Many strategies for increasing climate resilience come with a price tag. Increasingly, funding for local climate adaptation and resilience projects must draw on a range of public and private financing. For instance, groups may apply for federal grant funding, work through public/private partnerships, and/or fund projects through local taxes. You can find examples of funding strategies in Funding Strategies for Flood Mitigation; Where do you get the money? from Headwaters Economics.

For developing grant proposals, we recommend NOAA's Digital Coast collection of Grant Proposal Development Resources.

To learn of funding opportunities available through the Infrastructure Law, the Inflation Reduction Act, and the CHIPS Act, a private group offers the Infrastructure (+IRA) Funding Tracker.

For your convenience, we maintain an informal list of funding opportunities below. Follow any external link to learn more.

NOAA’s Climate Ready Workforce for Coastal and Great Lakes States, Tribes, and Territories Initiative - Funding available through the Inflation Reduction Act

Sea Grant and the NOAA Climate Program Office, with support from the NOAA Office of Coastal Management, seek to establish programs aimed at placing people across the country into good jobs that advance climate resilience and assisting employers in developing a 21st-century workforce that is climate literate, informed by climate resilience, and skilled at addressing consequent challenges. NOAA will assist communities in coastal and Great Lakes states, tribes, and territories so they may form partnerships that train workers and place them into jobs that enhance climate resilience. 

NOAA envisions making between 10-20 awards under this competition, at amounts ranging from $500,000-$10 million each. NOAA expects projects to range in duration from 24 months to 48 months, beginning no earlier than August 1, 2024. This opportunity is open to state, tribal, territorial, and local governments, institutions of higher education, and non-profit organizations in coastal states or territories. Resources from NOAA’s Climate Program Office, Office for Coastal Management, and National Sea Grant Office and its partners will be available to provide technical assistance to applicants and recipients to support these innovative efforts. Applications are due by February 13, 2024.

Read more about the announcement from the National Sea Grant Office »

Read the full announcement on Grants.gov: NOAA-OAR-SG-2024-2007783 » 

Federal Financial Assistance Programs for Resilience Activities

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) maintains an interactive matrix of selected federal financial assistance programs that are available to assist state and local, tribal and territorial governments in natural hazard mitigation and energy resilience activities. 

The funding information can be sorted by:

• sponsoring federal organization
• type of financial assistance (e.g., grant, loan, or cooperative agreement)
• eligible recipients (e.g., government entity, nonprofit, or for-profit corporation) and
• disaster declaration required or not 

Access the matrix of Federal Financial Assistance Programs for Resilience Activities » 

National Estuarine Research Reserve System Habitat Protection and Restoration - Funding available through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law

By funding designated Reserve agencies and universities to conduct land acquisition and habitat restoration projects that support the NERRS mission, NOAA will strengthen protection of key land and water areas, improve climate resilience, enhance long-term protection of Reserve areas for research and education, and support the habitat protection goals and priorities of the National Coastal Zone Management Act.

Funding under this opportunity will enable Reserves to protect and restore ecologically significant habitats, including conserving lands that play a critical role in helping coastal communities become more resilient to storms, flooding, inundation, erosion, tsunamis, sea level rise and lake level changes and other natural hazards affecting the U.S. coastlines. Applications are due by January 10, 2024.

View the Grant Opportunity »

U.S. Department of Transportation Thriving Communities Program

Planning, technical assistance, and capacity-building support offered through this program will enable disadvantaged and under-resourced communities to advance transformative infrastructure projects that will increase mobility, reduce pollution, and expand affordable transportation options, connecting communities to the essential opportunities and resources that will help them thrive.

