Funding Opportunities

• The community-based organization can be any non-governmental, community serving organization, including nonprofit organizations, local universities, or other community groups or alliances.
• The community-based organization role is envisioned, in part, to ensure the perspectives and priorities of the broader community are well-represented throughout the process, especially historically disinvested populations.

• The government partner must be a town, city, county, district, regional or Tribal government, or a special planning commission.
• The government partner must have the ability to authorize the implementation of projects aimed at advancing the climate resilience of the community.
• The government partner’s participation ensures that there is official commitment to efforts undertaken or planned during the grant period to support continuity and sustainability beyond the grant period.

• The adaptation practitioner provides technical expertise to help actualize a community’s climate resilience vision or goals and can align a community’s project with the Steps to Resilience or other best practices and standards in the field.
• The adaptation practitioner must be from an organization (or a sole practitioner) that has applied to join the Registry of Adaptation Practitioners.

Adaptation practitioners who are not already accepted in the Registry must apply to join the Registry by November 20, 2026. Acceptance is not required to submit an LOI, but funding is conditional on acceptance into the Registry.

Community-based organizations and local/regional governments should search the Registry as soon as possible to identify an adaptation practitioner with whom to partner. If you are already partnered with an adaptation practitioner, please ensure that they have applied to join the Registry by November 20, 2026.

Explore the Registry Tutorial for step-by-step instructions.

The LOI is significantly shorter and simpler than the full application. To submit an LOI, please follow these steps:

1. Assemble your partners: A full project team must consist of a U.S. community-based organization, a U.S. local or regional government partner, and an adaptation practitioner who has applied to join the Registry by the LOI deadline. Review the partnership and Registry requirement.

2. Submit an LOI: The adaptation practitioner should lead the LOI submission in collaboration with community partners. The adaptation practitioner’s expertise will be especially valuable when providing answers about the community’s vulnerability to climate change.

Preview the LOI application.

A panel of expert reviewers from a set of diverse organizations, sectors, and geographies will review LOIs based on the following criteria:

1. CSCI eligibility requirements and funding restrictions
2. Practitioner has applied to the Registry of Adaptation Practitioners
3. Community vulnerability to climate-related hazards
4. Community readiness to make measurable progress on climate resilience
5. CSCI portfolio diversity in order for CSCI to allocate funding evenly and equitably across geographies, climate-related hazards, and the Steps to Resilience:
   • States: We encourage communities in the following states and U.S. Territories that are not well represented in our portfolio to apply: Alabama, American Samoa, Colorado, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Delaware, Georgia, Guam, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, North Dakota, Northern Mariana Islands, New Hampshire, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming, and U.S. Virgin Islands to apply.
   • Climate-related Hazards: We encourage communities planning to focus on the following climate-related hazards that are not well represented in our portfolio to apply: vector-borne diseases, severe winter weather, changing seasons, wildfire, hurricanes and other storms, sea level rise and coastal erosion.
   • Steps to Resilience: We encourage communities that are at the beginning of their climate resilience process, especially in the Get Started, Understand Exposure, and Assess Vulnerability phase of the Steps to Resilience.

After a project team has submitted an LOI and been reviewed by the panel, a subset of applicants will be invited to submit a full application. Invitations will be sent by the end of December 2026. Access to the full application form and instructions will be provided at that time.

Overview of the application process:

1. Invited applicants submit a full application:

• The project partners, location, prior work completed, and climate hazards of concern included in the LOI must remain the same in the full application.
• The adaptation practitioner should lead the application submission in collaboration with community partners. This is to support the provision of detailed answers about the community’s vulnerability to climate change, the evidence cited, or the plan to consult evidence of current and/or projected impacts.
• A clear description of any prior climate resilience work undertaken will help reviewers more accurately assess fit of the proposed project’s goals and activities for CSCI.

2. Application status will be communicated in May 2027: If awarded, the adaptation practitioner will be the recipient of the awarded funds and responsible for grant administration and reporting responsibilities throughout the grant period. Funds are passed through to the local government and/or community-based organizations based on a project budget prepared and approved by all project partners.

CSCI will evaluate complete applications and make awards on a competitive basis. A panel of expert reviewers from a set of diverse organizations, sectors, and geographies will evaluate applications using a scoring rubric based on the following criteria:

1. Community vulnerability to climate-related hazards
2. Presence of and focus on historically disinvested populations 
3. Incorporation of diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice principles and practices
4. Consideration of nature-based solutions
5. Community readiness to make measurable progress on climate resilience
6. Capacity-building potential
7. Potential impact of the work and opportunity for learning

Projects and partners must be in the U.S. and focused on climate resilience and adaptation, not greenhouse gas emissions reduction, carbon sequestration, or related work. See funding restrictions below and applicant FAQs for more details.

