Atlantic Coast Grantmaking

Georgia

Georgia is home to the most carbon-polluting power plant in the nation, and the state’s electric utilities and other polluting industries have a stronghold on its political processes. Black people, people of color, and immigrants in Georgia are leading a visionary effort to defend and expand democracy so they can hold policymakers and the polluters they defend accountable. Supporting groups working to counter voter suppression and protect and extend democracy will help Georgia move forward on climate and other critical justice issues.

9to5’s mission is to build a movement to achieve economic justice by engaging directly affected women to improve working conditions. They believe that as the climate crisis takes hold, we must engage the most marginalized - women, people of color, people who are struggling to make ends meet - in finding equitable solutions.

Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Atlanta is dedicated to protecting the rights of Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders in Georgia and the Southeast. The organization combats the long-standing harms of rampant voter suppression, racist state policies that have built a robust detention-to-deportation pipeline, and environmental racism through our comprehensive program.

The Black Male Voter Project Education Fund is the first and only national organization with a singular focus on increasing Black men’s participation in civic life. Their BMEP Additory Approach ©️ is a culturally competent approach to engaging Black men that have been made invisible by America’s political system.

Black Sustainability, Inc. connects and facilitates knowledge transfer and skill building for a network of over 2,000 sustainability practitioners of African descent. They focus on developing and stewarding an ecosystem of Black and Green entities, experts, and enthusiasts committed to self-sufficiency and sustainability, which contributes toward Black liberation.

Black Too Earth connects Black people with Black environmental organizations through site visits and volunteer opportunities, inspiring and celebrating its community while investing in underrepresented organizations.

Black Voters Matter Capacity Building Institute builds power in marginalized, predominantly Black communities. They believe that the key to effective civic engagement and community power is understanding, respecting and supporting local infrastructure.

B.O.S.S. - Black Owners of Solar Services, a community of African American entrepreneurs, financiers, veterans, attorneys, engineers, contractors, developers and other peer partners working in the solar photovoltaic (PV) space, is helping build capacity for equitable implementation of the Inflation Reduction Act and other clean energy programs.

Community Movement Builders (CMB) is a member-based community organizing collective that promotes community sustainability through cooperative economics. CMB utilizes direct action, liberatory mutual aid programs, sustainable alternative economic development models, and organizing as a means of enacting change.

Concerned Citizens of Cook County is a social and environmental justice organization in Adel that organizes communities to address the health and environmental impacts of industrial biofuels and other polluting facilities and is working to help set broader precedents on cumulative impacts.

Dialogue Collaborative, a project of Georgia Alliance Education Fund, is working to foster collaborative conversation to empower and inform Georgians and increase voter participation. It aims to create spaces that empower and inform and to bridge the participation gap in civic engagement through fact-based education and research with strategic, creative, and integrative communications strategies.

Equity for All, Inc. is an organization led by young people for young people that seeks to mobilize the unorganized organizer and those who feel they have no voice in the political process. It is committed to creating an active ecosystem of young people passionate about justice-centered policies that are empowered to exercise their political agency.

Freedmen Green Bank and Trust is a nascent green bank that is providing financing for greenhouse gas reducing technologies and projects within low-income and disadvantaged communities.

The mission of the Georgia Coalition for the People’s Agenda is to improve the quality of democratic governance in the state of Georgia, and other parts of the South, through a more informed and actively engaged electorate that seeks to hold elected officials accountable.

The Georgia Conservation Voters Education Fund’s mission is to mobilize Georgians to advance climate and environmental justice through voting, advocacy, and other forms of civic engagement.

Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights (GLAHR) is a statewide organization that organizes intergenerational Latinx-Immigrants. Its work centers on increasing grassroots communities’ participation for social justice through coalition building, intersectional work, grassroots community organizing campaigns and leadership trainings.

Georgia STAND-UP emphasizes base building to achieve power for Black working families, youth, and women, and is creating grassroots networks and infrastructure to support long-term structural change focused on reducing inequality, improving wages, and securing benefits for working families.

Georgia WAND Education Fund Inc. is an independent, grassroots, women-led organization that organizes frontline communities, especially people of color, women, and youth, to establish long-term solutions for social and environmental justice. It is currently organizing around the Plant Vogtle nuclear plant, the largest nuclear facility built from scratch in decades, whose astronomical costs are being transferred to ratepayers.

Girl Plus Environment is a national community dedicated to sharing educational resources, tools, and information that ignite enthusiasm and active participation among Black and Brown girls, women, and non-binary individuals in the realm of climate and environmental justice.

Green The Church taps into the power and purpose of the Black Church and expands the role of frontline faith communities as catalysts for environmental and economic resilience. Its programs address issues specific to populations historically disengaged from conversations around pollution and health, climate change, and sustainability and energy efficiency.

Grist is a nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future. In its reporting on energy issues in Georgia, it will deploy new forms of community-centered journalism, conduct trainings for local journalists and residents, and create partnerships that deepen trust and accountability of the news media.

