1.5°Climate Strategies Group Projects - Member View

Clean and Prosperous Washington

$100,000 Raised | Fundraising Goal Achieved!

Clean & Prosperous Washington brings a perspective grounded in business to driving down greenhouse gas emissions while working to improve health and job outcomes to propel a stronger, more globally competitive economy. The Clean & Prosperous coalition has proven effective in winning passage of the cap-and-invest Climate Commitment Act (CCA) in Olympia, successfully defending the law from a ballot initiative challenge, and guiding the implementation of the CCA as the cornerstone of an entire suite of environmental laws, including the Clean Fuel Standard and the HEAL Act—Healthy Environment for All. Clean & Prosperous is now building momentum in other states to pursue cap-and-invest programs of their own.

Geography: Washington

Funding Type: c4c3

Contact: Isaac Kastama, Lobbying and Advocacy

Presentation Date: 11/19/2024

Climate Cabinet

$100,000 Raised | Fundraising Goal Achieved!

Climate Cabinet helps state and local candidates run, win, and legislate on climate. In 2024, they supported over 170 top priority climate champions running with the highest "ROI" on climate. So far, 52% of those candidates have been victorious in their tough election battles this year. Now, Climate Cabinet will connect winning candidates with experts across the field to advance a range of climate policies in states across the country. This project is focused on raising funds to hire lobbyists to strategically support Climate Policy action efforts in key States.

Geography: National

Funding Type: c4c3

Contact: Caroline Spears, Executive Director

Presentation Date: 11/12/2024

The States Project

$50,000 Raised | Fundraising Goal Achieved!

The States Project (TSP) wins and defends governing majorities in states across the country and provides state lawmakers with tools, resources, and training to advance policies that improve their constituents' lives. To prepare for the Trump Administration's radical Project 2025 undoing of government protections, including climate and environmental, TSP is looking to rapidly scale up their lawmaker engagement and policy programs to prepare more states to protect their communities. They will bring their wealth of experience in helping lawmakers coalesce around shared policy values while simultaneously providing policy ideas, research, and messaging guidance to ensure that lawmakers are prepared to make good clean air, water, and energy policies into winning issues that they can successfully deliver to constituents across the country.

Geography: National

Funding Type: c4c3

Contact: Daniel Squadron, Executive Director

Presentation Date: 11/12/2024

Texas Grassroots Powerbuilding

$1,210,500 Raised | Fundraising Goal Achieved!

Texas’s rapidly changing demographics warrant significant long-term power-building investments, while the positive polling trends for 2024 indicate a promising path to a potential Allred victory in Texas that could deliver Senate and trifecta control. In response, 1.5°CSG, in collaboration with Way to Win, is excited to announce our largest-ever $500,000 matching funds challenge. Contributions to any of the three featured organizations will be matched dollar-for-dollar, doubling the impact of your support.

Communications Workers of America (CWA) which leads the “Fight for Democracy” program, focused on mobilizing Black and Latino voters in Texas' five largest counties through canvassing, calling, texting, and paid media. Contact: Derrick Osobase
Texas Organizing Project’s (TOP) voter contact program engages voters with canvassing, calls, texts, relational outreach, mail, and digital. They focus on empowering Black voters through organizing in key Texas counties. Contact: Brianna Brown
Texas Freedom Network (TFN) is a leading voter engagement model, targeting young Texans through comprehensive GOTV efforts including canvassing, digital ads, and campus outreach events across the state. Contact: Val Benavidez

Geography: Texas

Funding Type: c4c3

Presentation Date: 09/17/2024

| Senate Races

| Red States Investments

NAYA Action Fund

$25,200 Raised

The NAYA Action Fund is raising funds to defeat Initiative 2117 in Washington State and protect the progress made under the Climate Commitment Act of 2021. They are mobilizing a paid field team for door-to-door canvassing and phone banking, while also launching a robust social media campaign and targeted mailers. Financial support will help inform voters, amplify their message, and ensure the community's voice is heard. Together, they aim to safeguard the environment and build a sustainable future for all.

Geography: Washington, Oregon

Funding Type: c4

Contact: William Miller, Executive Director

Presentation Date: 09/12/2024

| Down Ballot Races

Rural Youth Voter Fund

$1,171,600 Raised | Fundraising Goal Achieved!

