The Tribal Climate Change Guide is part of the Pacific Northwest Tribal Climate Change Project (TCCP). The TCCP is part of the L.I.G.H.T. Foundation (LF), is an independent, Indigenous-led, conservation 501(c)(3) nonprofit established on the Colville Indian Reservation in the traditional territory of the Nespelem Tribe in present-day north central Washington State. LF supports the restoration and cultivation of native Plant and Pollinator Relatives and the culturally respectful conservation of habitats and ecosystems which are climate resilient and adaptive. For more information about LF, visit: https://thepnwlf.org/. For more information about the Tribal Climate Change Project, visit: https://tribalclimate.uoregon.edu/. If you would like to add information to this guide, please email kathy.lynn.or@gmail.com.

 

Funding

The Tribal Climate Change Funding Guide is intended to provide up-to-date information on grants, programs and plans that may assist tribes in addressing climate change through a broad range of sectors. We will update this guide regularly, so please check back often. If you have questions or updates for this guide, email: kathy.lynn.or@gmail.com. Please note that for entries that are accepting applications continuously, the grant deadline column will list "12/31/2024" as the grant deadline. This ensures that those grants will appear immediately after those grants with a set deadline.

Title Organization Grant Deadline Description Funding Amount Geography Website
George P Hanley Foundation George P Hanley Foundation

They do not accept unsolicited proposals. Visit page for contacs. George is a Chicago trader who started his philanthropy giving scholarships and supporting universities. This foundation gives to sustainability and clean energy projects, focused in the Midwest, particularly when it comes to schools.

Categories: climate change, sustainability, social justice, conservation, education

Varies. National Link
Tomkat Charitable Trust: Grants for Climate & Energy Tomkat Charitable

Tomkat does not accept proposals, but they can be reached by email. This fund is strongly and vocally in support of clean energy development and sustainable living. Aside from energy, Steyer and wife Taylor (get it, Tomkat), are also invested in healthy foods and sustainable food systems, going so far as to start their own ranch. They also back some education stuff and more run-of-the-mill environmentalism, but their biggest giving to date has gone to energy and climate. 

Categories: climate change, sustainability, food justice, subsistence, emissions, conservation, coal, carbon

Varies. International Link
Colorado Conservation Innovation Grant NCRS

Deadline passed as of June 2, 2017. Deadline for 2018 unknown. The purpose of CIG is to stimulate the development and adoption of innovative conservation approaches and technologies, while leveraging the Federal investment in environmental enhancement and protection in conjunction with agricultural production. CIG projects are expected to lead to the transfer of conservation technologies, management systems, and innovative approaches (such as market-based systems) into NRCS technical manuals and guides or to the private sector. CIG is used to apply or demonstrate previously proven technology in order to increase adoption with an emphasis on opportunities to scale proven, emerging conservation strategies. CIG promotes sharing of skills, knowledge, technologies, and facilities among communities, governments, and other institutions to ensure that scientific and technological developments are accessible to a wider range of users. CIG funds projects targeting innovative on-the-ground conservation, including pilot projects and field demonstrations.

Categories: climate change, sustainability, conservation, management, prevention, restoration

Up to $75,000. Colorado Link
WCS Graduate Scholarship Program NGO

Deadline Passed April 2019. Deadline Unknown for 2020. The WCS Graduate Scholarship Program (GSP) is part of a WCS strategy to invest in developing individual conservation leaders around the world. The GSP provides access to international graduate education opportunities (masters or doctoral programs) to exceptional conservationists from Asia/Pacific, Africa, Latin America, and North American indigenous groups. Scholars are nominated by WCS global conservation staff and are selected based on their exceptional abilities and potential to become leaders of the conservation movement in their home countries. The short-form deadline will be April 2019. Applicants who are approved at this stage will be asked to fill out a full application, with a deadlin of June 2019. Completed nominations/ applications should be submitted electronically to kmastro@wcs.org 

Categories: climate change, scholarship, school, funding, conservation, environment, science, humanities

$30,000-$36,000 toward tuition, board, and fees. United States, International Link
Climate Hubs Funding Opportunity USDA, US Forest Service

Deadline passed as of April 17, 2017. Deadline for 2018 unknown. This funding supports syntheses, tools, or best management practices to forest and rangeland managers including the National Forest System. Funding will support work fulfilling the needs of forest landowners, forest managers, ranchers, and farmers (agroforestry only) to adapt and/or mitigate for climate change within the United States.

