Many of the strategies for increasing climate resilience come with a price tag. Increasingly, funding for local climate adaptation and resilience projects must draw on a range of public and private financing. For instance, groups may apply for federal grant funding, work through public/private partnerships, and/or fund projects through local taxes.

For examples of strategies some municipalities have pursued to fund their resilience-building efforts, see Funding Strategies for Flood Mitigation; Where do you get the money? prepared by the independent non-partisan research group, Headwaters Economics.

Additionally, a range of government entities and private foundations offer financial and technical resources to advance local adaptation and mitigation efforts in the United States. For your convenience, we've listed some of them below. For information on any program, please follow the external link to learn more.

  • FEMA Fiscal Year 2020 Hazard Mitigation Assistance Grants

    FEMA has posted the Fiscal Year 2020 (FY20) Hazard Mitigation Assistance (HMA) Notification of Funding Opportunities (NOFOs) for the Flood Mitigation Assistance (FMA) grant program and the new Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) pre-disaster mitigation grant programs. The two competitive mitigation grant programs provide states, local communities, tribes and territories (SLTTs) funding for eligible mitigation activities to strengthen our nation’s ability to build a culture of preparedness by reducing disaster losses and protecting life and property from future disaster damages.

    The application period opens on September 30, 2020. Applications must be received by January 29, 2021, at 3:00 PM Eastern Time (ET). 
    A series of recorded Webinars are available for further information on the FY2020 Grants »
    Additional information on FEMA's Hazard Mitigation Grants »

  • Wildlife Conservation Society's Climate Adaptation Fund

    This fund supports applied, on-the-ground projects focused on achieving wildlife and ecosystem conservation outcomes in the face of a changing climate. Specifically, they select one to two-year projects that implement science-driven, on-the-ground actions that assist wildlife and ecosystems to adapt to climate change at a landscape scale. The Program Timeline starts with the release of the annual RFP in February.

  • EPA Smart Growth Grants and Other Funding

    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Sustainable Communities occasionally offers grants to support activities that improve the quality of development and protect human health and the environment.

  • Drought Recovery Information

    This page from the National Integrated Drought Information System describes support that may be available through federal agencies for both short- and long-term impacts of drought. Links lead to information regarding financial and technical assistance, disaster assistance programs, economic injury loans, and assistance in implementing conservation practices.

  • USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service

    NRCS offers voluntary programs to eligible landowners and agricultural producers to provide financial and technical assistance to help manage natural resources in a sustainable manner. Programs include:

    • The Agricultural Management Assistance Programhelps agricultural producers use conservation to manage risk and address natural resource issues through natural resources conservation.
    • Conservation Innovation Grants offer funding opportunities at the state level to stimulate the development and adoption of innovative conservation approaches and technologies that leverage federal investment in environmental enhancement and protection.
    • The Conservation Stewardship Program helps agricultural producers maintain and improve their existing conservation systems and adopt additional conservation activities to address priority resources concerns. Participants earn CSP payments for conservation performance—the higher the performance, the higher the payment.
    • The Environmental Quality Incentives Program provides financial and technical assistance to agricultural producers in order to address natural resource concerns and deliver environmental benefits, such as improved water and air quality, conserved ground and surface water, reduced soil erosion and sedimentation, or improved or created wildlife habitat.

  • Federal Funding Compendium for Urban Heat Adaptation – Published December 2013

    The Georgetown Climate Center produced an in-depth document that collected and analyzed information relating to 44 separate federal programs that could support cities and states in reducing the impacts of urban heat. While federal funding sources are often dependent on appropriations, this list may be useful for finding federal funding opportunities for climate-related work.

  • Tribal Climate Change Guide to Funding, Science, Programs and Adaptation Plans

    This sortable spreadsheet can help tribes find potential funding sources and other resources. Maintained by University of Oregon.

  • Massachusetts’ Storm-Smart Coasts Initiative

    This Massachusetts-only grant program provides financial and technical resources to advance innovative local efforts to increase awareness of climate impacts, identify vulnerabilities and risks, and implement measures to increase community resilience.

  • Kresge Environment Program

    The Kresge Foundation Environment Program seeks to help communities build resilience in the face of climate change. They invest in climate resilience through two primary strategies:

    1. Accelerating place-based innovation through support to efforts that are anchored in cities and have a strong potential to serve as models.
    2. Building the climate-resilience field by supporting activities to disseminate and bring to scale promising climate-resilience approaches.

  • Climate Solutions University

    The Climate Solutions University aids rural communities by offering training, expertise, and support in climate adaptation planning through a peer-learning network. In the past, the organization has offered two distance-learning programs: the Climate Adaptation Plan Development Program focuses on forest and water resource resilience, and the Climate Adaptation Plan Implementation Program supports participants in moving the plan into action. 

  • Open Space Institute Resilient Landscape Initiative

    The Resilient Landscapes Initiative, supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, offers two types of grants for specified locations in the eastern United States. The group’s Capital Grants help land trusts and public agencies increase the conservation of resilient landscapes in areas that represent critical climate priorities. The group’s Catalyst Grants help land trusts and public agencies build the knowledge base of key audiences and advance the practical application of climate science.

  • Browse funding opportunities in the Adaptation Clearinghouse »

    The Georgetown Climate Center offers links to a large number of current and past opportunities to obtain support for adaptation activities.

Last modified: 11 September, 2020

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