Funding Grant Level: Over $1000000

The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)’s Office for Coastal Management provide grants to improve the resilience of local communities and wildlife habitat in the face of increasingly severe and frequent natural disasters.  These are post-disaster grants for communities impacted by extreme weather events and natural disasters. The grants support natural and nature-based infrastructure that help with recovery of people and wildlife. Grants are offered through this program sporadically.

This competitive grant program provides funding for projects that reduce or eliminate the risk of repetitive flood damage to buildings insured by the National Flood Insurance Program. Flood Mitigation Assistance funds may be used for projects such as Project Scoping; Technical Assistance; Community Flood Mitigation Projects; Individual Structure/Property-Level Flood Mitigation Projects; and Management Costs.

New Markets Tax Credits finance projects that have social and economic benefit for low-income communities, including public housing authorities, schools, and community-based nonprofits. They attract private capital into low-income communities with tax credits in exchange for investments in Community Development Entities (CDEs).

They are complex, can be difficult to set up, often have high legal fees, and they need to generate a revenue stream to be viable, but for large projects in low-income communities, tax credits can be a significant source of funding. The park projects funded so far have included parks and recreation centers in Cincinnati, Ohio, Washington, D.C., and Pensacola, Florida.

As with all significant investments in low-income communities, existing residents should be involved in the planning and decision-making to ensure they benefit from the investments.

Opportunity Zones,¹ are a new federal tax incentive to encourage investment in recreation facilities and other park-like properties. However, because they are meant to support businesses (ideally ones that appreciate in value), it may be challenging to use them to directly improve public access to parks and green space. Given the current newness of the program, it’s too early to review their use in practice.