Categories: climate change, mitigation, adaption, management, forestry, conservation, sustainability, collaboration

Up to $50,000. National, Northwest, Southeast, Northeast, South Central, South, Midwest Link
LOUISIANA SEA GRANT COLLEGE PROGRAM NGO

SoI is required and due by 5 pm on Friday, March 3, 2017. Full Proposals: Full Proposals will only be accepted on May 22, 2017 if a SoI was submitted. For this funding opportunity, Louisiana Sea Grant seeks responsive research that provides scientific and socioeconomic information, design innovation, as well as policy guidance, for fisheries management, climate change adaptation, resilient communities, and ecosystem restoration in coastal systems and communities in Louisiana. Coastal Louisiana offers a laboratory of restoration, protection, and adaptation projects that together with laboratory studies, field investigations, models, and/or socioeconomic tools and synthesis products, offer innovative opportunities for research projects that should improve understanding of coastal ecosystem function and help predict the responses of ecosystems and communities to a changing climate and/or planning activities. SoIs must include an outreach plan that demonstrates a connection with user groups, such as resource managers, communities, and/or informal and formal learners. Proposed projects should be for a 24-month maximum duration (but may be less than 24 months). PIs should focus on outcomes that can be achieved during this timeframe.

Categories: climate change, marine, fisheries, aquaculture, commercial, industrial, ocean, health, adaptation, mitigation, estuary

Varies. Louisiana, Delta Link
Best Climate Practices- Local Resilience to Climate Disaster Risk NGO

Deadline passed as of May 21, 2017. Deadline for 2018 unknown. Floods, drought, heat waves and other extreme weather events pose potential losses to persons and communities: losses in life and health, economic damages, displacement, and reduced access to basic needs and services, such as water, food, energy, and education. Disaster risk reduction (DRR) entails systematic efforts to reduce those factors in our societies that amplify the impacts of natural hazards. It includes such actions as building more resilient infrastructures, investing in disaster preparedness and in early warning systems, developing new tools such as micro insurances and nature-based solutions, among many others. Disaster risk reduction, with its aim to strengthen the resilience of communities to all hazards, is an essential piece of the sustainable development agenda.

Categories: climate change, management, planning, policy, conservation

Varies. National Link
Risk Management Education Partnership Program USDA

Deadline passed. Most recent deadline: April 24, 2023. The purpose of this cooperative agreement program is to deliver crop insurance education and risk management training to U.S. agricultural producers to assist them in identifying and managing production, marketing, legal, financial, and human risk.

Categories: climate change, human health, sustainability, agriculture, economy, management, planning, policy

$5,000 - $300,000 National Link
Climate Ready Tribes (CRT) Initiative Mini-Award for Climate and Health Communication National Indian Health Board

Deadline Passed 11/28/2018. Deadline Unknown for 2019. The CRT Initiative Mini-Award for Climate and Health Communication offers a small amount of funding to conduct low-cost, local work, such as creating brochures/posters, writing newsletters, exhibiting at a health fair, conducting internal training for staff, or hosting a meeting with community partners or community members to discuss climate change and health in some capacity. This opportunity may be a better fit for Tribes who are interested in smaller projects, or do not have staff/time to conduct larger and more complex projects right now. 

Categories: climate change, health, tribal communities, adaptation, planning

up to $5,000 National Link
Coral Reef Conservation Program, Domestic Coral Reef Conservation Grants Department of Commerce

Deadline passed as of january 11, 2017. Deadline for 2018 unknown. This funding opportunity is soliciting applications intended to support coral reef conservation projects in shallow water coral reef ecosystems, including reefs at mesophotic depths, in American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Florida, Guam, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and coral-dominated banks in the U.S. portions of the Gulf of Mexico. Funding opportunity # NOAA-NOS-OCM-2017-2005011.

Categories: climate change, fisheries, marine, management, conservation, reef,

$80,000 International (US Territories) Link
Southeast Resilient Landscapes Fund Doris Duke Charitable Foundation

2017 deadline: 11/06/2017. Deadline for 2018 Unknown. Capitalized with a grant from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Southeast Resilient Landscapes Fund (Fund) provides capital grants and loans to land protection projects within three selected regions of the southeast. Projects must lie in one of OSI’s resilience focus areas, demonstrate the use of Resilient Landscape concepts and meet the other grant criteria detailed below. OSI awards grants to qualified non-profit organizations through a competitive process with the assistance of an advisory board comprised of experts with knowledge of natural resources, conservation policy and land conservation funding.

