Biden administration announces $600M in environmental justice grants

The Biden-Harris administration has announced $600 million for 11 selected grantmakers under the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Environmental Justice Thriving Communities Grantmaking Program, created by President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act as part of the Investing in America Agenda.

EPA says this new grant program responds to the need to improve the efficiency of the awards process to make it easier for small community-based organizations to access federal environmental justice (EJ) funding.

Communities will be able to apply to a grantmaker for a subgrant to fund a range of environmental projects, including small local clean ups, local emergency preparedness and disaster resiliency programs, environmental workforce development programs for local jobs reducing greenhouse gas emissions, fenceline air quality and asthma related projects, healthy homes programs and projects addressing illegal dumping.

Vice President Kamala Harris and EPA Administrator Michael Regan were joined by Robert Bullard, professor of urban planning and environmental policy at Texas Southern University, to announce the grantmaker awards.

“Every person has a right to drink clean water, breathe clean air and live in a community that is healthy and safe,” Harris says. “For too long, however, low-income communities, immigrant communities, Native communities and communities of color have endured disproportionate levels of air, water and soil pollution.

“Today’s announcement puts that commitment into action by ensuring critical resources to fund environmental justice projects across the country reach the organizations that know their communities best,” she adds.

The grantmakers will work in collaboration with EPA’s Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights to issue subgrants to community-based nonprofit organizations and other eligible organizations representing disadvantaged communities. EPA says the 11 selectees will design comprehensive application and submission processes, award EJ subgrants, implement tracking and reporting systems and provide resources and support to communities. The subgrants are expected to become available by summer 2024.

Regan says grantmakers were selected due to their “strong connection to their communities.”

“We selected them knowing that they would be able to operationalize these resources in a way that the communities that need these resources the most would absolutely get them,” he says. “They’ve also demonstrated a very strong governance structure that creates accountability.”

The 11 grantmakers consist of regional selectees who will issue subgrants to communities in specific EPA regions and national selectees who EPA says will provide support, coordination and oversight to the subgrantees, applicants and the regional grantmakers. The national selectees also will issue additional subgrants to fill potential gaps in the regions.

Ten grantmakers are receiving $50 million each, with one selectee, Durham, North Carolina-based Research Triangle Institute, receiving $100 million to serve as both a regional grantmaker for communities in EPA Region 4 and a national grantmaker, where part of its responsibility is providing subgrants to communities in EPA Region 7. Collectively, EPA says the 11 grantmakers will issue thousands of subgrants to disadvantaged communities over the next three years.

EPA has selected the following 9 organizations to serve as regional grantmakers:

• Health Resources in Action, Boston, EPA Region 1;
• Fordham University, New York, EPA Region 2;
• Green & Healthy Homes Initiative Inc., Baltimore, EPA Region 3;
• Research Triangle Institute, Durham, North Carolina, EPA Region 4;
• The Minneapolis Foundation, Minneapolis, EPA Region 5;
• Texas Southern University, Houston, EPA Region 6
• JSI Research and Training Institute Inc., Denver, EPA Region 8;
• Social and Environmental Entrepreneurs Inc., Calabasas, California, EPA Region 9; and
• Philanthropy Northwest, Seattle, EPA Region 10.

EPA has selected three national grantmakers, including:

• Institute For Sustainable Communities, Montpelier, Vermont, EPA Regions 1-3;
• Research Triangle Institute, Durham, North Carolina, EPA Regions 4-7; and
• Climate Justice Alliance, Berkeley, California, EPA Regions 8-10.

Community-based nonprofit organizations and other eligible organizations seeking subgrant funding can apply for subgrants through three concurrent tiers offered by the grantmakers. Tier one will consist of grants for $150,000 for assessment, tier two will consist of grants for $250,000 for planning, and tier three will consist of grants for $350,000 for project development. $75,000 will be available for capacity-constrained community-based organizations through a noncompetitive process under tier one. EPA says each grantmaker will design and implement a distribution program best suited for their region and communities.

The grantmakers program is part of the Federal Interagency Thriving Communities Network and delivers on the Biden-Harris Administration’s Justice40 Initiative which set the goal that 40 percent of the overall benefits of certain federal investments flow to disadvantaged communities. Grantmakers will work in collaboration with the Environmental Justice Thriving Communities Technical Assistance Centers (EJTCTAC) to create a support network to assist eligible entities when applying, EPA says.