The Ohio Climate Justice Fund funds organizations across Ohio that are led and/or governed by Black, Indigenous, and leaders of color. The Fund awards competitive, one-time grants between $15,000-$30,000 to organizations to host community listening sessions focused on climate and clean energy. Listen. Lead. Share. (LLS), is a statewide grassroots campaign that includes a goal of hosting public conversations with community members and stakeholders about the best and most effective ways to address climate and environmental justice in their communities. We see intentional and authentic community listening as the first step in organizing grassroots power in support of equitable clean energy policies.

The MSI STEM Research & Development Consortium (MSRDC) is a solutions provider, research development partner and strategic asset to more than 60 minority-serving research institutions, industry and government partners. Our members use a combination of basic, applied, and/or advanced technology development research to pioneer groundbreaking solutions. With MSRDC’s unique funding vehicle, its members enjoy access to accelerate and elevate their research from concept to prototype and beyond. Current R&D funding opportunities include:

• Opaque Building Envelopes
• Thermal Energy Storage
• Next Generation Electric Machines (NGEM)
• Directed Energy Weapons – Ultra-Short Pulse Laser and Atmospheric Characterization
• High-Temperature Technologies for Naval Applications
• Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning for Photonics, Power & Energy, Atmospherics, and Quantum Science

With support from Capital One’s Impact Initiative and funded (in part) through a grant with the U.S. Small Business Administration, 2Gether-International (2GI) is launching an accelerator focused on DMV founders with disabilities of early-stage startups in Washington, DC, Maryland, and Northern Virginia (DMV). This accelerator will support ~25 disabled founders (virtually) to learn about key areas of business including product-market fit, management, sales, marketing, financial projections, and negotiations. Throughout this program, founders will engage with world-class speakers and be supported by accredited leadership coaches to further develop their startups.

The Clean Energy Innovator Fellowship program funds recent graduates and energy professionals to work with critical energy organizations to advance clean energy solutions. The program recruits talent from diverse backgrounds to spend up to two years supporting the work of eligible host organizations, which include electric public utility commissions, municipal and cooperative utilities, and grid operators, such as regional transmission organizations or independent system operators.

Innovator Fellows receive a stipend and an educational allowance to support host institution projects that will help decarbonize the power system, electrify transportation and industry, and make the U.S. power system more equitable and inclusive.

Enduring Planet offers rapid financing without dilution, personal guarantees, or collateral. Specifically, this organization backs impactful teams working across mitigation, removal, adaptation and resilience.

Enduring Planet prioritizes investing in underrepresented founders, diverse teams, and companies serving marginalized communities.

Small grants and pro-bono professional support for smaller nonprofits is available from the ERM Foundation. This foundation invests in organizations and programs that focus on:

• Protecting and restoring biodiversity (including environmental education)
• Improving access to low carbon products and services
• Investing in women’s livelihoods in the ‘green’ economy
• Improving access to clean water and sanitation

Applications are accepted on a rolling basis to this grant program for grassroots projects. Grants do not exceed $5,000, and the organization aims to award $100,000 in funding throughout 2022.

Story of Stuff gives grants to BIPOC led and serving groups with a budget of $50,000 or less that focus on water privatization, plastic pollution, and other environmental justice focus areas.

The Cornell Douglas foundation is seeking applications from non-profits working on environmental health and justice, land conservation, mountaintop removal mining, sustainability of resources, watershed protection, and financial literacy for elementary and high school students. Their grant size average is $15,000 – $50,000.

The Justice40 Accelerator’s vision is to “to leverage this moment to radically reimagine the existing government resource delivery system as a restorative and reparative framework that better supports Black and historically disinvested communities of color.”

They share information and resources with frontline community organizations. Specifically, their website lists funding opportunities from government agencies as well as private industry.

The Shine On Awards will recognize communications campaigns that are successful in increasing solar energy adoption and/or solar workforce recruitment and retention among a diverse target audience and that cross a variety of mediums, including digital, print, event, video, mobile, podcast, marketing, social media, audio, and more. Excellent campaigns will be able to show evidence that their campaign has had a positive, meaningful impact on their target audience. Examples of targeted, effective, and inclusive campaign goals could include but are not limited to:

• Increased solar adoption rates among the target audience,
• Savings on electrical bills among the target audience,
• Decreased energy burden among the target audience,
• Reduction in pollution or other environmental harm due to solar adoption in target communities or areas,
• Increased knowledge and positive sentiment among the target audience about the benefits of solar energy,
• Increased opportunities for the target audience to join, stay in, or advance in the solar workforce, or
• Increased solar jobs in the target communities or areas.

Winners will be publicly announced by the Department of Energy (DOE) and invited to participate in a DOE-hosted webinar on communications and outreach best practices. Winners’ best practices will also be used to develop a guide to encourage greater adoption of these practices. No cash prizes will be awarded.