Categories: climate change, environmental protection, conservation, sustainability, adaptation, mitigation

$100,000-$400,000. the Southern Cumberlands in Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee; the Southern Blue Ridge in North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee; and the Greater Pee Dee River in South Carolina and North Carolina Link
The Employees Community Fund (ECF) of The Boeing Company Boeing

Deadline passed. Application deadlines dependent on state requirements. Qualifying charitable or educational organizations can apply for grants from the Employees Community Fund (ECF) of The Boeing Company, which has been empowering employees to pool their tax-deductible donations for greater impact for more than 60 years. Employee advisory boards work to locally distribute combined employee donations, which are made through recurring payroll deductions or one-time gifts, to nonprofits in their community. Boeing pays all administrative costs so 100 percent of every employee dollar helps strengthen local communities. ECF grants have gone toward community projects such as aiding the homeless, stocking food banks, helping at-risk children succeed in school, providing job training for the unemployed, funding critical health services, supporting veterans programs and more.

Categories: climate change, environmental protection, conservation, community, human health, social justice

Varies. United States, International Link
Kresge Foundation kresge foundation

Funding opportunities take three forms: Open on an ongoing basis, without deadlines. Open for a limited time, with specific deadlines. By invitation from a Kresge program officer.­­­
Communities that address climate change head-on will be better prepared for new circumstances and uncertainties. Decisions about infrastructure, building design, land use, transportation and other policy and funding issues can make communities stronger, more equitable and more resilient to the changing climate.

Categories: Climate change, environment, social justice, food justice, agriculture, sustainability, conservation, carbon, emissions, adaptation, mitigation

Varies. National Link
Hewlett Foundation: Grants for Climate Change Hewlett Foundation

Deadlines Vary. Grantseekers can find Hewlett’s climate change grants through its Climate and Energy subprogram, which focuses on reducing greenhouse gasses through the following areas: Clean energy and the reduction fossil fuel use. This area of giving lasers in on increasing renewable energy use (think solar, wind and geothermal) and energy efficiency. Clean transportation. Hewlett focuses its clean transportation giving on increasing fuel efficiency as well as access to alternate methods of transportation such as biking, walking and public transportation. Building and increasing public support. This area of giving focuses on growing public support among diverse members of the community of clean energy and transportation efforts.

Categories: climate change, conservation, sustainability, social justice,

Varies. National, International, San Francisco, California Link
KENDEDA FUND: Grants for Climate Change KENDEDA FUND

Complex global challenges like climate change should become the drivers for solutions-based, equitable decision-making. We help young people and community leaders gain the skills and knowledge to become active participants in addressing these challenges. Our People, Place, and Planet work aims to address social and ecological challenges through community-based solutions and leadership.

Categories: climate change, conservation, sustainability, social justice

Varies. International Link
Ecolab Foundation Grants EcoLab Foundation

Deadline Passed for 2017. Deadline for 2018 unknown. Focus Areas of Giving- Youth and Education: programs that promote youth development, particularly for youth at-risk, Civic & Community Development: affordable housing, work readiness, crisis assistance and hunger relief, Environment & Conservation: hands-on environmental learning programs, Arts & Culture: arts education for children and youth as well as support for museums and the performing arts.

Categories: climate change, conservation, social justice, civic engagement, housing, shelter, food justice, adaptation, mitigation

Varies. Nationalo, regional Link
Northeast Resilient Landscapes Fund (Rolling Basis) Doris Duke Charitable Foundation

As changing climate threatens to unravel decades of work to protect wildlife habitats, land protection must focus on the places most likely to harbor plants and animals. Recognizing that challenge, we launched the Resilient Landscapes Initiative to integrate climate science into conservation planning and to protect resilient landscapes throughout the eastern United States. OSI partners with conservation organizations in the Northeast to assemble networks of protected lands most likely to preserve plant and animal diversity in a changing climate. The Fund supports projects in four focus areas in New England, the mid-Atlantic, and the Central Appalachians offering the greatest opportunity to conserve missing links for resiliency in the overall landscape. The Fund provides capital grants and loans to qualified non-profits for the acquisition of land or conservation easements on climate-resilient lands, capitalized with a grant from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.

