SLECC Key Challenges and State and Local Solutions Database
Challenge/Local/State
Competitive, fragmented grant systems overwhelm limited local capacity and disadvantage smaller jurisdictions and CBOs. Oversubscribed programs with complex requirements favor well-resourced applicants, divert scarce staff time from implementation, and reinforce inequities.
Challenge/Local/State
Streamline and modernize state grant applications through a common application, longer timelines, simplified requirements, and upgraded digital platforms. A unified, equity-centered grant system would reduce administrative burden, improve transparency, and expand access for under-resourced applicants.
Challenge/Local/State
Fragmented funding, technical assistance, and information systems create confusion and inefficiency for applicants. Misaligned programs, timelines, and lack of centralized information increase duplication of effort and inequitable access.
Challenge/Local/State
Regional collaboratives or higher-capacity jurisdictions can serve as conveners to assemble project teams, administer grants, and provide shared technical and administrative support for smaller agencies. By collaborating regionally on funding applications, jurisdictions can reduce redundancy, share administrative capacity, and expand equitable access to competitive public funds.
Challenge/Local/State
The state can establish flexible climate resilience block grants administered by regional entities—such as COGs—that replace competitive, project-by-project awards and provide predictable, multi-year allocations. By offering formula-based funding, upfront or multi-round disbursements, standardized applications, common reporting formats, and access to advance pay, these block-grant models give jurisdictions stability for long-term planning while enabling regional bodies to deliver coordinated TA and grant administration.
Challenge/Local/State
Establish climate resilience, energy, and land-use capacity as a core, multi-year state budget commitment. The state should provide sustained baseline funding, beyond one-time bonds or pilots, by treating climate resilience and adaptation as essential public services embedded in the core budget, enabling predictable, long-term local staffing and program delivery.
Challenge/Local/State
Align and coordinate state funding programs across agencies (SGC, CARB, LCI, CNRA, CEC) to reduce duplication and administrative burden.
Challenge/Local/State
Invest in sustained regional infrastructure. Fund long-term regional hubs, collaboratives, and existing organizations that know local players, can route resources quickly, and provide continuous technical assistance, rather than relying on short-term contracts.
Challenge/Local/State
Provide sustained, long-term technical assistance and partnerships for under-resourced applicants. Multi-year TA programs—including university partnerships—should support grant writing, data, evaluation, and implementation across funding cycles.
Challenge/Local/State
Create flexible, state-controlled funding mechanisms to backfill gaps caused by unstable federal or program funding. This could include loosening earmark restrictions and establishing supplemental state funding pools to ensure continuity across regions and populations.
Challenge/Local/State
Direct state funding toward equitable, community-driven infrastructure planning and upgrades in rural and tribal communities—such as water and energy systems—to strengthen local climate resilience.
Challenge/Local/State
Governance and jurisdictional fragmentation—including overlapping agencies, competing local jurisdictions, and inconsistent land-use processes—slows regional planning and implementation by creating misaligned priorities, duplicated efforts, and procedural bottlenecks.
Challenge/Local/State
Outdated and inequitable tax structures—such as Prop 13—and limited local revenue authority constrain jurisdictions’ ability to generate funding for climate resilience and other critical public services, leaving communities dependent on unstable state and federal resources.
Challenge/Local/State
The state can require agencies to provide advance payments to nonprofits, tribes, and smaller CBOs—rather than making advance pay optional—to stabilize organizations that cannot absorb long reimbursement delays. Expanding the use of advance pay in grant programs helps resource-constrained CBOs manage cash flow and remain viable participants in state-funded projects.
Challenge/Local/State
Federal funding is unstable and subject to freezes, clawbacks, and shifting political priorities—creating uncertainty and gaps during federal transitions. Some stakeholders described “total uncertainty and chaos,” noting that many state and local grants rely on federal dollars, and philanthropy cannot fully backfill these disruptions.
Challenge/Local/State
Bundle funding requests around integrated, multi-benefit projects. Local governments coordinate climate, energy, housing, transportation, and resilience goals into fewer, larger proposals to increase competitiveness and impact rather than pursuing fragmented, single-purpose grants.
Challenge/Local/State
Build Durable Local and Regional Program Continuity Structures. Local and regional governments can design retrofit and decarbonization programs to persist across funding cycles by establishing standing coordination structures—such as cross-departmental teams or regional collaboration tables—that buffer against grant interruptions and shifting state or federal priorities. These mechanisms reduce reliance on one-time funding, preserve institutional knowledge, and support consistent program delivery during policy and budget volatility.
Challenge/Local/State
Regionalized Technical Assistance Networks. Regional collaboratives (e.g., RENs, COGs) can provide stable, accessible TA that remains consistent even when state programs fluctuate. This shared TA capacity helps smaller jurisdictions navigate unstable funding and evolving requirements.
Challenge/Local/State
Inconsistent grant timelines do not match the multi-year, relationship-driven nature of community resilience work.
Challenge/Local/State
Technical assistance “comes and goes”, is not stable, and is inconsistent across state agencies and even within programs.
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