Our nation’s community foundations have a long track record of being the go-to local organizations for connecting generous donors with nonprofits working on pressing issues such as affordable housing, improving health care and education, and elevating the arts.

Through deep relationships built with community leaders, nonprofits, donors, and government agencies, we’ve also earned the reputation as philanthropy’s first responders, able to spring into action when weather-related disasters strike our hometowns.

Traditionally, this hyper-local focus has made sense for community foundations and the communities we serve. And, in many instances, it still does.

Yet as daunting systemic challenges such as climate change and income inequality plague large swaths of the country, community foundations such as those that we lead in the Pittsburgh region, Cleveland and Minneapolis are demonstrating the power and potential of strategic collaborations beyond our local borders.

These collaborations can open doors and amplify impact. Programming that proved successful in one community can be replicated across multiple foundations or launched as a shared regional or national effort. Throughout the process, all of us learn from one another, developing shared resources and honing best practices.

Climate collaboration

One such collaboration is the Community Foundation Climate Collaborative (CFCC), which launched in late 2022 and now includes more than 50 U.S. community foundations.

The need to develop an aligned regional response is a recognition that, as the frequency and severity of weather-related crises intensify, reaction-based disaster philanthropy is not enough. The full toolkit of adaptation, mitigation, and resilience is required – and philanthropy can lead the way to center community voice and build collaborative responses to scale solutions commensurate with these challenges.

The joint effort is already demonstrating the potential to unlock opportunities that ultimately lead to greater impact in our local communities by addressing issues with a regional perspective. 

The most obvious opportunity for members of CFCC exists in accessing and deploying the significant funding available through the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), the largest investment in climate action in history.

Philanthropic leaders and Biden Administration officials have rightly concluded that community foundations sit in a prime position to help direct federal funding to underserved communities. These communities face the most acute need for funding but often lack the expertise or resources to navigate the detailed application and implementation process that accompanies most federally funded projects.

We’re already starting to see this approach — through the CFCC and similar newly formed partnerships  — yield significant results. For instance, in April, the Industrial Heartland Solar Coalition (IHSC), which includes several community foundations including Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Indianapolis, and Buffalo, was awarded $156 million in IRA funding for the Solar for All program. This funding will open the door to communities that have long been neglected to finally have access to cost saving and environmentally friendly energy solutions.  

Led by Ohio-based Growth Opportunity Partners, the nation’s first Black-led green bank, the Coalition spans across eight Midwest and Great Lake states including Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia.

The impact of the Solar for All funding on these communities will be significant.
In Indianapolis, for example, Solar for All will provide no-cost renewable energy infrastructure, weatherization, and home electrification upgrades to homeowners and renters in underappreciated communities that have been left out of environmental solutions and benefits. This will lead to lower energy bills, improved home resilience, and reduced environmental impact for thriving communities.

Environmental justice

Likewise, the EPA’s Environmental Justice Thriving Communities Grantmaking program has awarded the Minneapolis Foundation $50 million to serve as a Regional Grantmaker to aid in distributing funding across the Midwest. The Foundation and partners will be able to efficiently issue subgrants in Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin, as well as across 35 federally recognized tribal nations.

This new grant program will streamline the process for small community-based organizations to access federal environmental justice funding and also improve the efficiency of the awards process to ensure communities that have long-faced underinvestment can access the benefits of the largest climate investment in history.

The Foundation is working with its partners to finalize the grantmaking guidelines and process in ways that will benefit communities most impacted by environmental injustice.

As a member of the CFCC, the Minneapolis Foundation is eager to share what it learns with other foundations across the country in hopes their organizations can pursue similar opportunities moving forward.

Individual community foundations will always commit the vast majority of their time and resources to addressing local issues. We’ll keep awarding college scholarships, setting up emergency funds when a tornado tears through a local town, and supporting programs that address affordable housing, health, equity, and a host of other issues.

Yet by strategically aligning with other community foundations with similar missions — and similar challenges — we can accelerate positive change in our communities while making sustainable change that has the potential to ripple across large regional swaths of the country.

We believe we are just scratching the surface of what is possible when community foundations join forces for the greater good. By working together, we can accelerate positive change in the places that each of us call home, and drive sustainable change that can benefit neighboring cities, communities, and states across our great country.
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Lillian Kuri is president and CEO of the Cleveland Foundation.
Lisa Schroeder is president and CEO of the Pittsburgh Foundation.
R.T. Rybak is president and CEO of the Minneapolis Foundation.