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Issue

Environmental Justice

Our Policy Accelerator team partners with grantees to advance environmental justice, including water quality & management, access to clean water, closing waste incinerators and zero waste policies, and air pollution and quality–all issues that disproportionately affect communities of color. Our work together includes setting robust and ambitious protections against false climate solutions by advocating for policies like cumulative impact permits and environmental justice screens. We also advance power building by combating disinformation campaigns targeted at communities of color.

Power-Building Strategies

  • Community Organizing
  • Strategic Communications
  • Policy Advocacy
  • Voter Participation and Education
  • Coalition Building

Constituents

  • Black
  • Indigenous
  • Latinx
  • AAPI
  • Immigrant
  • Multiracial

Selection of Grantees Working on Environmental Justice

Showing 8 out of 76 grantees Showing all 76 grantees

  • Soulardarity

    Soulardarity is building energy democracy in Highland Park, MI and their neighboring communities with education, organizing, and people-powered clean energy. They are working to install solar-powered street lights, save residents money on energy bills and with our neighboring communities build a just and equitable energy system for all.

  • Arizona Asian American Native Hawaiian Pacific Islanders for Equity (AANHPI)

    Arizona Asian American Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander for Equity (AZ AANHPI for Equity) is a state-wide organization striving for equity and justice by building power through community directed organizing, increasing civic engagement, and empowering young leaders.

  • The Semilla Project

    The Semilla Project is a women of color-led 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to preparing the next generation of young Black, Indigenous, and People of Color to become strong leaders of environmental, economic, and racial justice.

  • Appalachian Voices

    Appalachian Voices brings people together to advance a just economic transition away from fossil fuels and toward a democratic and inclusive clean-energy future. They partner with impacted communities to strengthen environmental protections, enact equitable clean-energy policies, and secure investments in ecologically sound alternatives to extractive industries.

  • Virginia Organizing

    Virginia Organizing is a non-partisan statewide grassroots organization dedicated to challenging injustice by empowering people in local communities to address issues that affect the quality of their lives.

  • New Virginia Majority Education Fund (NVM EF)

    New Virginia Majority Education Fund (NVM EF), Virginia’s leading civic engagement organization, builds power in working-class communities of color across the Commonwealth. We organize in communities year-round for racial, economic, and environmental justice through political education, mass-scale voter outreach, mobilization, and intensive leadership development around dozens of issues.

  • One PA Activists United

    One PA is a building a movement for political representation that stands for racial, economic and environmental justice and against profits over people and voter disenfranchisement

  • Center for Coalfield Justice

    The Center for Coalfield Justice is working with residents in Washington and Greene Counties to invest in the leadership of those who are most impacted, and to help create communities of people that possess the skills and analysis to advocate for their basic rights to a healthy environment and thriving economy.

  • Make the Road States Inc.

    Make the Road builds power for justice in Latinx and immigrant communities and working-class communities of color. They empower community members to be the principal agents and leaders in challenging and dismantling systemic oppression through community organizing, policy innovation, transformative education, and dismantling systemic oppression through civic engagement and advocacy.

  • Philly Thrive

    Philly Thrive organizes for environmental, racial, and economic justice in Philadelphia. They work to heal the unmet needs the current extractive economy creates for communities while taking direct action to transform the extractive economy into a regenerative one.

  • PA Climate Equity Table

    The Pennsylvania Climate Equity Table is building power in communities across Pennsylvania that have been impacted by climate and environmental injustice.

  • Pittsburgh United

    Pittsburgh United is a coalition of community, labor, faith, and environmental organizations committed to advancing the vision of a community and economy that work for all people.

  • Philadelphians Organized to Witness Empower and Rebuild (POWER)

    POWER Interfaith organizes toward a new society based on equity, sustainability, and love through strong, multi-racial, people-centered organizations that relentlessly press for social change

  • We Are Down Home

    We are Down Home (WDH) is a project to build a statewide organization of rural and small town communities that advocate for economic, gender, environmental, and racial justice. We will move North Carolina toward the values of dignity, safety, and inclusion through leadership development, strategic campaigning, multiracial movement building, and civic engagement that advances real reforms for rural communities.

  • Red-Tailed Hawk Collective

    The RedTailed Hawk Collective has actively worked with tribal nations and allies to expand the indigenous peoples who understand and engage in public decision making related to the environmental integrity of their territories.

  • Blueprint North Carolina

    Blueprint NC is a progressive ecosystem of 70+ nonprofits (plus an expanding web of network allies) committed to building independent power for an anti-racist, inclusive democracy.

  • NM Comunidades en Acción y de Fe (CAFE)

    NM CAFe is a network of diverse religious institutions and community broad based organizations across Southern NM committed to building relational power with and for New Mexicans who have been directly impacted by systems of injustice.

