This summer, the Tamarack Institute is offering funding for six climate-related projects in communities across Canada.
Ideal projects will help communities mitigate and/or adapt to climate change, focusing on innovative, participatory, equitable, and multisolving approaches.
Grants range from $2,000 to $10,000, supported through the Definity Insurance Foundation.
Thank you for your interest. The call for applications closed on August 24, 2023.
Read on for more details.
Background
Joining the Tamarack network
Available funds
Important dates and application deadlines
Eligibility
Guiding values, community change approaches & defining innovation
Examples of projects
Process for selecting recipients and managing conflicts of interest
Guidelines to apply
Application form
Tamarack was founded in 2001 to catalyze collective action with diverse leaders to solve major community challenges including ending poverty, building youth futures, deepening community, and addressing climate change. We believe that by strengthening our collective capacity to engage citizens and lead collaboratively, we help build a more equitable and sustainable future. Community Climate Transitions (CCT) is Tamarack’s more recent issue-based network, launched in 2021.
With the support of Definity Insurance Foundation, the CCT team is launching the first edition of the Community Climate Transitions Innovation Fund (CCTIF) in June 2023. This fund will support successful CCT members to advance community-led climate action and innovation that is responsive to local needs.
The CCTIF aims to spark new ideas, create connections and build capacity for community-led projects focused on mitigating and/or adapting to climate change. We are seeking innovative projects and solutions that can have quantifiable impacts within the communities and beyond.
In addition to receiving the funds from the CCT Innovation Fund, grantees will be able to join the Tamarack network and benefit from the following:
We intend to support six (6) participative innovation projects per year that are aligned with our guiding principles and community change approaches (see below).
The goals of the Innovation Fund are to:
Each year we aim to support a combination of one large, one intermediary, and several smaller grants to CCT members. Grant amounts will range between C$2,000 and C$10,000 each and be split as follows:
Grant Name | Amount | Quantity |
Seed Level | C$2,000 | 4 |
Sprouting Level | C$5,000 | 1 |
Scaling Level | C$10,000 | 1 |
Each level is designed to match the advancement and resource needs of a variety of projects:
To be eligible, applicants must:
* We define municipalities as a town, a district with a local government of any size, but we also mean the governing body of a given municipality.
We are looking for projects that embrace the following values and interconnected ideas that lead to community change:
Innovation creates a solution that is distinct from – and more ambitious and uncertain than – continuous improvement. Innovation exists in a number of different forms. These include: program innovation; product and/or service innovation; funding innovation; and system innovation. System innovation is particularly promising as it challenges a system’s conventional norms and looks beyond proven or accepted practices to create solutions that are based on a different set of assumptions.
The CCTIF is looking to support Community Innovation, which differs from other forms of social innovation in its focus on community – placing community members as both the champions and as the arbiters of change.
The CCTIF will fund projects that focus on sharing resources, reciprocal models of support, increasing awareness and engagement, and equity-centered climate mitigation and adaptation solutions such as:
Achieving CCT’s mission requires input and guidance from diverse experts (both content and context experts) engaged in climate change and equity work. This includes our members themselves, as we strive to be as member-driven as possible in all that we do. We are also committed to experimenting with participatory grantmaking approaches, where communities themselves select which projects receive funding. In collaboration with the WES Mariam Assefa Fund, Tamarack launched a participatory grantmaking pilot in the Peel Region in 2021. Building off its success, we will once again take a participatory approach to grantmaking in how we allocate the CCTIF.
CCT has recently formed a new Advisory Group that is made up of members of our network and other climate leaders from public, private and non-profit sectors. This Group will work with CCT staff to select which projects receive funding. As such, managing potential conflicts of interest is essential and Tamarack will take measures to address both real and perceived conflicts.
All parties agree to avoid any conflict of interest in the performance of their contractual obligations, and disclose to Tamarack without delay any actual or potential conflict of interest that arises during the performance of its contractual obligations.
In the event of a breach of agreement or clear conflict of interest, Tamarack may terminate the partnership, including but not restricted to its obligation to make any further payments. If Tamarack terminates the agreement, Tamarack will require unexpended funds to be returned.
Each applicant’s submission will be reviewed by members of the CCT team as well as an advisory board, and evaluated according to the following scoring rubric:
Rubric | Score |
Expectations exceeded | 4 |
Expectations met | 3 |
Guidelines adequately met | 2 |
Guidelines somewhat met | 1 |
Inadequate or incomplete | 0 |
Criteria | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
Comprehensive and clear: Application fully completed, clear and concise | |||||
Impactful: If achieved, the project would have important social and/or environmental impacts in the community | |||||
Innovative: The project idea is innovative (see definitions provided of innovation and community innovation) | |||||
Equitable: The project represents equity-deserving groups in either the people they serve (2 pts), the communities they work with (3pts) or the management team (4pts) | |||||
Value alignment: Provided evidence that the project will embrace the Guiding Values | |||||
Realistic and achievable: The project and desired impacts are realistic and achievement considering timeline, budget, management team and other considerations |
In the spirit of respect, reciprocity, and truth we honour and acknowledge that our work occurs across Turtle Island (North America), which has been home since time immemorial to the ancestors of First Nations, Métis, and Inuit Peoples.
Be in the know. Get the latest updates, events and resources about community change.