Environmental and Climate Justice Community Change Grants Program

Community Change Grants will support comprehensive community and place-based approaches to redressing environmental and climate injustices for communities facing legacy pollution, climate change, and persistent disinvestment. These concentrated local investments will fund community-driven, changemaking projects that center collaborative efforts for healthier, safer, and more prosperous communities.

Designed with meaningful community, Tribal, and other stakeholder involvement, the investments EPA makes through the Community Change Grants are intended to achieve the following objectives:

1. Provide resources for community-driven projects to address environmental and climate challenges in communities facing disproportionate and adverse health, pollution, and environmental impacts, and suffering from generations of disinvestment.

2. Invest in strong cross-sectoral collaborations with partners who bring a robust commitment to working with and for communities with environmental and climate justice concerns.

3. Unlock access to additional and more significant resources to advance environmental and climate justice goals from across the federal government and other sources.

4. Empower communities and strengthen their capacity to drive meaningful positive change on the ground for years to come.

5. Strengthen community participation in government decision-making processes that impact them.

EPA anticipates awarding approximately $2 billion in funding through this NOFO, depending on funding availability, quality of applications received, EPA priorities, and other applicable considerations. EPA will consider applications under two separate tracks. 

• Track I applications – Community-Driven Investments for Change will focus on multi-faceted applications with Climate Action and Pollution Reduction Strategies to meaningfully improve the environmental, climate, and resilience conditions affecting disadvantaged communities. Awards under Track I are expected to be $10-20 million each and cannot exceed $20 million.

• Track II applications – Meaningful Engagement for Equitable Governance will facilitate the engagement of disadvantaged communities in governmental processes to advance environmental and climate justice. Awards under Track II are expected to be $1-3 million each and cannot exceed $3 million.

Application Instructions

Please submit:

1. A one‐page letter of intent. Tell us which Track you are applying for and provide a description of proposed aims and approach.
2. If the final application requires a diversity statement or statement of broader impacts, please summarize your plans to address the specific requirements on an additional page.
3. CV (not biosketch) of the PI including past grant funding.

to limitedsubs@uw.edu by 5:00 PM Wednesday, July 24, 2024. Proposals are due to the sponsor 11/21/2024, so you will need to have your materials in to the Office of Sponsored Programs by 11/12/2024 if given the go‐ahead by the Limited Submissions review committee.