Channeling environmental settlement funds to frontline communities

The Foundation developed the Texas Coastal Frontline Fund to distribute these settlement funds in the form of flexible grants to resident-led nonprofits working along the Texas Gulf Coast to mitigate pollution or advance the equitable transition to a clean energy economy, as well as to nonprofit legal service organizations that are helping to further these goals. The Fund utilized a participatory approach to grantmaking whereby a committee of community leaders reviewed grant applications and made funding recommendations.

This spring, the Foundation distributed $1.635 million in settlement funds to over 30 nonprofits working on the front lines of environmental and climate justice along the Texas coast. From grassroots community groups to Indigenous-led organizations to legal advocates, these grants went directly to the people who have long borne the cost of pollution. According to Rhiannon Scott, Executive Director of Fund grantee Coastal Watch Association, “This funding allows us to expand our community air monitoring, strengthen public engagement, and ensure Coastal Bend communities have the data, resources and support they need to stand up for clean air, clean water and responsible development.”

Traditionally, environmental legal settlements flow to government agencies or mitigation funds with little community input. The Texas Coastal Frontline Fund took a different approach by directing settlement proceeds to resident-led nonprofits and their legal partners through a participatory grantmaking process, ensuring accountability that delivers support to those who have endured the greatest harm. According to Elizabeth Love, CEO of the Jacob and Terese Foundation, “the Fund represents a new model in environmental justice: ensuring that money won in the fight against pollution flows to the communities most affected by pollution, and where residents have been organizing for years, often with minimal support or resources.”

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