The Rural Youth Voter Fund (RYVF) supports and expands civic engagement and power-building efforts that nurture the extraordinary promise of young rural voters to protect and strengthen democracy. Launched in 2023 by the Rural Democracy Initiative (RDI), Movement Voter Project, and Clean and Prosperous America, RYVF is building a network of grassroots organizations working to mobilize the 30 million ambivalent young voters living in rural areas and small cities in key battleground states. RYVF aims to deploy at least $10 million to effective efforts focused on voter participation, leadership development, persuasive communications, and rural issues affecting young people. Camille Thompson with Collective Renaissance Georgia, a recipient of RYVF support, spoke on the call as a representative of the types of orgs supported by the RYVF.

Geography: National

Funding Type: c4c3

Contact: Sarah Jaynes, Executive Director

Presentation Date: 08/06/2024

| Presidential Battlegrounds

Community Change Voters

$114,000 Raised

All data points show that hard-to-find & reach Black, Latino, Native, AAPI, women, and young voters will need additional engagement to turn out for values-aligned candidates. One way to motivate turnout is through layered canvas mail: a personalized mail touch will increase voter turnout, influence voter behavior, and decrease canvas decay. Through a partnership with WorkMoney we will be adding QR codes and pathways to connect voters to government resources that put money directly in their pockets. We know these voters feel economic anxiety and believe no one cares about their pain. The care and IRA benefits framework is an antidote to apathy so that voters can make a direct connection between their power at the voting booth and governing process. This is our opportunity to shift the political calculus -- and ensure voters aren’t isolated from the safety net.

Geography: Nevada, Arizona, Michigan, Ohio, Georgia, Wisconsin

Funding Type: c4c3

Contact: Grecia Lima, Executive Director

Presentation Date: 07/09/2024

| Senate Races

WorkMoney

$127,000 Raised

WorkMoney is a large-scale membership organization providing nonpartisan, trustworthy information, resources, and community to assist 6+ million members raise incomes and lower costs by helping them to take action in their economic self-interest. Building upon a successful pilot that delivered $663 million to 477,000 members, WorkMoney officially launched their Resource Center last month. The Resource Center is a multilingual “one-stop shop” for helping navigate the complex maze of 75 government programs to access benefits. The resource center provides direct assistance for consumers seeking opt-in IRA benefits. The Resource Center is not only about putting hard-earned dollars back in working people’s pockets; it’s also about reframing the role of government in their lives by making cost-saving programs visible, tangible, and accessible.1.5°CSG is raising funds to expand access to the resource center to a number of grassroots organizations launching IRA enrollment education programs in their communities.

Geography: National

Funding Type: c4c3

Contact: Evan Kost, Chief Partnerships Officer

Presentation Date: 03/26/2024

| Coordination, Collaboration, and Technical Assistance

Climate Bond Initiative

$20,000 Raised

Climate Bonds Initiative (CBI) is a UK-based nonprofit, deeply engaged with policymakers and financial firms around the world as the top certifier of green bonds, but has limited presence in the US. Carbon Washington, founded to promote the first carbon pricing ballot initiative in the US, is now focused on mobilizing the trillions of dollars in public and private investment needed to meet climate goals and is partnering with CBI to facilitate its U.S. expansion.

Geography: National

Funding Type: c3

Contact: Sean Kidney, CEO and Founder

Presentation Date: 01/09/2024

Inclusive Prosperity Capital

$117,000 Raised | Fundraising Goal Achieved!

Inclusive Prosperity Capital (IPC), a mission-driven 501(c)3 national clean energy financing platform spun out of the Connecticut Green Bank, focuses on bridging the gap in clean energy financing for traditionally underserved communities and market segments. IPC has invested over $50 million in clean energy and resilience projects across the U.S. and Territories, with a near-term pipeline of over $100 million of additional investment opportunities. Approximately 50% of IPC's investments benefit low to moderate income communities, with approximately 60% directed towards communities of color IPC's unique business model leverages a blended capital stack to ensure sustainable operations and capital reinvestment. As a lead coalition partner with the Justice Climate Fund, IPC is well-positioned to access Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF) capital facilitating the potential to exponentially scale its impact during the coming years. Currently, IPC is spearheading the creation of a secondary market platform, collaborating with organizations like Opportunity Finance Network, Inclusive, Carsey School of Public Policy, and Natural Resource Defense Council, to standardize clean energy financing, making it easier for small community lenders to issue clean energy loans to subprime applicants with the risk reduced by philanthropic dollars.

Geography: National

Funding Type: c3

Contact: Kerry O'Neil, Chief Executive Officer

Presentation Date: 11/28/2023

| Climate Finance

Somos Votantes

$206,500 Raised | Fundraising Goal Achieved!