Harambee House works with communities/neighborhoods throughout the southeast and coastal areas that suffer with environmental injustice and issues related to climate change, goods movement, youth leadership development, traffic related air pollution, energy burdens, food apartheid, and under-representation in local public policy.

HBCU Green Fund advances sustainability at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and in the communities they serve. It aims to empower HBCUs to become resiliency hubs and sustainable development anchors, working towards justice and equity for people of African descent.

Klean Energy Kulture is a nonprofit music and entertainment company that produces clean energy lifestyle campaigns, using Black pop culture to activate demand for clean energy. Its Electrify the Club campaign engages high profile music artists at Atlanta’s most popular clubs to generate buzz around electric vehicles and renewable energy.

The New Georgia Project is a non-profit organization focused on voter registration, integrated civic engagement and advocacy in Georgia's communities of color.

The Partnership for Southern Equity advances policies and institutional actions that promote racial equity and shared prosperity for all in the growth of metropolitan Atlanta and the American South, with a focus on four key areas: energy, growth, health, and opportunity.

Peach Concerned Citizens, Inc. unites activists, community organizers, faith leaders, citizens, social justice leaders, and legislators to improve overall civic engagement and quality of life of all citizens Crawford, Macon, Peach, and Taylor counties.

As Georgia's non-profit civic engagement table, ProGeorgia brings together the power of existing non-profit groups to work in a more strategic way, with new tools and technology, to change the policies of the state.

Remix: The Soul of Innovation is a social innovation firm that works alongside community members to develop infrastructure for inclusive economic development and public participation in the design and implementation of policies and projects within their community, including a tool to help organizations to apply for, win, and report on federal grants and a mobile microgrid system.

SOWEGA Rising Coalition is an Albany based non-profit comprised of member citizens and grassroots organizations that fights against high utility rates by advocating for alternative energy, climate justice and environmental justice and mobilizing people and resources to improve the well-being, quality of life, and political power of marginalized Southwest Georgians.

Sustainable Georgia Futures is a nonpartisan grassroots organization dedicated to creating green economy pathways for Black people and other people of color. It is a Black-woman-led collective of expert organizers and community leaders working to build power in Georgia’s marginalized communities to advance an inclusive economy and promote environmental justice.

West Atlanta Watershed Alliance serves low-wealth communities and communities of color that are overburdened with environmental stressors but often least represented at environmental decision-making tables. It sits on the Justice40 commission of the Atlanta City Council, and its Renewable Energy Equity Fund supports affordable energy upgrades alongside local economic development.

Women Engaged supports the power-building of Black women and young adults creating a world where compassionate, fact-based, equity-centered approaches are used to develop and implement public policy and actualize social transformation.

North Carolina

North Carolina’s is heralded as the birthplace of the environmental justice movement, and its frontline communities have a successful track record of standing up against monopoly utilities and other polluting industries that have a long legacy of burdening low-income, Black, and Indigenous communities with environmental harms. The Hive Fund is supporting groups working in coalition to fight industry overreach, protect democratic processes, build people power, and put forward a different vision for North Carolina.

7 Directions of Service is an environmental justice and community organizing collective based on Occaneechi-Saponi lands in rural North Carolina. Guided by the 7 Directions Teachings, the organization effects change by building power and solidarity across Indigenous and marginalized communities through education programs, community projects and campaigns.

A Better Chance A Better Community is a nonprofit and community organization that provides unique cultural opportunities to equip young people with the necessary life skills to be game-changers in their communities. The program promotes positive values, healthy habits, and education through community development, culture, and awareness.

Blueprint North Carolina is a statewide partnership of 53 nonprofit organizations and countless network allies working together to ensure that all North Carolinians have a voice in our democracy and a full share of its benefits. The network is building the governing power of historically disenfranchised people through collective impact and racial equity that will be essential to achieving climate justice.

The Center for Energy Education is a nonprofit and a center for renewable energy research, education, and workforce development for the eastern United States. The center works closely with schools, public officials, and work-readiness organizations to engage residents with opportunities that solar development brings into their communities.

Common Cause North Carolina connects people across NC to “hold power accountable” to the issues that matter most to everyday citizens. The organization is collaborating with dozens of coalition partners to bring a #UniteNC Townhall series to rural communities to amplify and develop solutions to issues such as environmental justice, democracy, and healthcare.

Democracy Green has led numerous successful campaigns and environmental justice movements that have produced real change in North Carolina and nationwide. Through community education workshops, enviro-democracy tours, legal petitions against dirty polluters, and online petitions the organization works to hold leaders and decision-makers accountable for their actions, moving them to rethink what is possible.

Down East Coal Ash Environmental and Social Justice Coalition has successfully held Duke Energy and the NC Department of Environmental Quality accountable for the largest coal ash clean-up in the US, and held key roles in transformative campaigns to reduce fossil fuels and aim for 100% renewable energy in the state.

Environmental Justice Community Action Network (EJCAN) focuses on educating its local community about the health impacts of concentrated animal feeding operations and other industrial operations in the county, working to address the extractive energy industry that continues to create adverse health impacts on the communities, predominantly Black, Latino, and Indigenous people, living near these operations.

