If an application has already been started in response to this RFP, please visit the Proposals in Progress section in the Grants Portal to view and/or continue the application process.
Background
Many communities that are victims of years of racial discrimination and economic disinvestment have also been subject to a sustained undermining and degradation of their natural environments.
Institutional practices like racially discriminatory loan practices (known as redlining) and limited information sharing have combined with lack of political power to encourage the siting of environmentally harmful industrial, commercial, and municipal activities in and near many lower income communities and communities of color. These activities – including superfund sites, hazardous waste facilities, landfills, trash transfer stations, underground storage tanks, incinerators, sewage and sludge treatment facilities, power plants, and polluting industrial facilities – have undermined community quality of life, produced persistently poor public health outcomes, and precluded the enjoyment of the benefits of healthy natural assets like greenspace, clean water, and fresh air.
In recent years this aspect of environmental injustice has been recognized through the development of tools, analyses, and policies to identify and address the cumulative effects produced by the proliferation and geographic concentration of environmentally harmful activities over time. These include tools to identify areas that should be of priority concern (e.g. Pennsylvania’s PennEnviroScreen, New Jersey’s EJMAP, and the Council on Environmental Quality’s Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool) and policies to prevent an intensification of impacts to those areas.
The data these tools provide make clear that significant parts of the cities of Philadelphia, Camden, and Chester are burdened with harmful impacts from a range of longstanding industrial, commercial, and municipal activities.
During the community conversations held as part of our strategic planning process in mid-2024, we heard from many stakeholders that they wanted to work on projects that would address multiple environmental burdens suffered by their communities. This RFP is intended to respond to that desire.
Opportunity Overview
With this objective and Request for Proposals (RFP), the Foundation seeks to support efforts that will help to measurably reduce environmental burdens impacting communities in Philadelphia, Camden, and/or Chester. In other objectives and associated RFPs, we focus on two specific types of environmental burdens: illegal dumping and untreated sewage overflow. Through this RFP, we are requesting proposals for one- to three-year projects that will focus on environmental burdens other than dumping and sewage overflow.
All submitted proposals should:
- identify the geographic area that the proposed work is intended to benefit
- define the environmental burden or burdens on which the proposed work will focus
- explain the harmful impacts that the environmental burden(s) create
- describe the way the reduction of the burden will be measured
- project (to the maximum extent possible) the amount by which the burden will be reduced
- identify (or describe a method for identifying) the baseline from which the burden will be reduced, and
- describe the proposed work.
Organizations that propose projects in partnership with other applicants will be considered on their individual merits. However, the Foundation recognizes that making significant progress on the objective is difficult and encourages organizations to include partnerships that leverage complementary strengths, resources, and expertise to reach proposed goals.
The Foundation recognizes that there are many different tactics or approaches that could be used to advance the objective stated above, including organizing, advocacy, litigation, communications, and citizen science. We are not accepting proposals for capital projects or for the design or development of new technologies. Otherwise, all proposals that meet the criteria described are encouraged. After reviewing proposals, WPF will conduct site visits and gather additional information from a limited number of organizations.
WPF has $4 million available to advance this objective through this RFP. There is no minimum or maximum amount of funding that projects may request. The grant amount requested should be commensurate with the contribution that the project will make to the overall objective.
Full Request for Proposals (RFP) and Application
Download the full RFP packet for more information about this opportunity including eligibility, review criteria, learning and insights, budget, and link to an application template.
All applications must be submitted through the Grants Portal.
Webinar
Interested organizations are invited to participate in an optional informational webinar on Wednesday, March 26, 2025 at 1:00 PM ET. Following the live webinar, a recording will be posted to this page.