An Open Letter to Climate Philanthropists: Join Us in Investing in Diverse Community Leadership For Successful Federal Implementation
By Jodeen Olguín-Tayler and Jordan Estevao
October 4, 2023
To Climate and Clean Energy Philanthropists,
This week, the Climate and Clean Energy Equity Fund announced major investments as part of our initiative to move over $30M from two new specialized Equitable Federal Implementation Funds. With hundreds of billions of dollars for climate action and infrastructure projects flowing from the federal government, the next three years offer a historic opportunity to accelerate the transition to a clean energy economy that equitably distributes the economic, health, and environmental benefits of a clean energy future.
Implementation simply will not be effective, nor durable, if it is not equitable. Since the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) was passed in 2022, the Equity Fund has invested millions into enhancing programmatic support, strategic communications tools, and campaign advising to diverse local communities whose leadership was advancing many of the most strategic approaches to federal implementation. Having already supported our 130+ grantee partners to build vital expertise, lead winning campaigns, and mobilize hundreds of thousands of clean energy supporters, the Equity Fund has begun to move supplemental contributions for rapid response and catalytic campaigns:
The Catalytic State Implementation Fund supports statewide coalitions leading field mobilization and communication campaigns to rapidly, effectively, and equitably unlock billions of dollars in funding that benefits low-wealth and working-class communities of color.
The Equitable Implementation Responsive Opportunity Fund supports initiatives that mobilize the support of diverse communities and increase public demand for equitable implementation efforts.
Over these next three critical years, the Equity Fund plans to double or triple our current annual funding in six key states with the Catalytic State Implementation Fund, while the Responsive Opportunity Fund will provide millions of dollars in project support to advance implementation campaigns across our entire 13-state portfolio.
“Delivering on the promise of the administration’s Climate Resilience Framework will hinge on the philanthropic sector increasing investments to organizations with capacities to lead large-scale community engagement programs and proven leadership to ensure a clean energy economy will have equitable benefits to Black, Indigenous, Latinx, AAPI and immigrant communities. We have launched the Equitable Federal Implementation Fund with plans to swiftly deploy over $30 million in catalytic funding to community-based organizations. We call on our colleagues across the philanthropic sector to heed the urgency of investments in diverse community leadership. It’s essential to achieving the clean energy transition and climate resilience,”
– Roger Kim, President of the Climate and Clean Energy Equity Fund, and the Climate Equity Action Fund.
Newly announced grants from the Catalytic State Implementation Fund to community partners in Pennsylvania build on the Equity Fund’s six years as a grantmaker, technical assistance and programmatic partner to local community-based organizations. The Equity Fund staff and grantee partners have worked closely together to scope and set a strategy, and the catalytic funding supports their launch of a community-led initiative that could ultimately benefit up to one in four homes across the state, with a focus on those in need of critical weatherization and repair, and enhancing workforce development programs for building repair and weatherization.
As the Equity Fund is moving swiftly to deliver resources from these funds to our grantee partners, we welcome conversations with allied funding partners about how we can enhance our partnership to advance effective and equitable federal implementation.
In this critical moment, we hope you will join us in seizing this moment to make a big difference for these communities.
In partnership,
Jodeen and Jordan
About the Equity Fund: For nearly eight years, the Equity Fund has invested in the leadership of diverse community-based organizations to build the power of a large and diverse constituency base of climate voters, develop expertise in climate equity policy solutions, and increase capacity for strategic communications. The Equity Fund’s 158+ grantee partners are uniquely positioned to lead local campaigns for effective implementation of the IRA and other federal and state initiatives to advance clean energy transition.
Please contact Jodeen Olguín-Tayler, Vice President of Strategic Partnerships, at jodeen@theequityfund.org to learn more.
Jodeen Olguín-Tayler (ella/she) is the Vice President of Strategic Partnerships, bringing with her over two decades of executive leadership in cross-sector movement-building, with expertise in advancing equity, organizational stewardship and change management. Jodeen is known for driving multi-state organizing and civic engagement programs, and for her track-record of winning policy and advocacy campaigns that advance equity. She has served in executive roles in the private, nonprofit and philanthropic sectors, including: Head of Strategic Partnerships and Growth for B Lab Global, Vice President at Demos, Campaigns Director for the National Domestic Workers Alliance and Field Director at MoveOn.org. She is president of the board of trustees for the Movement Voter Fund, a board member for the National Institute on Money in Politics, and served as a Senior Fellow for Racial Justice and Inclusive Democracy at the Amalgamated Foundation.
Jordan Estevao (he/him) is the Director of Programs at the Climate and Clean Energy Equity Fund. Jordan has been an organizer for over twenty years, organizing campaigns to advance racial justice, community economic development, affordable housing, community benefit agreements, and immigrant rights in the United States and England. Jordan led National People's Action's financial reform work following the 2008 financial crash, leading a staff team and affiliates across the country that organized upwards of 100,000 people to take action in the streets, leading to $26 billion for bank-funded mortgage relief and contributing to the passage of the Dodd-Frank financial reform act. Jordan developed and oversaw People’s Action’s People and Planet First Program, which grew to be one of the largest climate justice organizing programs in the U.S.
