. They work together, rather than as stand-alone supports, to aid organizations directly via financing, networking, collaboration, and capacity building, and by enhancing the broader innovation ecosystems within which they operate.
Action Plan
Starting in August 2025, CIV:LAB will conduct fundraising for a Resilience Response Fund (RRF) , a next iteration of our Community Climate Fund (CCF) model, to raise an initial $400,000 by September and the remaining $400,000 by December 2025. CIV:LAB will conduct landscape research around rapid response funds and funds dedicated to advancing place-based adaptation and resilience, including outreach and interviews with local stakeholders and ecosystem mapping of climate organizations and efforts by November 2025.
The commitment will require advisor and reviewer recruitment (for the i RRF from December 2025 to February 2026) .
The RRF will be open for applications in 2026 and grant applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis. CIV:LAB will conduct internal application eligibility checks, facilitate the reviewer evaluation process, and send top applications to the advisors. The advisors will review applications and determine the distribution of the fund on a rolling basis. CIV:LAB will announce the grantees on a rolling basis, every quarter.
The grantees will receive capacity-building support, including a grantee breakfast, support calls, training, and events until July 2027.
Check-ins with grantees will take place at 6 months after grants are awarded and formal reporting will take place at the 1 year mark.The 6-month reporting period will be in January 2027 and 1 year in July 2027.
Background
By 2050, 70% of the world’s population will live in cities, making urban areas the frontlines of global challenges, including the climate crisis (World Bank) . In cities, however, it is often those with the fewest resources who bear the brunt of the impact and, despite their lived experience and innovation, are too often excluded from decision-making. Climate giving remains under 2% of total giving, leaving critical, community-driven solutions underfunded. This isn’t just inequitable—it’s a missed opportunity for real, lasting change. At the same time, climate and weather disasters are only escalating and ongoing cuts to disaster relief initiatives like FEMA are leaving front line communities with even fewer resources to not only respond quickly to climate disasters but to also build and implement adaptation solutions to make them more resilient in the face of these disasters.
Scaling climate and clean technologies remains a priority at both the city and state levels in the United States. CIV:LAB has identified a distinct gap for scaling those technologies, which requires building the workforce, talent pool, and knowledge base sustainably.
CIV:LAB fills this gap through its innovative Community Climate Funds (CCFs) model, championing place-based climate action and offering support to community-rooted organizations through three pillars of work: 1. Climate-solution producing studios, 2. Opportunities for networking, collaborating, and capacity building, and 3. Unrestricted grants are made through a participatory grantmaking mechanism. Grantees include nonprofits, Community-Based Organizations, and startups reimagining resilient, community-driven solutions and programming.
To illustrate how this work addresses these challenges, one grantee in Michigan, JustAir, serves as an example of this work’s impact. They address inequities in Wayne County, where residents face higher-than-average rates of asthma and preterm births caused by poor air quality. By building a network of community air quality monitors and making data accessible to community members, they are empowering community members to take action toward cleaner air and more equitable monitoring and clean-up initiatives.
Progress Update
Partnership Opportunities
To scale CCFs to include a national resilience response fund, CIV:LAB seeks strategic partnerships and resources to amplify impact. CIV:LAB is looking for aligned funders, including philanthropic foundations, individual donors, and private and/or corporate funders, to expand place-based investments at the community level. In addition, CIV:LAB seeks support from organizations across sectors, working in these cities to promote community resilience and place-based climate action. Representatives from these organizations might, for example, serve as Advisory Committee members, reviewers, contribute to Climate Studios, or lend their expertise and insights via convenings in these locations. Lastly, CIV:LAB seeks support in raising the visibility of CCFs, including through speaking opportunities, publications, and other ways to elevate its thought leadership.,As part of their commitment, CIV:LAB offers expertise in ecosystem building, including by bringing together cross-sectoral stakeholders and fostering collaboration to drive impact. CIV:LAB supports CBOs with guidance on fundraising, program development, and narrative framing to elevate their work. Through deep knowledge and experience working in urban innovation and ecosystem harmonization, CIV:LAB brings unique insight into how technology can be applied equitably in cities. Through growing networks in cities like NYC, LA, Detroit, London, and Berlin, CIV:LAB staff facilitate collaboration and offer insights into best practices for place-based climate solutions by fostering a dynamic support system that amplifies local innovation and drives equitable, scalable solutions. Grantee organizations will join CIV:LAB’s ever-growing community of partner organizations in NYC, MI, and LA County, and have the opportunity to connect with them at organized events or through one-on-one introductions facilitated by CIV:LAB. Past grantees have met people and organizations that have gone on to be funders or collaborators through CIV:LAB channels.