Deadline: 30-Aug-22
The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) has launched the Southeast Michigan Resilience Fund to help increase the resilience of communities and natural resources by reducing the impact of stormwater, improving water quality, enhancing habitat, and increasing the accessibility and usability of public green space and natural areas.
The Fund was created to provide financial resources that benefit Southeast Michigan communities and wildlife habitats by improving resilience in the face of intensifying environmental stressors related to climate change, development, invasive species, nonpoint source pollution and other factors. By investing in green stormwater infrastructure solutions, the Fund seeks to reduce flooding and other intensifying threats associated with major storm events, while also creating safe, dynamic, and enjoyable public green spaces that improve habitat values for wildlife and quality of life for residents. By restoring the region’s unique natural areas, the Fund seeks to enhance the quality and connectivity of habitat for wildlife, improve the ability of these habitats to withstand and absorb the impact of environmental stressors, and make nature more accessible for people.
Categories
The Fund will award grants in the following categories:
- Expanding Green Stormwater Infrastructure and Enhancing Public Space
- Funding in this category will support green stormwater infrastructure (GSI) projects that improve stormwater capture and storage to mitigate the impacts of climate change, including reducing runoff, combined sewer overflows, basement backups, and flooding through nature-based design. Much of the region is covered in impervious surfaces and these threats pose significant risks to communities, with disproportionately severe impacts to low-income communities and communities of color. GSI projects should utilize natural design elements to reduce and treat stormwater where it falls while delivering environmental, social and community benefits. Proposed GSI projects must be designed with a dual purpose, to increase stormwater storage capacity while also enhancing the quality of, access to, and/or use of community green space or natural areas.
- Improving Habitat Quality and Connectivity and Enhancing Public Space
- Funding in this category will support habitat restoration projects, including in-stream, riparian, upland, and wetland habitat, that improve the quality and connectivity of habitats throughout Southeast Michigan. Habitat projects must be designed to restore habitat while also meaningfully improving public access to and/or use-opportunities of natural areas throughout the region.
Priorities
- Equity and Inclusion
- The Fund desires to support projects that meaningfully engage and benefit low-income and communities of color. The Fund recognizes that these communities are often disproportionately impacted by climate change and associated environmental issues of special concern for the Fund, including stormwater runoff, combined sewer overflows and associated flooding and access to safe public greenspace and natural areas. The Fund will prioritize investments that seek to address these impacts while also meaningfully engaging communities to achieve benefits for the environment and people.
- Priority will be given to projects that meaningfully and directly engage communities in their ideation, design, implementation, and/or long-term maintenance and sustainability. Examples of direct community engagement may include, but are not limited to:
- community has direct input into the project design and implementation, project empowers community with knowledge or decision-making authority
- project team represents and is a part of the community being engaged, community is engaged through specific
- active engagement strategies such as: workshops, classroom activities, field trips and volunteer opportunities, etc.
- project addresses a specific and localized harm such as flooding, project creates jobs in the target community or performs job training as a direct outcome of project activities
- project directly engages in specific cultural activities with the community.
- Monitoring and Long-Term Maintenance
- To help ensure project benefits will be sustained through time, grantees will be required to present or develop plans that clearly address the project site’s operation and management for at least five (5) years after project completion.
Funding Information
- Approximately $1.7 million is expected to be available for grant awards. Individual grants typically range from $150,000 to $350,000.
- Duration: Anticipated completion time for funded projects will typically be two years following finalization of a grant agreement.
Geographic Focus
- To be eligible for funding, projects must be located within the seven-county region of Southeast Michigan including St. Clair, Macomb, Oakland, Wayne, Washtenaw, Livingston, and Monroe counties.
- Additionally, priority will be given to projects that directly benefit and engage low-income communities and communities of color. Projects that are not located in or meaningfully benefit these communities will be less competitive.
Eligibility Criteria
- Eligible applicants include non-profit 501(c) organizations, state government agencies, local governments, municipal governments, tribal governments and organizations, and educational institutions.
- To be competitive, applicant organizations must demonstrate capacity and experience commensurate with the scale or complexity of the project being proposed and the funding being requested.
- If the applicant is a government entity or municipality, close partnership with at least one non-profit and/or community organization is required for projects to be competitive.
- Ineligible applicants include federal government agencies, unincorporated individuals, and for-profit businesses. While these entities may not be the primary recipient of grant funds, they may be partners or contractors.
For more information, visit https://www.nfwf.org/programs/southeast-michigan-resilience-fund/southeast-michigan-resilience-fund-2022-2023-request-proposals