What type of work does the Equitable Building Electrification Fund support? 

 

The Fund provides dedicated resources to grassroots, frontline, and base-building organizations and leaders in communities of color and low-income communities who are engaging on building electrification as an emerging issue are or are in need of support for their existing building electrification efforts. 

 

For organizations where electrification is an emerging issue area, applicants are not required to have an existing body of work on building electrification, but must have existing engagement on environmental justice, energy efficiency, indoor air quality, public health, home repair or related work* and be interested in identifying how they can engage on building electrification and connect with other organizations on the topic.

 

For organizations where electrification is a primary issue area, applicants must have existing work on building electrification or related work* that centers health and people in building-related policy development and in community-led solutions. 

 

*Related work includes any work that involves environmental justice, greenhouse gas reductions, clean energy, home repair, weatherization, energy efficiency, indoor air quality, healthy homes, narrative and culture shift, centering health and people in policy solutions, or community-led solutions.

 

The Fund also supports individual community leaders who are currently exploring or working on building electrification.

 

The Fund is designed to avoid imposing an agenda on community priorities, and to instead respond to the self-determined priorities elevated by frontline community practitioners and justice leaders.

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Where does your funding come from? 

 

The Heising-Simons, Kresge, and Summit foundations provided the first round of funding, and individuals representing each foundation have committed thought partnership and resources on the collaborative development of this effort. The Builders Initiative joined as a core partner in the Fund and Governance Assembly in May, 2022. As a community, the Fund Governance Assembly is actively building on their existing relationships in both the philanthropic and justice community to expand the aligned funders and partners involved in this community. 

 

The Windward Fund is the fiscal sponsor of the Equitable Building Electrification Fund.

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What is your funding timeline? 

 

The first round of funding was awarded in March 2022. The Fund partners seek to grow the Fund significantly and award new rounds of funding at least twice per year.

 

The second round of funding is opened in Summer 2022 and second round partners will be announced before the end of the year.