Somos Votantes has initiated a field program with seven canvassers dedicated to Nevada and another seven in Arizona, with a focus on educating Latino communities about the opportunities provided by the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). Through a comprehensive approach involving canvassing, community events, mail programs, digital advertising, and local radio, Somos Votantes casts a wide net to inform Latinos about the economic opportunities brought to them by the Biden administration's IRA. Those who they encourage to access these financial benefits are seamlessly connected with WorkMoney, which takes the lead in facilitating their enrollment in IRA programs.

Geography: Arizona, Nevada

Funding Type: c4c3

Contact: Melissa Morales, Founder & President

Presentation Date: 11/07/2023

| Senate Races

Nevada Clean Energy Fund

$32,000 Raised

The Nevada Clean Energy Fund (NCEF) is dedicated to fostering a thriving, affordable, and accessible clean energy economy in Nevada, with a primary emphasis on supporting frontline and underserved communities. With roughly $350 million in pending federal grant applications and the anticipated arrival of federal grants in July 2024, NCEF recognizes the pressing need to bolster its capacity. Presently staffed with four essential operations employees, the addition of one program staff offers the potential to double the project pipeline's readiness to deploy resources following the receipt of federal funds from the EPA. This additional staff member would enable us to have a more rapid and significant impact towards advancing clean energy initiatives in Nevada during the 2024 calendar year.

Geography: Nevada

Funding Type: c3

Contact: Kirsten Stasio, CEO

Presentation Date: 11/07/2023

| Climate Finance

Forward Together WI

$100,000 Raised | Fundraising Goal Achieved!

Forward Together Wisconsin (FTW) was founded to educate Wisconsinites about resources made available to them by the Biden-Harris Administration, to immediately connect community members to these resources, and to direct additional charitable dollars to aid in the implementation of these resources to make them as accessible as possible. Not only does FTW help tell the story of the positive impact progressive policy has on communities and community members, but we are a part of making this story a reality. We especially focus on engaging underserved groups, including communities of color, working class families, rural communities, and tribal communities. FTW's education program triages interested parties to WorkMoney's resource center to streamline each individuals enrollment process.

Geography: Wisconsin

Funding Type: c3

Contact: Peter Drummond, Executive Director

Presentation Date: 09/26/2023

Lawyers for Good Government

$100,000 Raised | Fundraising Goal Achieved!

Lawyers for Good Government organizes a robust network of 125,000 volunteer legal advocates across all fifty states. This dedicated community offers pro-bono legal services to protect human and civil rights while creating the social and economic conditions that lead to true equity. Their Climate Change and Environmental Justice program provides essential legal support to marginalized communities empowering them to effectively navigate federal funding opportunities. This initiative plays a crucial role in promoting equitable access to benefits, including those established by the Inflation Reduction Act.

Geography: National

Funding Type: c3

Contact: Jillian Blanchard, Director of Climate Change and Environmental Justice Program

Presentation Date: 09/05/2023

| Coordination, Collaboration, and Technical Assistance

Harambee House

$155,500 Raised | Fundraising Goal Achieved!

Harambee house is organizing the Southeast Environmental Justice Summit on June 7-11th in Atlanta, Georgia. This summit will bring together front-line community organizers with utilities, businesses, energy service companies, and federal agency representatives to prepare them to apply for new federal funding opportunities under IRA and other federal programs. An output of this summit will be a draft 10 year environmental justice plan for the 8 states in EPA Region 4 including: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee.

Geography: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee

Funding Type: c3

Contact: Dr. Mildred McCain, Founder

Presentation Date: 05/02/2023

| Coordination, Collaboration, and Technical Assistance

| Red States Investments

Investing in Elections for Climate (2022/2023)

| Presidential Battlegrounds

Clean & Prosperous America

$2,194,410 Raised | Fundraising Goal Achieved!

A pooled resource grant maker historically focused on supporting state level and sub-state level grassroots groups using field tactics to engage young voters of color outside urban centers. CaPA provided a wide variety of grants, and coordinated direct contributions, to over 70 organizations for the Hold the House for Climate project. CaPA's support for this project as a pooled resource grant giver expanded beyond CaPA's traditional focus on young voters of color.

Geography: National

Funding Type: c4c3

Contact: Greg Rock, Executive Director

Presentation Date: 09/27/2022

| Presidential Battlegrounds

Investing in Elections for Climate (2022/2023)

Rural Democracy Initiative

$220,000 Raised | Fundraising Goal Achieved!

Pooled resource grant giver that supports grassroots groups organizing in small towns and rural areas. This presentation highlighted two sub-grantee of RDI: Black Male Voter Project and Progress North.

Geography: National

Funding Type: c4c3

Contact: Sara Jaynes, Executive Director

Presentation Date: 09/06/2022