Eligible Applicants

The Community Climate Resilience (CCR) Grant Program is intended for frontline communities defined as those that are disproportionately impacted by climate change due to existing and historic racial, social, environmental, and economic inequities, and who have limited resources and limited capacity to adapt to climate-related shocks and stressors.
 
Frontline communities include Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) communities, immigrants and refugees, people living with low incomes, communities experiencing disproportionate pollution exposure, women and gender non-conforming people, LGBTQIA people, people who live and/or work outside, those with existing health issues, people with limited English skills, and other climate-vulnerable groups. 

Eligible applicants must:

• Have 501(c)3 nonprofit status; or   
• Have a fiscal sponsor with 501(c)3 nonprofit status 
  • For groups that must hire a fiscal sponsor, a fee of 8% to 15% of the total grant award is often charged. This fee may be included in your proposed budget.
• Organization/collective or community group applying must be representative of a frontline community as defined above and work or serve with frontline community members 

All projects must take place within King County and serve frontline communities located in King County. 

Project Eligibility

The CCR Grant Program serves as a resource for frontline communities to develop new or expand on existing community-based climate resilience projects. Proposed grant activities must align with one or more of the Sustainable & Resilient Frontline Communities (SRFC) Focus Areas listed below. Applicants will need to identify the focus areas that apply and will have the option to note additional focus areas.

CCR Grant Program Project Focus Areas and descriptions:

• Community Capacity Development
  • Grow community capacity through leadership development trainings to prepare community members to act for climate resilience.
  • Create and offer culturally relevant communication and education strategies informing frontline communities about climate justice issues.
  • Create or grow youth development programs to elevate youth voices around climate action.

• Community Health & Emergency Preparedness
  • Create communication channels and materials for frontline communities around health, access and warnings for climate events.

• Food Systems & Food Security
  • Support local and BIPOC growers to expand affordability and accessibility to fresh, health and culturally relevant produce to frontline community members who could be disproportionately impacted by climate-influenced food insecurity.
  • Support the development and/or expansion of programs focused on the production and distribution of affordable and health foods to communities that live in areas experiencing food insecurity.

• Housing Security & Anti-Displacement
  • Expand capacity, knowledge and resources for frontline communities to understand the connections between housing and climate change through workshops, trainings, informational resources, and partnerships.

• Transportation Access & Equity
  • Expand capacity, knowledge and resources for frontline communities to articulate the connections between transportation and climate change through accessibility workshops, trainings, informational resources and/or partnerships.

• Energy Justice & Utilities
  • Build energy literacy in frontline communities to develop leadership capacity for taking actions towards energy justice systems.
    
    
• Special Topics: Heat Mitigation
  • Support community-determined solutions to reducing the impacts of extreme heat on vulnerable populations.
  • Highlighted strategic objectives include keeping people safe indoors and outdoors, increasing heat safety awareness and education, integrating heat resilience into infrastructure planning and green spaces, and supporting community-led heat action.

At this time, any proposals related to land acquisition or development of a scholarship program are not eligible.

Scoring Criteria & Review Process

The CCR Grant Program applications will be scored by a Review Committee composed of two King County staff members and three frontline community members. Frontline community members on the Review Committee will not be able to score their own organization’s application to prevent a conflict of interest.

The Review Committee will score the grant applications based on the following categories:

• Frontline Community Representation - How well are frontline communities represented in the organization, the project’s target audience, and at various stages of the project? 
• Project Clarity – How clear are the project’s activities and outcomes? How clearly is the project connected to an SRFC Focus Area(s) and the priorities, values, social issues, needs, or lived experiences of the frontline community(ies) being served? 
• Project Budget – How reasonable and feasible is the budget? How well does the budget narrative explain how the line items will be used directly and are essential to the project’s success?   
• Project Work Plan – How clear are the key activities of the project? How feasible is the timeline of the work plan? How clear and measurable are the expected outcomes? 

The Review Committee will provide their scores for each category and application to the Executive Climate Office Climate Equity Team who will make the final decision. The Review Committee reserves the right to recommend an award amount that is different from the requested amount based upon these factors.