Category: Urbanism

People, Parks, and Power: A National Initiative for Green Space, Health Equity, and Racial Justice

Deadline: November 4, 2021 12:00 pm

Source: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation; Doris Duke Charitable Foundation; Prevention Institute

Description: Despite widespread appreciation for the health and environmental benefits of urban parks and green spaces, evidence shows persistent inequities in access, availability, quality of facilities, and programming, by race, place, and income. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) is working to build a Culture of Health where everyone in America has a fair and just opportunity to live the healthiest life possible. Park equity is a key component of this vision. This call for proposals seeks especially small and mid-sized urban communities most impacted by park and green space inequities to participate. Community-based organizations are strongly encouraged to apply, especially those led by people of color working to build community power at the citywide, countywide, or districtwide level. They are interested in funding a spectrum of eligible organizations across the United States that either are in later or early stages of policy advocacy and systems change efforts to advance park equity. The “north star” of the initiative is upstream policy and systems change, not planning, building, or operating individual, on-the-ground projects. See website for more info.

Award: RWJF expects to award grants up to $500,000 each (up to $250,000 per year). Grants will be 24 months in duration, beginning in May 2022.

Eligibility: Applicant organizations must be either public entities or nonprofit organizations that are tax-exempt under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code and are not private foundations or nonfunctionally integrated Type III supporting organizations. Universities or academic institutions are not eligible to be the lead applicant, but they may serve as a coalition partner to the lead applicant. See website for full eligibility details.

Deadline: LOI due by 3 pm ET, Nov. 4, 2021

Architecture Building Science Design External Fellowship Heritage Conservation Landscape Architecture Urbanism

Loeb & Loeb/ArtLab Fellowship

Deadline: January 5, 2022 12:00 am

Source: Harvard GSD

Description Loeb Fellows are accomplished practitioners, influential in shaping the built and natural environment, whose work is advancing positive social outcomes in the US and around the world. In the middle of promising careers they step away from their hectic professional lives for one academic year. Fellows audit classes at the GSD and throughout the vast network of Harvard and MIT. They engage with faculty and students, participate in Fellowship events, and collaborate with their peers. They become part of a powerful growing network of colleagues passionately committed to revitalizing communities. The Loeb/ArtLab Fellowship is open to any artist or person with an artistic practice who applies for a Loeb Fellowship and meets the requirements thereof. The intention of a joint Loeb / ArtLab Fellowship is to give practicing artists the same Fellowship experience they would have as Loeb Fellows, with the added benefit of being granted studio space in the ArtLab building, research support and networking resources through the ArtLab community, as well as potential funding for proposed programs and/or projects over the course of the year.

Award: Academic-year fellowship; stipend; housing in Cambridge; and tuition-free auditing of classes at Harvard & MIT.

Eligibility: Mid-career professionals with 5-10 years of experience (minimum). The Fellowship is for practitioners. It is not a sabbatical program or an artist residency.

Deadline: Jan. 5, 2022

Architecture Award Building Science Design External Grant Heritage Conservation Landscape Architecture Urbanism

SOM Research Prize

Deadline: November 8, 2021 9:59 pm

Source: SOM Foundation

Description: SOM Foundation introduced the Research Prize to cultivate new ideas and meaningful research that addresses the critical issues of our time. Two $40,000 prizes will be awarded to faculty-led interdisciplinary teams based in the United States to conduct original research that contributes to the SOM Foundation’s current topic: Envisioning Responsible Relationships with Materiality. This year’s topic seeks to explore materiality from the micro- to the macroscale, bringing together designers and researchers from multiple disciplines in order to envision sustainable, responsible, and ethical relationships with materials and the communities that they come from. See website for more info.

