Registration

Event Description

Californians have experienced a cycle of disaster impacts due to our changing climate. Our golden state has sustained repeated wildfires, severe storms, flooding, extreme heat, and drought. Frontline communities – namely communities of color, tribes, low-income families, and undocumented laborers – are disproportionately affected by these impacts and stand to gain the most from long-term, equitable resilience.

Philanthropy has responded by investing in hazard mitigation, emergency response, direct relief to survivors, and, increasingly, long-term recovery. Essential as they are, these measures sit downstream from a much broader problem set. Upstream, there are opportunities to connect climate and disaster resilience to equity – working to ensure communities can absorb shocks and stressors from disasters in addition to being able to adapt to wider change and uncertainty. This means investing in systems change: democracy building, racial equity, affordable housing, community health infrastructure, education, economic mobility, environmental justice, and other intersections.

In continuation of our previous conversation about implementing the Justice 40 Initiative, we now uplift the need to shift how funders approach climate and disaster grantmaking. This “once-in-a-generation” moment affords funders an opportunity to help land billions of dollars in federal funding (from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, Inflation Reduction Act, and American Rescue Plan) to equitably invest in the capacity of communities to envision, plan, and implement projects.

While there is a state of urgency to get federal dollars out the door and into communities, there is a countervailing need to build relationships and partnerships that would catalyze meaningful systems change at the speed of trust. Community-based organizations, tribes, and nonprofits also have differential levels of readiness to access, receive, and manage funding. These factors are a foundation for a call to action to create the necessary infrastructure and capacity across sectors for long-term community mobilization and benefits.

Against this backdrop, our session will explore the following questions:

  • How can philanthropy help draw down these benefits while building communities up to receive them? 
  • What existing and emerging grantmaking strategies close the gap for grant seekers pursuing public funding (i.e. planning, pre-development, implementation)? 
  • How might philanthropy support power building across sectors to carry out this work?

This program is part of SCG's 2024 recurring programs. To register for all upcoming dates, please click the "Register for Recurring Dates" button. This feature is only open to members; please contact us if you are a non-member and wish to register for the series at programsrsvp@socalgrantmakers.org or (213) 680-8866.

Recurring Dates: 

The SCG Environmental Funders Group meets quarterly to educate prospective and current environmental funders about environmental challenges and opportunities in Southern California and foster collaboration, and share successes and challenges. Please contact Katy Pelissier at katy@socalgrantmakers.org for more information or visit the group's page on the Southern California Grantmakers' website.

Speakers

Lily Bui's headshot

Lily Bui

Manager, Climate and Disaster Preparedness and Resilience, SoCal Grantmakers

Dr. Lily Bui provides strategic direction, thought leadership, and partnership coordination in support of developing engagement strategies to increase climate justice and equitable disaster preparedness, relief and recovery funding across the region and state.

Prior to her role at SoCal Grantmakers, she served in positions related to climate and disaster resilience in higher education, applied research, public policy, media, impact investing, and consulting in coastal communities across the Pacific and Caribbean regions. She received her PhD ('20) in urban planning and a master's ('16) in comparative media studies from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She earned a dual bachelor's in International Studies and Spanish from the University of California Irvine.
Wilma's headshot and she is standing

Dr. Wilma Franco

Executive Director, Southeast Los Angeles (SELA) Collaborative

Dr. Wilma Franco, Ed.D., MPP: Executive Director of the Southeast Los Angeles (SELA) Collaborative, a network of 12 organizations that support the Southeast region of Los Angeles County. In her capacity as the Executive Director of the SELA Collaborative her work includes convening a cross-sectoral network of stakeholders in the SELA region Southeast Region across many policy issues to uplift community voice and advocate for the community with the mission of incresearing the quality of life across the region. Dr. Franco completed undergraduate work at UCLA. Where she completed a BA in Political Science and Chicana/o Studies with a minor in Public Policy. During her time at UCLA, she worked closely with the NAID Center researching the economic impact of post-1986 immigration reform. Dr. Franco earned her master’s degree in Public Policy at the University of Southern California (USC), with a certificate in Public Management. And completed her Doctor of Education in Organizational Leadership degree from the University of La Verne after successfully defended her dissertation entitled, “Employer’s Perception of Their Role in Student Learning and Skill Development: A Qualitative Case Study.” Dr. Franco has over 20 years of experience overseeing nonprofits and community-based programs and a firm background in program development, evaluations, partnership development and development. Dr. Franco also has the experinece of serving as a part-time lecturer in the Human Development Department at CSULB and is a proud alumnus of Education Pioneers and the Magnolia Community Initiative Fellowship.
Lolly Lim headshot

Lolly Lim

Program Manager of Climate Investments Research, Greenlining Institute

Lolly Lim (she/they) is the Program Manager of Climate Investments Research at Greenlining, where she studies the impact of policies and identifies solutions to actualize equitable climate investments. Lolly’s previous work has been rooted in understanding the impacts of climate change on under-resourced communities, and uplifting solutions in the realm of project-level interventions, planning, and policy change. She has worked at the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation where she managed research on the impacts of extreme heat on vulnerable populations and identified regulatory gaps to address extreme heat in California. She has supported the development of climate change adaptation plans at the local and regional scales in Los Angeles. She also has experience evaluating energy efficiency and renewable energy programs across North America to assess program reach and efficacy. Lolly is based in Tongva / Gabrielino / Kizh land (Los Angeles). Outside of work at Greenlining, she enjoys learning and writing about Korean environmental history, mythology, and folktales; providing translation and interpretation support to Korean communities in Los Angeles; and spending time outside. Lolly holds a master’s degree in Urban and Regional Planning from UCLA and an Sc.B. in Geology-Biology from Brown University.
Zahirah Mann's headshot

Zahirah Mann

President & Chief Executive Officer, South Los Angeles Transit Empowerment Zone

Zahirah Mann is President and CEO of SLATE-Z, a collective impact effort addressing economic revitalization and environmental sustainability in South Los Angeles. SLATE-Z collaborates with 100 local partners and is part of a national Promise Zone Network working to transform 22 high poverty communities. Prior to SLATE-Z, Zahirah was a Senior Program Officer at The Ralph M. Parsons Foundation, where she helped launch and lead Foster Together Network, a countywide collective impact initiative. Zahirah has worked at the Annenberg Foundation and United Way of Greater Los Angeles. Before entering philanthropy, Zahirah represented a broad array of nonprofit and governmental entities as a community economic development and environmental attorney.

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