  • Organizers in the Land of Enchantment (OLÉ) Education Fund

    OLÉ trains BIPOC communities in the use of grassroots organizing strategies to create institutional changes that enrich, empower, and protect their communities.

  • Diné Citizens Against Ruining our Environment (C.A.R.E.)

    Diné CARE seeks to empower, give voice to, and protect the interests of Diné (Navajo) communities. They advocate for Native traditional teachings by protecting and providing a voice for all life within and beyond the Four Sacred Mountains.

  • Pueblo Action Alliance

    Pueblo Action Alliance is a community driven grassroots organization that protects Pueblo cultural sustainability and community defense by addressing environmental and social impacts in Indigenous communities.

  • Faith Organizing Alliance

    Faith Organizing Alliance’s mission is to increase civic participating through faith-based and civic organizations within the Las Vegas Valley in order to advance a community and government that is more caring, just and equitable.

  • Faith in Action Nevada

    Faith in Action Nevada is a nonpartisan, multi-faith organization that organizes and advocates for racial justice, economic justice, and an inclusive democracy.

  • Make the Road Nevada

    Make the Road Nevada’s vision for Nevada begins with building a strong grassroots foundation in Las Vegas and it ends with elevating the power of working class immigrant communities in every community around the state.

  • Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada (PLAN)

    The Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada was founded by local activists to build a more fair and just state that puts people and planet first. They organize with front line communities and directly impacted leaders for policy changes and community investments that improve the lives of Nevadans.

  • Chispa Nevada

    Chispa Nevada strengthens the voices of Latinx families to fight against climate change and for clean energy for a healthier future for us all. They are one of the only environmental programs truly engaged in traditional community organizing that builds the capacity of Latinx families to influence policymakers and pressure polluters to protect communities’ rights to clean air and water, healthy neighborhoods, and a safe climate for generations to come.

  • Comunidades Organizando el Poder y la Accion Latina (COPAL Education Fund)

    Comunidades Organizando el Poder y la Acción Latina, is a member-based organization established in 2018 to improve the quality of life of Latine families. Over the past six years, COPAL has evolved to become a well-known, grassroots power-building, and visionary transnational organization.

  • Minnesota Interfaith Power and Light

    Minnesota Interfaith Power & Light works in partnership with faith and spiritual communities to build transformative power and bring the lights of people’s unique gifts to addressing the climate crisis.

  • Minnesota Environmental Justice Table

    The MN EJ Table’s mission is to build power to guarantee environmental justice across Minnesota. This is done through campaigns to fight against the systemic harm of frontline communities, by developing solutions that build the world we need, and through transformative education.

  • Michigan Environmental Justice Coalition (MEJC)

    The Michigan Environmental Justice Coalition works to achieve a clean, healthy, and safe environment for Michigan residents most affected by inadequate policies. They work in alignment with the Principles of Environmental Justice, and cultivate relationships based on the Jemez Principles.

  • Detroit Action Education Fund

    Detroit Action Education Fund, is a grassroots, member-led, multigenerational, community-based organization fighting for racial and economic justice for working-class Detroiters. Their mission is to build up individuals and families to challenge the root cause of poverty, advance justice, and promote human development through neighborhood-driven community organizing and nonpartisan civic engagement.

  • Interfaith Power & Light (DC.MD.NOVA)

    Interfaith Power & Light’s vision is for congregations of all faiths in DC, Maryland, and Northern Virginia living out the fullness of their faith by responding to climate change.

  • Black Girls Vote 4 HER Inc.

    Black Girls Vote aims to improve the quality of life for Black women by engaging, educating and empowering them to activate their voice by utilizing their vote.

  • Out for Justice, Inc.

    Out for Justice, Inc. believes that individuals impacted by the criminal justice system should be at the forefront of policy reform efforts that directly affect us, our families, and communities.

  • Progressive Maryland

    Progressive Maryland is a multi-racial, working-class political organization that is building a movement to save our planet and put working people in control of our government and economy while ending all forms of structural oppression within our state.

  • Centro de Apoyo Familar

    Centro de Apoyo Familiar’s mission is to revitalize communities through economic, social and educational empowerment in collaboration with the faith-based organizations.

  • CASA

    With over 155,000 lifetime members across 46 US states, CASA is a national powerhouse organization building power and improving the quality of life in working-class: Black, Latino/a/e, Afro-descendent, Indigenous, and Immigrant communities.

  • Baltimore Transit Equity Coalition

    The Baltimore Transit Equity Coalition is a resolute, community-led group. Their mission is to supplant structural racism in public transit policy with structural change to attain equitable, reliable transit and greater environmental, social and economic justice for the Baltimore region.

