Making the Most of Historic Federal Infrastructure Spending: Seven Funder Efforts to Note

Nearly two years have passed since President Joe Biden signed into law the Inflation Reduction Act, which you may have heard was the largest climate investment in the history of the United States, and there’s still a mind-boggling amount of money to be spent.

The federal government, by one measure, had committed just 14% of the financing that will be disbursed by 2031 through the legislative package. That estimate, from BBVA Research, was based on mid-January data, well before $27 billion in Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund awards were announced last month. Yet it signals just how much still lies ahead — and the IRA is not the only source of massive federal funding on tap right now.

With as much as $4 trillion on the line through various infrastructure laws, philanthropic funders face one of their highest-leverage moments in decades. There are ample grantmaking options to help all this federal spending flow in an effective and equitable way, not only for foundations focused on climate action, but also on economic opportunity, racial equity, transportation, water quality, housing and other issues. Working both independently of each other and in collaboration, many funders have stepped up, launching a bevy of efforts to make the most of this opportunity by providing technical assistance, policy guidance, financial and networking infrastructure, and more.

Below, I’ve summarized seven notable funds and funder collaboratives that have mobilized philanthropic dollars in response to this geyser of federal spending over the past two years — around climate as well as other areas.

While dozens of new foundation-backed implementation efforts have surfaced to provide resources and guidance for federal funding applicants, the efforts listed here are focused on actual philanthropic grantmaking, or at least count philanthropic funders as their target audience, and are primarily launched and backed by foundations. Funding intermediaries and other nonprofits have also launched similar initiatives, some of which I will cover in a future list.

Invest in Our Future

The largest of the pooled funds that philanthropic funders have created to respond to a once-in-a-generation flood of federal dollars, this $240 million initiative aims to help the flow reach underserved communities across the country. It issued $60 million in grants in 2023 and, as of early May, had sent out $25.5 million this year, to regrantors, technical assistance providers, financial institutions and policy groups.

The fund is led by a group of five funders – the Hewlett, MacArthur, Packard and Rockefeller foundations — as well as Bill Gates’ investment and philanthropic platform Breakthrough Energy. Other partners include the Ballmer Group, High Tide Foundation, Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies, and Zegar Family Foundation.

Related:

BuildUS

This infrastructure investment and clean energy fund is notable for the number of grantmakers behind it who are not typically considered climate funders. Granted, that’s not true of every one of the members of this operation, which plans to spend $50 million over three years, but the bulk of its donors are known for other areas of work.

That list includes a mix of hallowed legacy funders and newer billionaire-backed operations, including the Carnegie Corporation of New York, Marguerite Casey Foundation, Omidyar Network, Open Society Foundations, Skoll Foundation, Wellspring Philanthropic Fund, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and W.K. Kellogg Foundation.

What Works+ Collaborative

Launched in 2022, this funder collaborative is focused on connecting philanthropy, government and nonprofits. Known as WW+, its support focuses on four key areas: government capacity, diverse job pipelines, community engagement and equitable economic procurement. Its work ranges from sharing proposals for projects and making connections between sectors to co-designing proposals and promoting success stories and peer learning.

Hosted by Freedman Consulting, WW+ lists seven staff members on its website. Funders include the James Irvine, Hewlett, Kresge, Lumina, Surdna, Packard and MacArthur foundations, as well as the Families and Workers Fund.

WW+, along with the Families and Workers Fund and America Achieves, announced $70 million in aligned philanthropic commitments to President Biden’s Infrastructure Talent Pipeline Challenge in late 2022, $50 million of which represented new funding. More recently, WW+ has partnered with Invest in Our Future to move forward an effort called Philanthropy’s 500/1500 Challenge, which aims to track and encourage foundation support for local initiatives seeking funding.

Water Solutions Fund

Hosted by the Water Foundation, this fund frames its work with three words: policy, projects and power. That is, changing federal and state rules, building water infrastructure across the country, and supporting local and regional decision-making.

Unlike most of the operations mentioned here, the Water Solutions Fund offers a public accounting of the money flowing through it. Since 2022, the fund has helped move $65 million to 128 organizations. The greater part of that total was aligned funding, most of which landed in the policy ($20 million) and projects ($23 million) buckets, with the largest shares of funding going to the South ($21 million) and national work ($12 million).

Last year, the fund became one of the new backers of Mosaic, a participatory fund that backs grassroots environmental movement infrastructure, although many of its funders were already supporters through other avenues.

Digital Equity and Opportunity Initiative

This collaborative wants to close the digital divide. You might call it bringing broadband to underserved communities across the country, or, as the collaborative puts it, building a “civic infrastructure.” It provides pooled funding and technical assistance, and hosts funder convenings and state strategy sessions on broadband deployment.

The initiative, whose website names two staff members, is made up of the Media Democracy Fund, Ford Foundation, Democracy Fund and W.K. Kellogg Foundation. There are also a handful of nonprofit partners, including Census Equity Initiative, CIRCLE and Civic Nation, as well as another funder collaborative, WW+ (listed above).

Powering Climate and Infrastructure Careers for All

Launched late last year by the Families and Workers Fund, this $50 million initiative is focused on training and preparing the workforce that will be required for the United States’ clean energy transition. It was designed to complement the trillions of dollars expected from federal legislation, as well as private sector investment.

Major supporters of this initiative’s parent fund include legacy grantmakers like the Annie E. Casey, Conrad N. Hilton, Ford, James Irvine, Joyce and Rockefeller foundations; corporate funders such as the Autodesk Foundation, JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Truist Foundation; and big-donor-backed operations including the JPB Foundation. It also has received support from another group on this list, Invest in Our Future.

Bloomberg American Sustainable Cities

Like peers such as Arnold Ventures, the philanthropy of the former New York City mayor and media billionaire has launched an in-house campaign to respond to the federal infrastructure spending bonanza. Yet thanks to its deep-pocketed founder, Bloomberg’s budget exceeds that of nearly every other implementation effort. Launched in March, this initiative plans to spend $200 million over the next three years.

Its work fits the Bloomberg mold well. The aim is to boost the efforts by 25 cities — city-based work always being a focus area for Bloomberg — to pull in federal funding. To help it along, it has partnered with PolicyLink, the Bloomberg Center for Public Innovation at Johns Hopkins University and Natural Resources Defense Council.

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