logo
    • Magazine
    • Membership
    • Donate
  • Racial Justice
  • Economic Justice
    • Collections
  • Climate Justice
  • Health Justice
  • Leadership
  • CONTENT TYPES
  • Subscribe
  • Webinars
    • Upcoming Webinars
    • Complimentary Webinars
    • Premium On-Demand Webinars
  • Membership
  • Submissions

Large New Philanthropic Fund Responds to Coal Country Transitions

Debby Warren
August 6, 2018
Share
Tweet
Share
Email
Print
Protest at Whitehaven Coal AGM / Kate Ausburn

July 9, 2018; Energy News

The story is familiar: Factories leave, farms mechanize, mines close, and the community suffers and shrinks. Finding a new economic engine that can provide jobs, power the tax base, and keep the kids from leaving is a daunting task in today’s rural America. Fortunately, that’s the focus of the Just Transition Fund (“the Fund”), at least for communities hit hard by the energy transition from coal—first in Appalachia, and now in the Midwest and beyond.

Three forces are responsible for a tsunami of job losses from closed mines and the shutdown of more than 130 coal-powered plants since 2015: 1) the declining cost of producing natural gas, 2) a regulatory environment that makes it more expensive for electric power generators to use coal, and 3) weak international demand. Appalachia has endured 82 percent of the nation’s coal job losses, losing 33,500 mining jobs between 2011 and 2016; coal production has fallen by nearly 45 percent in this span. Farther west, where the Power River Basin of Wyoming and Montana has historically provided 40 percent of the country’s coal, a flurry of coal mining company bankruptcies has meant widespread job and tax base loss. Mining communities in central and southern Illinois are hard hit as well.

Both internationally and in the US, the new field of just economic transition is taking hold, and the Just Transition Fund is in the forefront of marshalling financial, technical, and political resources to support these communities in transition. Created in 2015 to enable community groups to quickly respond to the Obama administration’s POWER Initiative, JTF was seeded with $450,000 from the Rockefeller Family Fund, the Appalachian Funders Network, and six national and regional foundation partners. Just weeks after its doors opened, 54 applicants submitted proposals requesting over $1.3 million in new federal funds to help coalfield and coal plant-impacted communities better prepare for economic transition. To date, the Fund’s grants have helped inject nearly $19 million in federal funds to undergird and scale community-driven economic transition projects. Now this funder has expanded its mission to more broadly address the coal community transition movement. In the past year, the Fund and its partners received $3 million from Bloomberg Philanthropies and a $1 million donation from Google to support their work.

Sign up for our free newsletters

Subscribe to NPQ's newsletters to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from NPQ and our partners.

The Just Transition Fund sees itself as a philanthropic hybrid, both a grantmaker and nonprofit innovator. Its values and beliefs are crystal clear—that the affected communities have the wisdom and power to solve their own problems; that they need the resources, supports, and connections to make marked change; and that it’s neither solely the economy or the environment, but both.

The Fund’s investments encompass a diverse set of strategies for communities hit by coal mine and coal plant closures:

  • For the Coalfield Development Corporation in Wayne, West Virginia, to launch new businesses in real estate development, construction, wood working, agriculture, and artisan trades with former coal miners at the helm;
  • For Rural Action in Plains, Ohio, to do a feasibility study for the Appalachian Ohio Solar Supply Chain Initiative and attract component manufacturing jobs to the region;
  • For the Clean Air Coalition of Western New York in Buffalo, New York, to launch a labor-business-government-community effort to redevelop the region after the Huntley Coal Plant closes; and
  • For the Black Mesa Water Coalition in Flagstaff, Arizona, to enable the Navaho Nation to do community engagement around building sustainable economic development opportunities, particularly after the shutdown of the Black Mesa Mine.

With more than 45 partners/grantees, the Just Transition Fund is truly acting as a hub for the economic transition movement and providing a viable vehicle for philanthropic engagement in the economic development challenges of our time.—Deborah Warren

Share
Tweet
Share
Email
Print
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Debby Warren

Debby Warren has spent the last 35 years doing, funding, supporting and studying community-based development and philanthropy, particularly in the American South. As a consultant, she is most happy working with justice-oriented non-profits (of all sizes) that recognize that they need to change for greater impact and sustainability, and are willing to reflect, take risks, break down walls, ask hard questions, plan and act. Debby remains perplexed about non-profit governance – is it designed to really work or work just well enough?

More about: renewable energyNonprofit NewsPhilanthropyPolicy

Become a member

Support independent journalism and knowledge creation for civil society. Become a member of Nonprofit Quarterly.

Members receive unlimited access to our archived and upcoming digital content. NPQ is the leading journal in the nonprofit sector written by social change experts. Gain access to our exclusive library of online courses led by thought leaders and educators providing contextualized information to help nonprofit practitioners make sense of changing conditions and improve infra-structure in their organizations.

Join Today
logo logo logo logo logo
See comments

NPQ_Winter_2022Subscribe Today
You might also like
Why Social Change Films Matter
Cyndi Suarez and Saphia Suarez
Philanthropy Must Move from Charity to Solidarity
Son Chau
Eliminating Biphobia Through Breath, Brotherhood, and the Arts
H. “Herukhuti” Sharif Williams
Using a Data-Driven Strategy to Advance Racial Equity in Grantmaking
Heather Lenz, Ariel Jordan and Catherine Smith
Cancelling Student Debt Is Necessary for Racial Justice
Kitana Ananda
To Save Legal Aid, Expand Public Service Loan Forgiveness
Zoë Polk

Popular Webinars

Remaking the Economy

Black Food Sovereignty, Community Stories

Register Now

Combating Disinformation and Misinformation in 21st-Century Social Movements

Register Now

Remaking the Economy

Closing the Racial Wealth Gap

Register Now
You might also like
Why Social Change Films Matter
Cyndi Suarez and Saphia Suarez
Philanthropy Must Move from Charity to Solidarity
Son Chau
Eliminating Biphobia Through Breath, Brotherhood, and the...
H. “Herukhuti” Sharif Williams

Like what you see?

Subscribe to the NPQ newsletter to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

See our newsletters

By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from NPQ and our partners.

Independent & in your mailbox.

Subscribe today and get a full year of NPQ for just $59.

subscribe
  • About
  • Contact
  • Advertise
  • Copyright
  • Careers

We are using cookies to give you the best experience on our website.

 

Non Profit News | Nonprofit Quarterly
Powered by  GDPR Cookie Compliance
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.