Franklinton Center at Bricks, Inc. (FCAB) provides a nurturing home to local, national, and global programs and organizations seeking liberation. FCAB is transforming the world through nature, history, food, hospitality and education.

Grounded Possibilities exists to connect Black artists in North Carolina with the knowledge and resources necessary to do impactful and cultural-focused environmental justice work. The funding and support creates opportunities for Black artists to create work that shifts culture and engagement with environmental justice concerns and ideas.

Kinston Teens is a youth-led nonprofit in Kinston that has been an integral part of voter engagement efforts in Lenoir County through youth civic engagement and leadership development programming, and is leading critical community resilience work, including the development of a neighborhood hub with community solar capacity.

The New North Carolina Project Foundation was established in 2021 to make politics represent the needs of North Carolinians by investing in communities of color, expanding the engaged electorate, and creating lifelong voters. The organization serves as the coordinating hub for a broad and extensive field operation that is strategically focused on counties and rural communities with the greatest need for resources.

North Carolina Asian Americans Together is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization focused on bringing together the Asian American community in North Carolina through civic engagement and political participation. Asian Americans are the fastest-growing racial group in the country and in this state.

The North Carolina Black Alliance is working toward state-level systemic change by strengthening the network of elected officials representing communities of color throughout the state and collaborating with a progressive, grassroots networks on intersecting issues.

The North Carolina Clean Energy Fund catalyzes investments in clean energy, energy efficiency, and green projects in the state, operating on the Green Bank model. The fund’s mission is to accelerate investment in clean and efficient energy solutions and increase climate resilience in North Carolina, particularly to the benefit of underserved populations.

The North Carolina Climate Justice Collective (NCCJC) works to galvanize a just transition to a regenerative economy that ensures all people and our planet thrive. NCCJC engages with impacted communities to build grassroots power, develop movement infrastructure, and align frontline struggles.

The North Carolina Environmental Justice Network is a coalition of community organizations, individuals and supporters and staff who work with historically marginalized communities in the pursuit of environmental justice. The coalition supports communities impacted by environmental injustice in building and exercising power to determine the direction of their communities towards justice, equity and sustainability.

REACH (Rural Empowerment Association for Community Help) addresses health impacts faced by communities living close to industrial agricultural facilities using leadership development, environmental justice community organizing, and coalition building. Building on decades of work on cumulative impacts and concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), REACH is now growing its capacity to collect and synthesize research on pollution that will support policy advocacy at the state level.

The RedTailed Hawk Collective is a group of indigenous leaders who gained momentum fighting against the Atlantic Coast Pipeline and are fighting for land sovereignty while working to push back against local, state and federal policies that disproportionately harm Indigenous communities.

The Roanoke Center catalyzes, nurtures and supports sustainable economic and community development in Roanoke Cooperative’s membership region across Northeastern North Carolina. The Roanoke Center created a model for the rural electric cooperative to deliver system benefits, member savings, resilience, and community development benefits for its members living in persistently poor counties.

Robeson County Cooperative for Sustainable Development works to protect the quality of rural life in Robeson County and Southeastern NC and promote responsible and creative solutions that improve the lives of people and the places they live.

Siembra NC is a grassroots organization focused on defending their communities from ICE, abusive employers and landlords, and bad políticos. As a hub affiliate of Mijente, they are pro-Black, pro-indigena, pro-worker, pro-mujer, pro-lesbian gay, bi, trans and queer, pro-climate and pro-migrant because they hold all of those identities, and because unity against shared oppressions is central to their vision for change.

Sol Nation is a climate justice, solutions-based organization led by Black thought leaders who are focused on closing the Green Gap. They do this by helping people see the connections between environmental and social justice issues that place PEOPLE at the core of Sol Nation’s Environmental Justice work.

We Are Down Home is a grassroots, community-based organization that is committed to building power for working communities in North Carolina’s rural counties and small towns. We Are Down Home grows power by investing in leadership development, strategic campaigns, civic engagement and multiracial movement building across rural and urban areas.

Additional Atlantic Coast Grantee Partners

EnerWealth Solutions develops projects that celebrate and elevate the inner wealth of rural communities in the region by reinvesting in those communities.

The Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor is a National Heritage Area designated to preserve, share and interpret the history, traditional cultural practices, heritage sites, and natural resources associated with Gullah Geechee people of coastal North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida. The Corridor mounts climate change programs to educate about threats to the survival of Indigenous Gullah Geechee people, communities, cultures, and land.

The New Alpha Community Development Corporation and the Whitney M. Slater Foundation empower low- and middle-income communities with environmental health and community economic development issues in South Carolina and beyond. The organizations work to break socioeconomic barriers, and to address water, air, land, and healthcare issues that affect vulnerable communities today.

Organized Uplifting Resources & Strategies empowers Black and Brown people and increases the resources going to rural communities for environmental justice. The organization has a track record of educating people about sustainable agriculture and climate adaptation, and is growing its ability to empower rural, low-income women of color to become leaders in the transition from extractive, polluting industry to a green economy.