Categories: climate change, conservation, landscape, sustainability, adaptation, mitigation

Varies. West Virginia, Virginia, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Massachusetts, Southern New Hampshire, Maine Link
Compton Foundation Grants Compton Foundation

The Compton Foundation has a unique approach to giving, making grants to groups based on two categories of work—leadership and storytelling. But giving goes to progressive social change, toward a “peaceful, just, and sustainable world.” Within that goal, a considerable amount goes toward the environment and curbing climate change. As of the beginning of 2018, we have closed our online inquiry system, and we have moved to an invitation-only grantmaking process. Visit website for more information. 

Categories: climate change, community, adaption, planning, storytelling, oral history, social justice

Varies. National Link
Ayrshire Foundation: Grants for Climate Change Ayrshire Foundation

Deadline Passed as of 3/15/2018. Deadline Unknown for 2019. Besides its geographic preferences, the Ayrshire Foundation has very few hard-and-fast rules for giving. The bottom line is it gives a lot of money each year in order to invest in opportunities for a better world. Climate change is at the forefront of the environmental focus area.

Categories: climate change, community engagement, development, planning, policy, ngo

$10,000-$100,000 California, Michigan Link
Boeing Company: Grants for Climate Change Boeing

Application deadlines dependent on state requirements. Through purposeful investments, employee engagement and thoughtful advocacy efforts, Boeing and its employees support innovative partnerships and programs that align with our strategic objectives, create value and help build better communities worldwide. This includes improving access to globally competitive learning as well as workforce and skills development, sustaining the environment, and supporting our military and veteran communities.

Categories: climate change, community engagement, conservation, mitigation, adaptation,

Varies National, Washington, California, Washington D.C., International. Link
Climate and Large-Scale Dynamics NSF

Proposals Accepted Any Time. The goals of the Program are to: (i) advance knowledge about the processes that force and regulate the atmosphere synoptic and planetary circulation, weather and climate, and (ii) sustain the pool of human resources required for excellence in synoptic and global atmospheric dynamics and climate research. Research topics include theoretical, observational and modeling studies of the general circulation of the stratosphere and troposphere; synoptic scale weather phenomena; processes that govern climate; the causes of climate variability and change; methods to predict climate variations; extended weather and climate predictability; development and testing of parameterization of physical processes; numerical methods for use in large-scale weather and climate models; the assembly and analysis of instrumental and/or modeled weather and climate data; data assimilation studies; development and use of climate models to diagnose and simulate climate and its variations and change.

Categories: climate change, climate science, weather, atmospheric dynamics, climate models

Amount Varies. National, United States Link
Fort Wainwright AK Climate Change Baseline Analysis DOD

Deadline passed as of March 6, 2017. Deadline for 2018 unknonwn. The U.S. Army Garrison, Fort Wainwright, Alaska (USAG FWA) owns and manages approximately 1.6 million acres in Interior Alaska. The USAG FWA is requesting assistance to facilitate a climate change baseline analysis with requirements to analyze climate change effects and management strategies for Fort Wainwright and its Training Lands.

Categories: climate change, climate science, outcomes, policy, adaptation, mitigation, baseline, analysis, conservation,

$181,190 total for 1 available award. Alaska, Northwest Link
Inclusive Energy Innovation Prize DOE

Deadline passed. Most recent deadline: Feburary 25, 2022. This prize fits into President Biden’s Justice40 Initiative, which aims to deliver 40% of climate investment benefits to disadvantaged communities and inform equitable research, development, and deployment within DOE. Specifically, this prize seeks to enable and enhance business and technology incubation, acceleration, and other community-based and university-based entrepreneurship and innovation in climate and clean energy technologies. Learn more and apply here.

Categories: Climate change, clean energy, emissions, entrepreneurship, technology, research, equity, justice

$200,000, with the opportunity to compete for another $500,000 National Link
First Steps toward Developing Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency on Tribal Lands – 2016 DOE

Deadline passed as of October 20, 2016. Deadline for 2017 unknown. Under the planned FOA, the Office of Indian Energy intends to solicit applications from Indian Tribes (including Alaska Native regional corporations and village corporations) and Tribal Energy Resource Development Organizations under the following topic areas: (1) Conduct energy options analyses (Topic Area 1); (2) Establish baseline energy use (Topic Area 2); (3) Develop energy organizations (Topic Area 3); (4) Conduct climate resiliency planning (Topic Area 4); (5) Establish policy, regulations, and codes to reduce energy use or promote energy develop (Topic Area 5); and, (6) Obtain skills and training related to energy use and development (Topic Area 6). It is expected that proposed activities will result in specific measurable results or end-products that will lead to the development and deployment of energy solutions, and/or build knowledge or skills necessary to implement successful strategic energy solutions.

