The closure last week of a $50 million federal grant-making program that supports climate change solutions in low-income communities could signal what is to come for government-funded nonprofits at odds with President Donald Trump’s ideological positions.
The Climate Justice Alliance, a left-leaning national nonprofit, was among 11 grant-making organizations chosen by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 2023 to distribute $600 million to nonprofits and other groups. The nonprofit announced last week that it ended its federally funded grant program for grassroots organizations in western states and territories because it never received its first tranche of money from the EPA and didn’t expect it would receive any promised federal funds.
The Climate Justice Alliance was the first to be completely defunded in the EPA’s Environmental Justice Thriving Communities Grantmaking Program, but it may not be the last. The Trump administration aims to freeze $20 billion in grants approved by the EPA during the previous administration. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said last week he would work with the agency’s inspector general and the Justice Department to halt contracts awarded to groups under the Inflation Reduction Act, which former President Joe Biden signed into law in 2022. Those funds were intended for clean energy investments, especially in low-income and other marginalized communities.
Many nonprofits are grappling with tough choices about the fate of programs and staff amid uncertainty about federal funding, even if they aren’t making public announcements like the Climate Justice Alliance, said Rick Cohen, chief communications officer for the National Council of Nonprofits. The council is a plaintiff in a lawsuit that temporarily stopped the Trump administration’s federal funding freeze affecting a wide swath of contractors, including nonprofits. Although a federal judge blocked that executive order, many nonprofits have not received promised federal funds.
“Some groups had to make hard decisions right away,” he said, referring to nonprofits that have already laid people off or closed programs. “Others are still stuck in limbo and hoping that things will resolve.”
“And then there are other groups that basically have been told: ‘The money is not coming. We’re closing down this grant program or this thing that was funding you.’”
Additionally, some nonprofits don’t know what will happen to their federal funding because their agency contacts have been laid off, Cohen said. At this stage, a lot of groups feel like they’re on a precipice and don’t know what tomorrow will bring, he added. Many nonprofits have been briefing their staff, their volunteers, and the people they serve about potential disruptions, Cohen said. They also have been making fundraising appeals, he said.
“They’re trying to weather it,” Cohen said. “If this lasts much longer, if we see a lot of these programs not turned back on, then we’re going to start seeing more organizations saying this program and that program have to shut down, they’re having to reduce capacity because they can’t make payroll, or they’re closing their doors.”
In the case of the Climate Justice Alliance, the Biden administration failed to disburse the funds before the end of his term, leaving the pre-authorized money an easy target for the incoming Trump administration, the group’s executive director, KD Chavez, said. The Trump administration, which has opposed climate and environmental justice programs, officially announced plans to block release of the money on Thursday.
In a statement posted on X, the EPA’s Zeldin also cited the Climate Justice Alliance’s advocacy for Palestinians as part of the reason behind the decision. The alliance has called for Congress to stop funding Israel’s military.
“I just cancelled a $50 MILLION Biden-era environmental justice grant to the Climate Justice Alliance, which believes ‘climate justice travels through a Free Palestine,’” Zeldin wrote on X.
The EPA press office would not provide further comment. However, the Trump administration’s effort to roll back Biden-era climate and infrastructure policies, while targeting programs that Trump ideologically opposes, has been widely reported. The administration has been freezing billions of dollars in climate and clean energy spending, despite orders from two federal judges instructing agencies to release the money.
The $50 million in federal funds that were to have been provided to the Climate Justice Alliance were not intended to assist groups in Palestine. Rather, the alliance was tasked with delivering the money to Black, Indigenous, and other communities disproportionately impacted by the effects of climate change in western states and territories, including Alaska, American Samoa, Arizona, California, Colorado, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Guam, Hawaii, Idaho, Marshall Islands, Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, Oregon, Republic of Palau, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming.
The Climate Justice Alliance was aiming to award about 165 grants of up to $350,000 each to projects that would have included preventive work like air quality and asthma monitoring and environmental justice training for youth, as well as emergency response work for disasters striking disadvantaged communities such as those impacted by the recent Los Angeles wildfires, Chavez said.
The alliance had hired nine new staff members and spent $2 million from its $10 million operational budget to create a portal for applications, Chavez said. With the program now closed, the group has had to lay off five of the nine new staff members. The remaining four have been absorbed into new positions.
The Climate Justice Alliance was the only one of the 11 grant makers selected by the Biden administration not to receive partial or full payments before January. The Climate Justice Alliance said the Biden administration initially said it would receive $50 million for regranting last year, but that did not happen.
The alliance’s position on Palestine appears to have factored into that delay. CJA’s anti-war position was at odds with the Biden administration, which supported Israeli military action in Gaza, and made the group a target for conservative Republicans. Last year, House Republicans, along with more than 40 Democrats, passed a bill that would strip nonprofits of their tax-exempt status should they be suspected of financing terrorist organizations. Some scholars saw the bill as an effort to quiet pro-Palestinian groups, among others.
However, the Climate Justice Alliance said it was never officially given a reason.
“CJA never received any communication regarding why they weren’t receiving the funds. The funds were awarded, obligated, and not received,” a spokesperson said.
While the alliance will no longer be able to deliver the level of funding to grassroots climate and environmental groups that it anticipated, it is still planning to do what it can to help groups mitigate the impacts of climate change on their communities, Chavez said.
“I don’t think the harm and divestment in our communities is new,” Chavez said. “I think we’re just seeing it happen at an exponential rate right now.”
Editor’s Note: Former EPA official Matthew Tejada, who helped select Climate Justice Alliance to receive a federal award, disputed the group’s claim that $50 million had been obligated to CJA during the Biden administration. That would have meant that the group had received a finalized award notice, he explained. And there is no evidence in the EPA database to support that claim, according to Tejada.