Award: $40,000

Eligibility: Open to faculty currently teaching at a professionally accredited bachelor’s degree, master’s degree, or PhD program in architecture, landscape architecture, or urban design in the United States. The research must be developed in an academic studio or other research structure within the academic institution. The lead faculty member(s) will be expected to work in a collaborative manner with faculty from other disciplines, leading professionals, nonprofit organizations, and/or community representatives in addition to students enrolled in the studio. Collaborator(s) can be based worldwide. SOM Foundation affiliated members and SOM employees should not be included as part of the proposals. Faculty from previously awarded proposals are not eligible.

Deadline: 11:59 pm CST, Nov. 8, 2021

Architecture Building Science External Grant Landscape Architecture Urbanism

Clif Bar Family Foundation – Small Grants

Deadline: October 1, 2021 12:00 am

Source: Clif Bar Family Foundation

Description: The Clif Bar Family Foundation provides grants in support of grassroots organizations in the areas of the environment, food and agriculture, preventative approach to people’s health, and sustainable community development. Grants are awarded for general organizational support as well as funding for specific projects. Priority will be given to applicants that address two or more funding priorities at the same time (which include strengthening the nation’s food system, enhancing equitable community health outcomes, and safeguarding the environment and natural resources), demonstrate strong community ties, and operate within viable and clearly defined plans for positive change.

Award: unspecified

Eligibility: U.S.-based 501(c)3 organizations

Deadline: Oct. 1, 2021; grants reviewed three times a year, Feb. 1, June 1, Oct. 1

Architecture Building Science Design External Grant Landscape Architecture Urbanism

E2 Energy to Educate Grants

Deadline: October 1, 2021 12:00 am

Source: Constellation

Description: Program offers students from grade six through college opportunities to experience problem-solving of today’s and tomorrow’s energy challenges. Grants will be awarded in support of projects designed to enhance students’ understanding of science and technology and inspire them to think differently about energy. Projects should reach at least 100 students and align with the Constellation Energy to Educate Innovation Themes: Equity in Energy, Sustainability as a Lifestyle, and a Sustainable World. See website for more info.

Award: Up to $25,000 for grades 6-12 and up to $50,000 for colleges and universities

Eligibility: Returning awardees may reapply if all prior grant requirements are completed.

Deadline: Oct. 1, 2021

Architecture Competition External Landscape Architecture Urbanism

Northwest Arkansas Design Excellence Program

Deadline: October 1, 2021 3:00 pm

Source: Walton Family Foundation

Description: The Northwest Arkansas Design Excellence Program promotes the highest level of design in the development of public buildings and spaces in Arkansas’ Benton and Washington counties. In 2021, the foundation is seeking statements of qualifications from architects, landscape architects, and urban designers. The Design Excellence Program selects professionals and projects based on four key principles: a commitment to strengthening public life; elevating standards of sustainability and resilience; celebrating local cultures and place; and building regional capacity. It is designed to accommodate nationally recognized, multi-disciplinary firms; smaller specialty firms; and young designers who may not yet be discovered. If selected, designers may participate for up to five years, or until they are chosen for a project. The program currently includes nearly fifty architecture and landscape architecture firms from fourteen states, Canada, and Denmark. See website for more info.

Award: Participation in the Design Excellence Program for up to five years or until selection for a project. Selection does not guarantee an interview for a project, nor does it guarantee that a project will ultimately be approved.

Eligibility: Design professionals, including those with experience in architecture, landscape architecture and urban design are encouraged to apply. This year’s application cycle places particular emphasis on firms with experience in inclusive and equitable public engagement, firms that would be interested in innovative neighborhood-scale projects, and firms with experience in mixed-income and missing middle housing.

Deadline: 5 pm CT, Oct. 1, 2021

Architecture Building Science External Grant Landscape Architecture Urbanism

California Resilience Challenge

Deadline: September 13, 2021 5:00 pm

Source: Bay Area Council Foundation

Description: The California Resilience Challenge is a statewide effort, led by businesses, utilities, and a diverse range of partners, to build local and regional climate resilience and to support a shared vision for a resilient California in the face of increasing climate threats. The Challenge is providing grants for diverse, replicable and innovative climate change adaptation planning projects across California. These projects will reflect California’s diverse geography and showcase leadership in climate change adaptation. Eligible projects will consist of planning projects that are targeted at improving local or regional resilience to one or more of the following four climate challenges and water and air quality impacts of the foregoing: drought, flooding, including from sea level rise, extreme heat and increasing frequency of hot days, and wildfire. Please see RFP for full details.