Categories: climate change, carbon emissions, clean energy, sustainable energy, energy planning

DOE currently anticipates making eight to twenty grant awards in amounts ranging from $50,000 to $250,000. The actual level of funding, if any, depends on Congressional appropriations. National Link
FY18 National Climate Change & Wildlife Science Center Program DOI

Deadline Passed 4/9/2018. Deadline Unknown for 2019. This program was created to ensure that the National Climate Change and Wildlife Science Center is responsive to the research and management needs of Federal and State agencies to provide science and technical support regarding the impacts of climate change in fish, wildlife, plants and ecological processes. National coordination of research and modeling at regional centers will ensure uniformity of downscaling and forecasting models and standardized information to support management of fish and wildlife resources and regional partnership collaborations.

Categories: climate change, biodiversity, wildlife, fisheries, aquatic resources, research, climate models, management, policy, planning, conservation

Up to $4,500,000. National, United States Link
Western Alaska Landscape Conservation Cooperative Coastal Systems FY17 DOI

Deadline passed as of July 20,2017. Deadline for 2018 unknown. Our mission is to promote coordination, dissemination and development of applied science to inform landscape level conservation, including terrestrial-marine linkages in the face of a changing climate and related stressors. Congress provides seed funding for our LCC through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The Service administers these funds through financial assistance on a competitive basis for projects, studies, and events that advance the scientific and public community's understanding of large-scale changes in landscape characteristics and the impacts of these changes on important species.

Categories: climate change, adaptation, mitigation, public, community, wildlife, biodiversity, sustainability, conservation, landscape, policy, management

$60,000-$90,000. Alaska, Alaska CSC Link
Patagonia Environmental Grant Patagonia Environmental Grant

Deadline passed as of April 30, 2017. Deadline for 2018 unknown. Patagonia funds only environmental work. We are most interested in making grants to organizations that identify and work on the root causes of problems and that approach issues with a commitment to long-term change. Because we believe that the most direct path to real change is through building grassroots momentum, our funding focuses on organizations that create a strong base of citizen support. We support small, grassroots, activist organizations with provocative direct-action agendas, working on multi-pronged campaigns to preserve and protect our environment. We think the individual battles to protect a specific stand of forest, stretch of river or indigenous wild species are the most effective in raising more complicated issues—particularly those of biodiversity and ecosystem protection—in the public mind. We help local groups working to protect local habitat and frontline communities through bold, original actions. We look for innovative groups that produce measurable results, and we like to support efforts that force the government to abide by its own—our own—laws.

Categories: climate change, adaptation, mitigation, natural resources

$5,000 and $20,000.
National Link
Wildlife Conservation Society's Climate Adaptation Fund Wildlife Conservation Society

Deadline passed. Most recent deadline: April 8, 2022. The Wildlife Conservation Society's Climate Adaptation Fund has released its request for proposals for the 2022 grant cycle. Our program supports projects that advance learning and scale effective climate adaptation interventions to help wildlife, ecosystems, and the people who value and depend on them. All of the application information and materials are posted here.

Categories: Climate change, adaptation, mitigation, conservation, landscape, region, planning, policy

$100,000 - $300,000 United States, International (US Territories) Link
Crown Family Philanthropies: Grants for Climate & Energy Crown Family Philanthropies

The successor to the Arie and Ida Crown foundation, Crown Family Philanthropies funds a bevy of social causes in Chicago and in the Midwest more broadly. Grants for environmental issues, including climate change, constitute some of this largesse. The award amounts are large, but relatively few, and an organization must meet numerous criteria to get them.

Categories: climate change, adaptation, community, education, curriculum, social justice. conservation, sustainability

$10 million in total programming. Chicago, Cook county, Michigan Link
Rockefeller Family Fund NGO

Applications accepted continuously. This foundation focuses on public education of the risks of global warming, conservation of natural resources, protection of health as affected by the environment, meaning implementation of environmental laws, and public participation in national environmental policy debates. Grant applicants must submit a letter of inquiry online. If accepted, the applicant will be invited to submit a full proposal for evaluation.

Categories: Climate Change Impacts, Conservation, public health

$25,000-30,000 National Link