Climate Justice Organizing Fund (Pennsylvania)

Bread & Roses Community Fund, with support from the William Penn Foundation, is launching a new three-year Climate Justice Organizing Fund.

Donor Name: Bread & Roses Community Fund

State: Pennsylvania

County: Bucks County (PA), Chester County (PA), Delaware County (PA), Montgomery County (PA), Philadelphia County (PA)

Type of Grant: Grant

Deadline: 03/26/2025

Size of the Grant: $10,000 to $100,000

Grant Duration: 3 Years

Details:

The Climate Justice Organizing Fund will provide resources to groups organizing to advance climate justice in a variety of issue areas.

This may include interconnected issues like:

Racial Justice and Climate Justice: Environmental disparities stem from historical redlining, disinvestment, and discriminatory policies that have placed polluting industries, hazardous waste sites, and inadequate infrastructure in predominantly Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) and low-income neighborhoods. As climate change increases, these neighborhoods also lack adequate tree canopies, are in floodplains, and continue to grapple with being left out of decision-making.
Food Security and Climate Justice: Extreme weather caused by climate change (fires, floods, and extreme heat) disrupts food supply chains, which leads to higher and unpredictable prices and more food scarcity for communities that often live in food deserts or lack resources to access healthy food, compounding pre-existing environmental and economic injustice.
Affordable Housing and Climate Justice: Populations most at risk for climate impacts are the ones experiencing the most significant housing affordability, maintenance, and displacement issues. For instance, Black, Latinx, and Native households spend between 25-45 percent of their income on energy costs. This is referred to as energy poverty. As extreme heat increases, so does energy poverty. These same communities are less likely to have the funding to weatherize homes or invest in clean energy solutions that decrease energy costs and are more likely to be displaced by predatory development practices.
Health Equity and Climate Justice: Climate change disproportionately harms communities facing systemic health disparities—who bear the most significant health burdens from pollution, extreme weather, and environmental hazards.
Public Transportation and Climate Justice: Public transportation is critical in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, improving air quality, and promoting climate resilience. However, disparities in transit access disproportionately affect communities also the most impacted by climate change.

Types of Tracks

The Fund will make grants through a two-track funding approach.

Track One: Climate Justice Capacity Building and Strategy Development ($15,000 grants)
- Track One is designed to strengthen the foundational work necessary for effective climate organizing, ensuring that movements have the preparation and strategic alignment needed for long-term success. These grants will:
- Support capacity-building activities through climate justice organizing training for community-based organizations, community members, coalitions, and/or other stakeholders. The organizing and training funded by these grants must result in a strengthened capacity for actually implementing a climate justice organizing strategy.
- Example activities could include:
  - Hire a trainer or consultant who will increase the effectiveness of future organizing activities by training and educating staff, volunteers, youth, and/or community members in community organizing, online organizing training, climate justice, environmental racism, or climate change.
  - Provide community organizing 101 and/or climate justice training to community members, youth, or community-based organizations to increase their capacity, knowledge, and organizing skills to address climate justice issues.
  - Build relationships with technical experts, climate justice researchers, or policy leads to strengthening the organization’s climate justice strategy and organizing effectiveness.
- Support community-led organizations in developing a climate justice strategy. Climate justice organizing strategies should leverage Bread & Roses’ sample organizing tactics, which include facilitating community meetings and listening sessions to unearth community climate justice needs and build relationships with technical experts and policy analysts. The outcome of this activity must be a clearly defined climate justice strategy and plan for implementation.
Track Two – Implementing a Climate Justice Organizing Strategy ($25,000 grants)
- This funding track is designed to support grassroots, community-led organizations working in the climate justice space. It is intended for groups that have already developed a climate justice organizing strategy and need financial support to sustain, implement, or scale efforts. Unlike funding for planning or preparation as outlined in Track One, this funding track focuses explicitly on implementation.
- Example activities could include:
  - Implementing direct action activities that address particular climate justice concerns
  - Launching a climate justice campaign
  - Coalition building or cross-organizational collaboration
  - Offsetting costs to train and mobilize communities to attend public hearings, townhalls, and other engagements with policymakers.

Eligibility for Both Tracks

An annual operating budget of $500,000 or less.
Note: The Community Grantmaking Committee will preference smaller grassroots organizations that are often overlooked in funding opportunities and sometimes lack dedicated grant-writing staff.
Leadership must reflect the organizational membership base, include people directly affected by the climate crisis, and represent communities affected by the climate crisis.
Eligible organizations must use or plan to use community organizing that centers the experiences and voices of climate-impacted communities. Specifically, eligible organizations build power by and with grassroots communities to hold corporations and policymakers accountable to impacted communities.
Eligible applicants should demonstrate that they understand climate justice and environmental racism and how the issues they are organizing around promote climate justice.
Additional Track One Eligibility Criteria
- Eligible applicants include new organizations focusing on climate justice or existing grassroots organization expanding their work to focus on climate justice.
Additional Track Two Eligibility Criteria
- Eligible organizations:
  - Have a track record of community organizing tactics that drive change in legislative or regulatory policies or institutional practices.
  - Invest in community engagement to ensure their strategies are informed directly by community members impacted by climate change.
  - Have a track record of basebuilding, e.g., growing the number of communities and residents supporting climate justice issues by bringing in new people or groups.