Need Help Advancing Local Climate Action? Try Community Project Funding.

This guide from RMI explains how local governments can use Community Project Funding (CPF)—a form of discretionary spending available to members of Congress—to finance innovative clean energy and climate resilience projects that might not fit the strict criteria of traditional federal grants.

• Community Project Funding (CPF) is a flexible source of discretionary spending available to senators and representatives for local projects, valued at up to one percent of total discretionary spending, which is approximately $15 billion.
• CPF is particularly useful for small or capacity-constrained communities that cannot provide matching funds for competitive grants or whose projects do not align with specific federal agency priorities. It allows communities to focus on local needs rather than tailoring projects to 'check the box' for agency requirements.
• The guide highlights the city of Cohoes, New York, which used $3 million in CPF to build a 3.2 MW floating solar array on its municipal reservoir. This project is expected to power all municipal facilities for the town's 17,000 residents and save an estimated $500,000 in annual electricity costs.
• CPF has broad eligibility requirements, primarily requiring demonstrated community support. Potential applications include low-income solar installations, community resilience hubs, all-electric new construction, and transit hub upgrades for electric buses. In Illinois, $211 million in CPF was secured for projects including Chicago's clean energy retrofits and Evanston's accessible solar program.
• To successfully secure CPF, the guide recommends that local governments identify 'shovel-ready' requests, engage Congressional representatives early to align with their priorities, and build partnerships with regional stakeholders. It notes that CPF is a district-level competition; in 2021, Congress funded over 4,000 requests, averaging 7.4 funded projects per member of Congress.

APA

RMI (2022). Need Help Advancing Local Climate Action? Try Community Project Funding. https://rmi.org/resources/need-help-advancing-local-climate-action/

Chicago

RMI. Need Help Advancing Local Climate Action? Try Community Project Funding. 2022. https://rmi.org/resources/need-help-advancing-local-climate-action/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=RMI |title=Need Help Advancing Local Climate Action? Try Community Project Funding. |date=31 March 2022 |url=https://rmi.org/resources/need-help-advancing-local-climate-action/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{rmi2022need, author = {{RMI}}, title = {{Need Help Advancing Local Climate Action? Try Community Project Funding.}}, institution = {RMI}, year = {2022}, month = mar, url = {https://rmi.org/resources/need-help-advancing-local-climate-action/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }