Deadline: 21-Apr-22
National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) is pleased to announce the 2022 National Coastal Resilience Fund. The NFWF will make investments in planning, design, and restoration of natural and nature-based solutions to help protect coastal communities from the impacts of storms, floods, and other natural hazards and enable them to recover more quickly and enhance habitats for fish and wildlife.
Natural habitat such as coastal marshes and wetlands, coastal forests, rivers, lakes, and streams, dune and beach systems, and oyster and coral reefs, maintained at a significant size for the habitat type and natural hazard being addressed, can provide communities with enhanced protection and buffering from the growing impacts of sea-level rise, changing flood patterns, increased frequency and intensity of storms, and other environmental stressors.
Program Priority
- Nature-Based Solutions: Projects must focus on identifying or implementing natural, nature-based, or hybrid solutions, such as restoring coastal marshes, reconnecting floodplains, rebuilding dunes or other natural buffers, or installing living shorelines to both reduce climate risks to communities while enhancing habitats (hereinafter “nature-based solutions”).
- Community Resilience Benefit: Projects must show clear benefits in terms of reducing current and projected threats to communities from coastal hazards, including, but not limited to: sea-level rise, lake-level change, coastal erosion, increased frequency and intensity of storms, and impacts from other chronic or episodic factors (e.g., nuisance flooding during high tides, permafrost melt) (hereinafter collectively “coastal hazards”).
- Fish and Wildlife Benefit: Projects must help to improve habitats for fish and wildlife species. Proposals should be as specific as possible in identifying the anticipated benefits to habitats and species that will result from the project proposed.
- Community Impact and Engagement: Projects that benefit underserved communities and directly engage community members in project design and implementation will be prioritized for funding. Projects should engage community-level partners (e.g., community organizations, community leaders, municipalities, NGOs) to help design, implement, and maintain projects; secure maximum benefits for communities; and ensure sustainability and long-term maintenance post-grant award. Projects that are community-led, incorporate outreach to communities, foster community engagement, and pursue collaborative management leading to measurable conservation benefits are encouraged.
- Innovation, Transferability, and Sustainability: NFWF encourages projects that seek to re-shape the thinking on what constitutes coastal community resilience to climate impacts as experienced across different geographies, including approaches that use innovative and sustainable approaches for addressing coastal hazards, in consideration of future climate risks, and transferable approaches that can be scaled for broader impact through integration into other government plans, programs, or policies.
Funding Information
- The National Coastal Resilience Fund will award approximately $140,000,000 in grants in 2022, subject to Congressional appropriations and the availability of funds.
- Average awards: There is no maximum limit on the award amounts that can be requested for individual grants. The amount requested for an individual project should reflect the scope and needs of the project proposed. NFWF expects that average awards for projects involving Community Capacity Building and Planning, Site Assessment and Preliminary Design, and Final Design and Permitting to be in the range of $100,000 to $1,000,000.
Geographic Focus
- The NCRF is a national program focused on the enhancement of resilience for coastal communities.
- Projects must be located within the coastal areas of U.S. coastal states, including the Great Lakes states, U.S. territories, and tribal lands.
Eligibility Criteria
-
Eligible applicants include non-profit 501(c) organizations, state and territorial government agencies, local governments, municipal governments, Tribal governments and organizations, educational institutions, or commercial (for-profit) organizations.
- Tribal governments include all Native American tribal governments (both federally recognized tribes and those tribes that are not federally recognized).
- For-profit applicants: please note that this is a request for grant proposals, not a procurement of goods and services; see the Budget section for specific cost considerations.
- Ineligible applicants include federal agencies or employees of federal agencies, foreign organizations, foreign public entities, and unincorporated individuals.
For more information, visit NFWF.
For more information, visit https://www.nfwf.org/programs/national-coastal-resilience-fund/national-coastal-resilience-fund-2022-request-proposals