The CO2 Foundation is accepting letters of inquiry (LOIs) to provide catalytic funding for bold, proof-of-concept solutions to the most urgent aspects of the changing climate.
Social, economic, and cultural stability requires both long-term investment in whole-of-society emissions reduction and short-term effective responses to extreme weather threats. The integration of the United States response system depends on regional integration and functionality, which is at risk in an era of accelerating climate chaos. An affected region cannot rely on other areas of the country when they are similarly impacted by climate-exacerbated extreme weather.
Public awareness is growing rapidly about the connections between climate change and increasingly frequent, intense, long-lasting, and disruptive extreme weather events. The CO2 Foundation focuses on helping leaders in all communities understand effective climate responses as the threat assessment continues to evolve.
They invite you to connect with the Executive Director to discuss the current funding priorities before submitting a proposal.
They anticipate funding projects which:
Share knowledge: Educate the public about the connections between extreme weather and climate change, risks their communities face, and resilience strategies.
Enhance stability: Develop academic and practical approaches to enhancing organizational and political stability in the face of climate-exacerbated disasters.
Deploy strategically: Facilitate effective responses to increasingly frequent and intense extreme weather events.
Via the following activities:
Conferences: Convening diverse practitioners–including organizational decision-makers, emergency managers, scholars, scientists, elected officials, and/or concerned citizens–to share their best efforts on these issues. Past grantees include EcoAdapt.
Journalism: Reporting on extreme weather impacts and future risks, training journalists to effectively convey the connections between extreme weather events and climate change, and sharing community-scale and society-wide responses. Past grantees include Knee Deep Times and Yale Climate Connections.
Scholarship: Scholarly work on the connections between climate change and extreme weather, with a focus on short-term practical application. Past grantees include World Scientists Warning and Climate Central.
What they fund?
CO2 Foundation provides support for grantee organizations offering scientifically sound, potentially game-changing responses to the global climate emergency. They fund projects whose results are to become publicly available and contribute to broad awareness and preparedness within their target audiences. They do not fund projects whose goal is private gain.
The Foundation generally has one open funding opportunity at a time; they do consider Letters of Inquiry outside open funding opportunities, but encourage applicants to match their proposals with the current focus area.
The typical grant size is between $25,000-100,000; they are open to considering applications for projects outside of this range. Funded projects may last from 6 to 18 months.
In addition to providing funding, CO2 Foundation supports grantees by helping to forge connections to other innovators and offering a platform for increased visibility.
What you can expect?
All LOIs will be reviewed within 45 days, and applicants will receive a written notice of the outcome.
Successful LOIs will result in an invitation to submit a full proposal, including a detailed budget, project timeline, additional information about the organization (including equal opportunity policies), and robust project description. LOIs are screened in-house, and full proposals go through an external review process.
Grantees will be expected to report back to the CO2 Foundation on the delivery of project objectives at the midpoint and conclusion of their project.
Eligibility Criteria
Funding is available to nonprofit organizations that are registered as a U.S. 501(c)(3). Individuals and organizations with a compelling project may also partner with a nonprofit organization as a fiscal sponsor.