Learn more from the U.S. Department of Transporation »

Urban & Community Forestry Inflation Reduction Act Grants

The Forest Service is making up to $1 billion available in Urban and Community Forestry competitive grants for investments that:  

• increase equitable access to urban tree canopy and associated human health, environmental and economic benefits in disadvantaged communities
• broaden community engagement in local urban forest planning
• improve community and urban forest resilience to climate change, pests, and storm events through best management and maintenance practices

Learn more from the USDA Forest Service »

Promoting Resilient Operations for Transformative, Efficient, and Cost-Saving Transportation (PROTECT) Formula Program

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law established the Promoting Resilient Operations for Transformative, Efficient, and Cost-Saving Transportation (PROTECT) Formula Program with funds apportioned directly to State departments of transportation to help make surface transportation more resilient to natural hazards, including climate change, sea level rise, flooding, extreme weather events, and other natural disasters through support of planning activities, resilience improvements, community resilience and evacuation routes, and at-risk coastal infrastructure.

Learn more about the PROTECT Program »

Funding opportunities from NOAA's $2.96 billion in Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funds

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is a transformational opportunity to make an impact against the climate crisis across the country through multiple funding opportunities. It provides nearly $3 billion for NOAA to take action over 5 years in the areas of habitat restoration, coastal resilience, and weather forecasting infrastructure.

Visit NOAA's Bipartisan Infrastructure Law page to learn more »

FEMA's Recovery and Resilience Resource Library

This tool helps users to find and research federal disaster recovery resources that would be beneficial in pre-disaster recovery planning or in the wake of a disaster.

Find federal Recovery and Resilience Resources relevant to your issues »

National Wildlife Federation Nature-based Solutions Funding Database

Communities interested in pursuing nature-based solutions to environmental issues can explore federal funding opportunities and technical assistance resources in this interactive database.

Find federal funding and technical assistance programs to support nature-based solutions »

American Flood Coalition Flood Funding Finder

This interactive website compiles grant, finance, and technical assistance support opportunities into a user-friendly database that helps communities identify and prioritize opportunities to fund flood resilience.

Visit the Flood Funding Finder to explore relevant funding opportunities  »

Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities

USDA is committed to supporting a diverse set of farmers, ranchers, and forest owners through climate solutions that increase resilience, expand market opportunities and strengthen rural America. The new Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities opportunity provides up to $1 billion for pilot projects that create market opportunities for commodities produced using climate-smart practices. 

Wildlife Conservation Society's Climate Adaptation Fund

This fund supports applied, on-the-ground projects focused on achieving wildlife and ecosystem conservation outcomes in the face of a changing climate. Specifically, they select one to two-year projects that implement science-driven, on-the-ground actions that assist wildlife and ecosystems to adapt to climate change at a landscape scale. The Program Timeline starts with the release of the annual RFP in February.

Drought.gov Competitive Funding Opportunities

This page describes support that may be available through federal agencies for drought research and for building resilience to the short- and long-term impacts of drought. Links on the page lead to information regarding financial and technical assistance, disaster assistance programs, economic injury loans, and assistance in implementing conservation practices.

EPA Smart Growth Grants and Other Funding

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Sustainable Communities occasionally offers grants to support activities that improve the quality of development and protect human health and the environment.

Kresge Environment Program

The Kresge Foundation Environment Program seeks to help communities build resilience in the face of climate change. They invest in climate resilience through two primary strategies:

1. Accelerating place-based innovation through support to efforts that are anchored in cities and have a strong potential to serve as models.
2. Building the climate-resilience field by supporting activities to disseminate and bring to scale promising climate-resilience approaches.

Open Space Institute Resilient Landscape Initiative

The Resilient Landscapes Initiative, supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, offers two types of grants for specified locations in the eastern United States. The group’s Capital Grants help land trusts and public agencies increase the conservation of resilient landscapes in areas that represent critical climate priorities. The group’s Catalyst Grants help land trusts and public agencies build the knowledge base of key audiences and advance the practical application of climate science.

Browse funding opportunities in Georgetown's Adaptation Clearinghouse »

The Georgetown Climate Center offers links to a large number of current and past opportunities to obtain support for adaptation activities.

Last modified: 13 December, 2023