The Resilient Community Impact Funds (RCIFunds)

The Resilient Community Impact Funds (RCIFunds) is a catalytic grant-based platform for members of the Resilient Cities Network, designed for investments in projects that can further leverage funding at the local level from key financing and philanthropic stakeholders while incentivizing enhanced alignment from the cities themselves.

It is an avenue for funders interested in investing in pooled funding for innovative projects in cities to contribute together with other like-minded stakeholders.

While the overarching structure is the designated and branded RCIFunds platform, it is designed with flexibility for sub-funds. This gives it the potential for highly focused targeting and impact to reinforce funding resilience projects, while allowing for co-funding from a variety of aligned sources. These sub-funds can be programmatically, thematically and geographically defined. There may be partner and funder based sub-funds that are highly targeted and co-branded in the same manner.

In the initial phase, the RCIFunds will be administered by a Fund Director operating within the Resilient Cities Network. Over time an already designated partner fund management organization will take on management of the RCIFunds. The Fund Director will work in concert with the designated Advisory Board consisting of staff, former CROs, a Board of Directors liaison, as well as key programmatic and operational staff and funder liaisons.

Based on the potential themes, programs, funders and geographies of a certain sub-pool, cities will be invited to apply or respond to a network request consisting of the specific parameters and grant guidelines in a given round of grantmaking. For at least the first phase, there will be no unsolicited requests for funding.

Cities must be a member of the Resilient Cities Network, have a Chief Resilience Officer, and have a complete city resilience strategy. In some cases there may be matching or co-funding requirements on a given grant round.

The projects receiving grants will vary based on the sub-pool, themes, regions, etc. We anticipate grants that can fund an entire small project, pilot phase, research, project preparation or planning, as well as larger grants for catalyzing larger, co-funded projects that have been prioritized by the city.

At a foundational level the RCIFunds platform is designed to provide seed money for cities and their partners, to initiate key projects from their resilience strategies, resulting in action on the ground. The goal then is to create buy-in from local stakeholders, motivate local investment, inspire community participation, and actualize co-benefits from these resilience investments.

For the initial phase of the RCIFunds, we anticipate the grants to range from $50,000 USD to $250,000 USD. The projects may be funded in whole or in part by grants from the RCIFunds, with some grant criteria requiring local partner and/or city matching. Larger donations to the RCIFunds may increase the range of grants.

Our goal is to reach at least $10 million USD by 2024, but we expect that donor interest and additional demand from the cities will drive up the total amount.

At this time potential donors contribute directly to RCIFunds through the Resilient Cities Network. Interested parties should contact RCIFunds@resilientcitiesnetwork.org.

The funds will begin grantmaking in 2022 with a goal of reaching $10 million USD by 2024 and scaling from there.

The goal of the RCIFunds is to make catalytic grants of $50,000-$250,000 USD, although potentially larger, to prioritized, innovative, small and medium scale resilience projects around the globe. These projects will be selected through a predefined process and criteria, based on the programmatic, thematic and geographic specifics in the various sub-funds and appropriately vetted for the highest possible Resilience Value (R Value).

Donors do not only have the opportunity to see their contributions being applied impactfully through innovative solutions to emerging global issues; the sub-funds structure also enables donors to meaningfully input into the process of project selection and design.

The marketing/communications opportunities can also be effectively harnessed to donors’ benefit, while being cautious of any green/bluewashing. Donors will have the chance to come in as early partners alongside well-known first funders, and together see the fruition of the funds from inception.

R-Cities has from its outset partnered with a wide range of organizations – NGOs, philanthropy, corporations, global development institutions – that are committed to advancing urban resilience around the world and are committed to supporting cities as the leaders of the necessary reforms.

With public and philanthropic sources of funding at a premium, the opportunity to partner with the private sector opens up opportunities to extend the positive impact of R-Cities’ work. Where we are able to identify shared principles and priorities, private sector partners can greatly contribute to global resilience building and expanding innovation in cities. At the Resilient Cities Network we work to ensure our partners agree with our ethos that every investment is an opportunity to advance equity and build urban resilience, while avoiding any negative consequences to planetary life and sustainability.