To mobilize community stakeholders to support the implementation of the recently approved City of Ann Arbor Climate Action Plan.

Lessons learned about tools and tactics through the project that other sustainability directors could use to advance their work.

There is an appetite among local family foundations and individual philanthropists to support climate solutions and sustainability projects. Creating this opportunity to focus on climate action led to working with new funders; several of these funders even committed funding to this project for multiple years.

Additionally, hosting this project with a non-profit instead of the City opened the project to new channels of outreach and funding. Members of the Climate Partnership were connected to different stakeholders and communities within Ann Arbor, and used those connections to reach beyond the City’s standard means of communication.

Lessons for developing a collaborative process between a local government sustainability director and local place-based foundation(s).

Local sustainability directors should be meeting with their local non-profits and community foundations on a regular basis to develop relationships prior to seeking funding.  When local non-profits develop new donors around community climate projects, opportunities emerge to build a demonstrated case for sustainability philanthropy.