Common River was born out of a few central beliefs about what it takes to transition our economy to livable and prosperous future:
1) those closest to the negative impacts of our current system must be at the forefront; this is an all hands on deck effort
2) this work needs to be resourced and there needs to be an easier way for those doing the work to access these
3) we must be unapologetic about ensuring that the transition is just
When I began to share Common River publicly at the beginning of 2025, I didn’t know what to expect but I’ve been beyond grateful for every forwarded email, every opportunity sent our way, and for the value you’ve seen in this newsletter. Thank you for reading and I would love the opportunity to connect with you 1:1 if interested to learn how this platform can better support you. Thank you for being here and see you in 2026!
Table of Contents
Candid of me taking some much needed rest & strategic planning before getting back to it in 2026 ✌🏽
By the numbers:
Funding Opps: 35+
Job Opps: 65+
Contract Opps: 15+
Funding Opportunities 💰
SEEDS Project - Energy Efficiency Marketing and Case Management Microgrants by Southeast Energy Efficiency Alliance (SEEA)
Who it's for: SEEA seeks local governments, nonprofits, and community organizations to provide marketing and case management assistance to help low-income households access energy efficiency, weatherization, and home repair programs. The initiative aims to reach 5,000 households across the Southeast with program information and enroll at least 500 households in home upgrade programs.
Funding Amount: $10,000 - $15,000
Deadline: 12/10/2025
How to Apply: Click Here
NYC Founder Fellowship by Visible Hands NY
Who it's for: A fourteen-week fellowship program for early-stage, overlooked founders building high-growth, tech and tech-enabled businesses in New York City. Teams must have at least one co-founder currently living in one of NYC's five boroughs and be able to commit 2 hours per week to the program.
Funding Amount: $10,000
Deadline: 12/31/2025
How to Apply: Click Here
Sage Impact Entrepreneurship: Scaling Solutions for People and the Planet 2026 by Village Capital
Who it's for: A multi-year initiative supporting early-stage entrepreneurs across the US making positive environmental, social, and economic impact in their communities. Eligible startups must be legally incorporated for-profit entities with market-based climate/sustainability solutions, a minimum viable product, and less than $1.5M in equity raised.
Funding Amount: $50,000
Deadline: 1/5/2025
How to Apply: Click Here
Natural Climate Solutions Implementation Barriers RFP by Allen Family Philanthropies
Who it's for: Allen Family Philanthropies seeks U.S.-based non-profit organizations to develop science and technology solutions that break implementation barriers for Natural Climate Solutions. The foundation will fund 6-7 projects lasting up to 3 years to co-develop, test, and deploy solutions with diverse teams of scientists, practitioners, and stakeholders.
Funding Amount: $10,000,000 available
Deadline: 1/15/2025
How to Apply: Click Here
Scaling Pathways to Homeownership Open Call by Capital One Foundation
Who it's for: A $25 million initiative to identify and support bold solutions that expand access to affordable homeownership across the United States and U.S. Territories. The program seeks innovations in housing counseling, consumer education, and for-sale housing production at scale.
Funding Amount: $25,000,000 available
Deadline: 1/29/2026
How to Apply: Click Here
Jobs & Fellowships 👨🏽💼👩🏽💼
Chief of Staff
Organization: Sunrise Movement
Location: United States; Remote
Description: Keep the organization focused on strategic goals while serving as cross-functional glue and helping the executive director prioritize effectively. This senior leadership role involves making complex decisions, managing teams, coordinating with unions, and overseeing organizational risk management.
Deadline to Apply: 11/24/2025 (accepting rolling apps)
Salary: $90,000 - $115,000
Link to Apply: Click Here
Director of Communications
Organization: Mothers Out Front
Location: United States; Remote
Description: Lead national communications efforts building power among mothers and caregivers to take action on climate justice. Oversee all communications aspects including media relations, digital communications, and narrative development while supervising staff and collaborating with organizing teams to win campaigns.
Deadline to Apply: 12/1/2025 (accepting rolling apps)
Salary: $109,000
Link to Apply: Click Here
Manager of Data, Strategy & Impact
Organization: Liberation Ventures
Location: United States; Remote
Description: Drive Liberation Ventures' data strategy and impact analysis to support the reparations movement through grantmaking strategy, polling & research, and audience analysis. Work cross-functionally to track KPIs, manage research infrastructure, and communicate organizational impact to accelerate progress toward comprehensive reparations for Black Americans.
Deadline to Apply: Apply ASAP
Salary: $95,000 - $125,000
Link to Apply: Click Here
Content Manager (part-time)
Organization: Next River
Location: San Francisco Bay Area, CA; Remote
Description: Support Next River's mission of collective liberation through content development and digital infrastructure management. Implement content strategy, manage publishing calendar across channels, and grow online audience engagement.
Deadline to Apply: Apply ASAP
Salary: $60,000 - $65,000
Link to Apply: Click Here
Policy Advisor, U.S. Climate Alliance
Organization: U.S. Climate Alliance
Location: Washington, DC; Hybrid
Description: Support governors' offices in advancing electricity sector and carbon pricing policy solutions as primary advisor to Alliance members on state and federal policy matters. Manage working groups and provide guidance to states in developing climate policies.