Award: $100,000-200,000

Eligibility: California-based non-government organizations, including community-based organizations, representing under-resourced communities are encouraged to apply, as are local California public entities that represent under-resourced communities. See website for more info on eligible applicants. and communities.

Deadline: 5 pm PT, Sept. 13, 2021

Architecture Building Science External Grant Landscape Architecture Urbanism

California Environmental Grassroots Fund

Deadline: November 1, 2021 5:00 pm

Source: The Grassroots Fund is a pooled re-granting fund supported by about 20 funding partners with the Rose Foundation serving as host and trustee.

Description: The California Environmental Grassroots Fund supports small grassroots groups across California that are tackling tough environmental problems including toxic pollution, urban sprawl, sustainable agriculture, climate change, environmental degradation of our rivers and wild places, as well as, of our communities and our health. Guided by a board of community activists and veteran funders, the Fund’s mission is to bridge a significant gap between grassroots environmental groups and the traditional funding patterns of organized philanthropy by awarding small grants to small organizations that are underserved by most foundations’ funding strategies. Issues supported include but are not limited to environmental health & justice, land management & urban sprawl, habitat & wilderness protection, sustainable forestry, water resources, agriculture, sustainability, and pollution.

Award: Up to $5,000

Eligibility: Eligible applicants must meet the following criteria: project impact must be within California; organization must have annual income/expenses of $100k or less; and applicants may be a nonprofit, be fiscally sponsored by another nonprofit, or ask for fiscal sponsorship from the fund. See website for full eligibility details.

Deadline: The Grassroots Fund has an application deadline every three months. Applications must be submitted by 5 pm on the deadline date of: Feb. 1, May 1, Aug. 1, and Nov. 1. If the deadline falls on a Saturday, Sunday or official holiday, then submissions are due at 5pm on the next business day.

Architecture Building Science External Grant Landscape Architecture Urbanism

New Earth Foundation Grant

Deadline: July 1, 2021 12:00 am

Source: New Earth Foundation (NEF)

Description: New Earth Foundation seeks to fund innovative projects that enhance life on our planet and brighten the future, furthering peace. Smaller, newer 501(c)(3) organizations are the focus of grants given, so that the foundation’s gift can make a more significant contribution to the work of the recipient organization. NEF grants support a wide variety of projects in many fields of endeavor, including but not limited to environmental initiatives that are working to help eliminate pollution and to save the planet’s ecosystems, community efforts that create models of social sustainability, educational innovations that prepare youth to become the socially responsible leaders of the future, and strategies that offer economic improvement and opportunities. NEF particularly appreciates projects that are replicable so that excellent ideas and work can multiply and benefit many.

Award: Unspecified

Eligibility: Non-profit organizations with 501(c)(3) tax status

Deadline: LOI due July 1

External Grant Landscape Architecture Urbanism

Energize the Environment Grant Program

Deadline: June 30, 2021 8:59 pm

Source: Quadratec

Description: Program offers two grants per year (one in fall, one in spring) to an individual or group currently pursuing a program or initiative designed to benefit the environment in their community. Examples include park beautification events, sustainable land management activities, community environmental education projects, and youth educational engagement events.

Award: $3,500

Eligibility: Any individual, group, or organization in the United States who has a love for all things environmental, and has an idea or event designed to help improve our environment, is eligible. Any questions or clarification on what constitutes eligibility can be emailed to grants@quadratec.com.

Deadline(s): 11:59 pm EST, June 30; 11:59 pm EST, Oct. 30