  • Action in Montgomery (AIM)

    Action in Montgomery is a broad-based community power organization rooted in Montgomery County’s neighborhoods and congregations. They are non-partisan, multi-faith, multi-racial, and dedicated to making the county and state a better place to live and thrive.

  • Chicago Frontlines Funding Initiative (CFFI)

    Chicago Frontlines Funding Initiative’s mission is to provide Environmental Justice leaders across the Chicago area with the resources and support they need to build healthy and impactful organizations.

  • United Congregations of Metro East (UCM)

    United Congregations of Metro East (UCM) believes all citizens deserve to have a voice in the decisions that affect the quality of their lives. UCM’s coalition of congregations transcend the divisive barriers of race, economic status, religion, partisan politics, and geography to unite in a powerful voice for justice.

  • Southsiders Organized for Unity and Liberation (SOUL)

    Southsiders Organized for Unity and Liberation’s mission is to assist low-income people of color in the Chicago Southland to build power, then leverage that power to fight for their own interest and liberation.

  • ONE Northside

    ONE Northside is a mixed-income, multi-ethnic, intergenerational organization that unites our diverse communities. They build collective power to eliminate injustice through bold and innovative community organizing.

  • lllinois People’s Action (IPA)

    Illinois People’s Action aims to empower everyday people and their congregations to become partners in the decision-making process on justice issues they identify. They use the principles of community organizing, leadership training and direct action to achieve this mission.

  • Georgia Interfaith Power & Light

    Georgia Interfaith Power & Light engages communities of faith in stewardship of Creation as a direct expression of our faithfulness and as a religious response to global climate change, resource depletion, environmental injustice, pollution, and other disruptions in Creation.

  • Georgia WAND

    Georgia WAND is an independent, grassroots, women-led organization that organizes front-line communities, especially people of color, women, and youth, to establish long-term solutions for social justice. Georgia WAND’s mission is to empower women to advocate for programs and policies that prioritize and address climate change, environmental racism and gender inequities.

  • ProGeorgia

    ProGeorgia brings together the power of existing non-profit groups to work in a more strategic way, with new tools and technology to change the policies of our state. ProGeorgia is building infrastructure by supporting, connecting, and coordinating civic participation efforts of their non-profit member groups.

  • Partnership for Southern Equity (PSE)

    The Partnership for Southern Equity advances policies and institutional actions that promote racial equity and shared prosperity for all in the growth of metropolitan Atlanta and the American South.

  • New Georgia Project

    New Georgia Project’s mission is to build power with and increase the civic participation of the New Georgia Majority—Black, Latinx, AAPI, and young Georgians—and other historically marginalized communities through nonpartisan voter registration, organizing, and advocacy on the issues important to our communities.

  • Georgia Conservation Voters

    Georgia Conservation Voters Education Fund’s mission is to organize and mobilize Georgians to advance climate and environmental justice through education, advocacy, and other forms of civic engagement.

  • Dialogue Collaborative

    Dialogue Collaborative works to inform, educate, and bridge the participation gap in civic engagement through fact-based research, analysis, and strategic, creative, and integrative communications strategies.

  • Demo Lab South

    The Democracy Lab South, or Demo Lab South, is a movement incubation hub that builds power, strategy, and infrastructure with and for QTGNC (queer, trans, gender non-conforming) and BIPOC-led community-based projects and organizations throughout the south.

  • 9to5 Georgia

    9to5’s mission is to build a movement to achieve economic justice, by engaging directly affected women, particularly BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and people of color) women, to fight for better working and life conditions.

  • Florida Climate Equity Cohort

    The Florida Climate Equity Cohort is a group of 10 organizations across Florida working at the intersection of climate change and social, economic and racial justice.

  • Family Action Network Movement (FANM)

    Family Action Network Movement’s mission is to empower low to moderate income families socially, financially, and politically and to give them the tools to transform their communities.

  • Florida Watch

    Florida Watch is a progressive, digital-first organization looking out for everyday Floridians. Their mission: serve truth, hold our leaders accountable and empower voters for change.

  • Catalyst Miami

    Catalyst Miami aims to reform existing systems and introduce new people-powered systems. They provide both individual and shared paths to prosperity, enhance civic engagement through advocacy and leadership training, and increase the resilience of our environment and communities through people-led strategies.

  • Black Voters Matter Capacity Building Institute

    Black Voters Matter Capacity Building Institute’s goal is to increase power in marginalized, predominantly Black communities. They seek to achieve their goals with 5 core beliefs that are rooted in the idea that Black voters matter, and that understanding, respecting and supporting local infrastructure is key.

  • Miami Climate Alliance

    The Miami Climate Alliance works for equity and resilience by activating community through strategic action, increasing understanding of climate change as a threat to all forms of justice, and building urgency around our shared community well-being.

  • Florida Student Power Alliance

    Through political education, organizing skills, and issue based and electoral campaigns, the Florida Student Power Network is building power among young people and fighting for a people-powered Florida.

  • Florida Rising Together

    Florida Rising Together is a 501c3 statewide organization dedicated to advancing economic and racial justice across Florida by building power in historically marginalized communities. They develop leaders, and seek to build broad multiracial movements, to achieve wins that will help shift power to communities.

  • Florida Immigrant Coaltion (FLIC)

    The Florida Immigrant Coalition is a multiracial, multiethnic, member-led coalition consisting of 80+ organizations whose mission is to grow the connection, capacity, and consciousness of communities to strengthen pro-immigrant power in Florida.

  • Farmworker Association of Florida

    The Farmworker Association of Florida is a statewide, grassroots, community-based, non-profit, farmworker membership organization with over 10,000 Haitian, Hispanic, and African American members and five offices in the state of Florida, working for social and environmental justice with farmworkers.

  • Central Florida Jobs with Justice

    Central Florida Jobs with Justice is a coalition of labor unions, community orgs, faith based and youth groups dedicated to building power for worker rights on the job and in the community.

  • Alianza Center

    Alianza Center serves the Puerto Rican and Hispanic communities of Florida by developing and promoting leadership around the environment, healthy living and civic engagement. Their work consistently focuses on sustainability, self-determination, and education.

  • Spirit of the Sun

    Spirit of the Sun’s mission is to work in partnership with Native American communities in urban areas and on reservations to boost the resilience of Native people, especially youth and young adults. Their strategy emphasizes the need for programs that teach valuable life skills that build Native youth resilience.

  • Womxn From the Mountain

    Womxn from the Mountain was founded in 2018 by indigenous womxn, as an inclusive group for all women, trans, non-binary, two-spirit individuals, and diverse communities. Their mission is to empower holistic needs through equity, transformative education, and culturally responsive healing arts.

  • Voces Unidas de las Montañas

    Voces Unidas envisions a mountain region where Latinas and Latinos are thriving, engaging and leading in all of our communities. They do this by creating opportunities where Latinas and Latinos advocate for themselves, actively participate in all civic institutions and take leadership roles in all decision-making tables.

  • GreenLatinos

    GreenLatinos is a national non-profit for Latino leaders confronting national and local environmental issues in the Latino community. They envision a healthy and equitable society where communities of color are liberated from disproportionate environmental burdens.

  • Cultivando

    Cultivando is a non-profit organization led by Latina and Indigenous women who live in the communities served. Their work is based on values of community-led work, social justice, and collaborative leadership. They firmly believe that all people have the power to maintain fair and equitable systems and to ensure opportunities for their communities to thrive.

  • Tó Nizhóní Àní (TNA)

    Tó Nizhóní Àní’s mission is to protect the water of Black Mesa from industry use and waste. They work to bring power back to our Indigenous communities impacted by coal. Their work is rooted in protecting water—Tó bee iiná. Water is life.

  • Rural Arizona Engagement (RAZE)

    RAZE’s mission is to educate, advocate and coordinate in rural communities so they may gain access to civic education, engagement opportunities, and voter registration. Rural Arizona Engagement is an influential power in advancing progressive values and policies for the betterment of all its communities.

  • Mi Familia Vota

    Mi Familia Vota is a national civic engagement non-profit organization that unites Latino, immigrant, and allied communities to promote social and economic justice through citizenship workshops, voter registration, and voter participation. Mi Familia Vota has operations in Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Nevada, and Texas.

  • Corazón AZ

    Corazón AZ is a powerful multi-racial, multi-faith organization working to create a more just Arizona based on shared faith values. They equip ordinary people with tools to effectively identify and change conditions to promote justice and equity. There is also a focus on economic dignity, ensuring access to essentials like “Paid Leave,” “Universal Childcare,” and the right to “Rise & Vote.”

  • Chispa Arizona

    Chispa Arizona builds capacity of Latinx families to influence policymakers and pressure polluters to protect communities’ rights to clean air and water, healthy neighborhoods, and a safe climate for generations to come.

  • Arizona Coalition for Change

    Arizona Coalition for Change is a Black-led organization with a dynamic multicultural team that empowers everyday people to transform their community through building civic power, leadership development, and community collaboration. They advocate for lasting progressive public policies that change the dynamics for their communities by putting people first. They also work to develop and uplift voices in their communities to take on the United State’s most pressing issues.

  • Arizona Center for Empowerment (ACE)

    Arizona Center for Empowerment (ACE) is a 501(c)3 member-led social justice organization that develops and mobilizes undocumented working youth and adults, students, and LGBTQ individuals to strategically take ownership and responsibility to advance economic, social, and racial justice.

States Where Grantees Are Working on Environmental Justice