Deadline to Apply: Apply ASAP
Salary: $90,000 - $100,000
Link to Apply: Click Here
RFP & Contracting Opportunities 📑
RFP: Regional Resilience Hub Energy Feasibility Assessments
Issued By: Central Pines Regional Council
Scope: Central Pines Regional Council seeks qualified firms to conduct technical feasibility assessments for community-serving facilities across seven North Carolina counties to determine upgrades needed for reliable, resilient, and clean energy during normal and emergency operations. The assessments will evaluate electrification of building systems, battery energy storage systems, and solar photovoltaic installations to guide planning for a potential regional network of resilience hubs.
Budget: Not disclosed
Deadline for Proposals: 12/12/2026
Details & Submission Link: Click Here
Open Call: ClimAccelerator 2025
Issued By: Climate KIC
Scope: ClimAccelerator is a global program supporting cleantech start-ups to scale climate solutions and drive rapid impact toward a net-zero and resilient future. Start-ups must be focused on climate innovation and demonstrate scalable solutions in areas such as carbon reduction, adaptation, or resilience.
Budget: N/A
Deadline for Proposals: 12/31/2025
Details & Submission Link: Click Here
Fellowship: Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity 2026-27 Cohort
Issued By: London School of Economics and Political Science - International Inequalities Institute
Scope: Fully-funded fellowship for mid-career social-change leaders with at least seven years of experience challenging inequalities, offering Residential and Non-Residential tracks with intensive learning, skills-building, and networking opportunities. The programme accepts policymakers, researchers, activists, practitioners, artists, and movement-builders working in fields including economic and social rights, sustainability and environmental justice, tax justice, housing inequalities, labour rights, and community organizing.
Funding: Fully funded fellowship
Details & Submission Link: Click Here
Lagniappe ⚜ (a lil extra)
News Scan: Updates to Track 📰
The hottest trend in climate tech with both the blessing and backing of the fossil fuel industry is all things carbon capture utilization sequestration and ammonia. While VCs and climate policy wonks herald it as the only way to get us to where we need in regards to global Co2 emissions, they ignore the currently environmental, economic, and physical harms done to the people who live in these industrial areas (and who lived there first to be clear). Furthermore, governments and economic developers are bulldozing through the standard permit and environmental review processes in order to move these industry-backed projects forward. The good folks at the Louisiana Bucket Brigade and Rural Roots Louisiana are calling BS and fighting these “false solutions” that bolster the fossil fuel regime.
From the article:
"Everybody wants to develop Modeste into the industrial mega park. I think all the rules are getting thrown out the window. You said this area was sensitive to industrial pollution, now it's not anymore?" Rural Roots Louisiana Founder, Ashley Gaignard, said.
"With respect to these permits, there is no continuous ammonia monitoring. There is no ozone ceasing monitoring, there is also no regard given to the cumulative impacts of building another facility in Donaldsonville and Modeste," Alpay [attorney for the groups] said.
Looking Ahead: Upcoming Events 🗓️
Date: 12/5/2025; 12 - 2 PM CT
Location: Virtual
Title: Graduation Showcase | Start.coop's Black Community Wealth Accelerator Q&A
Host: Start.coop
Description: “Join us to meet and celebrate our cohort of twelve Black-owned cooperatives as they share the incredible, impactful work they do!”
Sign Up: Click Here
Date: 12/9/2025; 11 AM CT
Location: Virtual
Title: The Collaborative Effect: Grantee Perspectives on How Collaborative Funds Work Best
Host: Vital Impact, Redstone Strategy Group, and Philanthropy Together
Description: “The Collaborative Effect is a new national research effort exploring what makes collaborative funds most effective from the perspective of grantees. Led by Vital Impact, Redstone Strategy Group, and Philanthropy Together this study asked grantees directly what practices matter most. Through survey data, focus groups, and case studies, the research surfaced clear patterns: collaboratives that embody proximity, partnership, responsiveness, and shared power deliver more profound grantee-driven impact.”
Sign Up: Click Here
⚡️ Recharge ⚡️
This effort was born out of my frustration in seeing that the resources out there - from grants & funding to job & career opportunities and even contracts weren’t reaching the folks on-the-ground, doing the work of transitioning our economy. More importantly, Common River was born out of a deep admiration and sense of solidarity for those on the frontlines and fencelines, organizing every day to build the world that we deserve.
For those of us from these areas, for those in solidarity with us, for those who want to ensure that the transition of our economy away from extraction driven by fossil fuel interests and into a regenerative one where we’re all have sustainable, prosperous futures, Common River is for you. Thank you for being here.
In 2026, my intention with this platform is three-fold:
1) Increased Navigational Support:
While it has been great to share opportunities with you, it would be more ideal if Common River were better able to support in advanced opportunity preparations, forecasting what’s to come, and more pointed information to determine whether a given opportunity is aligned with where you’re heading or with your organization’s mission.
2) Highlighting Models of Success:
For many of us, 2025 has been a year of being in the trenches with many of our orgs facing unprecedented challenges. And yet, despite this, the work continues! There is potential in Common River platforming how people and orgs have navigated this new terrain, gotten opportunities, made the numbers work so that projects come together, and more. Many of you have been nothing short of brilliant in GSD this year.
3) Enabling Infrastructure:
To accomplish the first two will require substantive investments in improving this newsletter, our website, and the behind-the-scenes automations that enable this. This infrastructure will free up more of my time to connect with each of you and perhaps more importantly, to better facilitate connections amongst this incredible community of peers.
Anything that I’m missing that you’d like to see? Would love to chat 1:1 !
In solidarity,
Trace