• Location: Projects and partners must be based in the United States, inclusive of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa, as well as the Tribal nations that share these geographies. 
• Climate impacts: Applicant communities must be facing significant impacts from climate-related hazards based on environmental and socioeconomic considerations.
• Climate resilience: Activities and work proposed must be strictly focussed on climate adaptation and resilience. Applications with a primary focus on, greenhouse gas emissions reduction, carbon sequestration, or related work will not be considered.
• Community size: The population of the community (number of people within the geographic area that is the focus of the proposed climate resilience project) must be less than 300,000 residents. Populations up to 500,000 residents will be considered for projects that are regional in scope. The community must be a cohesive community and not an isolated or specific segment such as houseless people, children, students, or a single apartment complex.
• Partners: Three types of partners are required to apply: 1) Adaptation practitioner, 2) Community-based organization, 3) U.S. local or regional government.
• Grant Agreement execution: If awarded, grant agreements must be signed within 3 weeks of receipt. Awardees must be able to accept the terms of CSCI’s contract template for private/for-profit adaptation practitioner organizations or grant agreement template for nonprofit adaptation practitioner organizations.

• Funds must be spent by the end of the 12-month grant period. Therefore, applicants must propose work that can be completed within one year (CSCI is unable to approve no-cost extensions absent extreme circumstances).
• Eligibility is limited to communities and regions within the 50 United States, U.S. territories, and Tribal nations in the U.S., including the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa.
• CSCI is unable to make grants directly to government agencies. 
• Overhead rates for CSCI awards are capped at 10% of the total direct expenses. 
• Grant recipients must review and sign a grant agreement or contract within 3 weeks of receipt. An award offer may be rescinded after that time. 
• CSCI will only consider applications that propose the creation of a new position if there are clear plans to finance the position after the grant period.
• CSCI will only consider applications that propose relocation of community members, assets, or infrastructure if there is relevant information provided about the climate resilience of the proposed relocation site.
• CSCI awards cannot be used to make competitive subgrants.
• CSCI awards cannot be used to support public policy lobbying activities.
• CSCI awards cannot be made to projects proposing work on greenhouse gas emissions reduction, carbon sequestration, renewable energy, energy efficiency, electrification, HVAC upgrades and other related activities.
• Disaster preparedness will be considered only as a component of a project that is largely focussed on climate resilience but not as the standalone focus of a proposed project. Disaster preparedness efforts must also target vulnerabilities to future climate impacts, and not be determined solely by past or current events or circumstances.

• Climate change vulnerability: CSCI funds projects designed to help communities that are vulnerable to climate change-related hazards to build their capacity to plan for climate impacts and to increase their resilience to those hazards.
• Equity: Equity is a core value of the program and an important component in any effort aimed at increasing the effectiveness and sustainability of a climate resilience plan or project.
• Nature: Consideration of climate impacts on nature and nature-based solutions (NbS) in climate resilience plans and projects is a priority for CSCI.
• Readiness to increase climate resilience: The goal of the proposed work must be clearly linked to increasing the community’s resilience to the cited climate-related hazards and the proposed activities must directly support that goal. The proposed activities must be informed by or build on prior work that broadly aligns with the sequence of the Steps to Resilience (StR) Framework (see graphic).
• Capacity building: To extend the impact of the technical and financial support provided, the initiative will prioritize investment opportunities that are likely to increase capacity of the applicant community to pursue their climate resilience goals beyond the grant period.

If awarded, Community-based Organizations and Local/Regional Government Partners commit to:

• Co-create a detailed budget with project partners.
• Attend a 1.5-hour CSCI orientation and a 1.5 Steps to Resilience (StR) orientation at the start of the grant period (one community or government representative required at each, but others are welcome).
• Be available to work directly with an adaptation professional to develop or advance the climate resilience plan or project over the 12-month grant period.
• Complete a survey one year after the close of the 12-month grant period.

If awarded, Adaptation Practitioners commit to:

• Co-create a detailed budget with project partners.
• Manage the grant budget and grant administration responsibilities.
• Attend a 1.5-hour CSCI orientation and a 1.5 StR orientation at the start of the grant period (the adaptation practitioner is required to attend both, but other colleagues are welcome).
• Complete a grant baseline survey (1-2 hours) by the end of the first month of the project.
• Join a 30-minute progress check-in call by the end of the 6th month of the grant period.
• Complete an end-of-grant survey (1-2 hours) by the end of the 12-month grant period.
• Review descriptions of your project for accuracy as needed.

• Funding can be used to cover a range of expenses and resources depending on the needs of the community including:
  • Complete a climate vulnerability and sensitivity analysis, 
  • Facilitation of planning processes
  • Community engagement
  • Resilience and adaptation project prioritization
  • Implementation of resilience and adaptation projects that have been identified in a plan as priorities
  • Obtaining financing to implement climate resilience efforts that are planned and prioritized
• One grant agreement or contract will be generated for each project with the adaptation practitioner, as the grant recipient.
• Funds may be passed-through to local governments partners, community-based organizations, and other project participants based on the full budget created and approved by project partners.
• CSCI does not have requirements for how subcontractors, subgrants, or stipends are paid from the CSCI award are managed. However, the application does ask how the applicant team intends to allocate project funding across partners. Project partners should decide on the distribution of awarded funds that is appropriate to their project goals and objectives. (This allocation can be changed in the post-award budgeting phase.)