VIBES: HAPPY. BLACK. HISTORY. MONTH. ‼️
If you’re reading this newsletter, then I assume that you: value human rights, are combatting the climate crisis, are exercising the “hope as a discipline” as Mariama Kaba puts it because you wake up every day bold enough to work towards a future where we all flourish. BHM reminds us of the throughlines between past, present, and future. This lens allows us to see the how the environmental injustices by fossil fuels of today are rooted in the plantation economy of yesterday and that to get us all free, we have to look through the experience of Black Americans.
Table of Contents
💰 Funding Opps 25
Transit Narrative Change Lab by TransitCenter and Climate and Community Institute
💰 $50,000
✍🏾 18-month cohort program providing grants and training for transit communications leaders to become narrative change practitioners
📅 Feb 9, 2026 📍 United States
💪🏾 Apply Now
Driving Mobility & Accessibility on Public Land Grant by the National Environmental Education Foundation (NEEF)
💰 $20,000
✍🏾 Grants to improve accessibility on public lands near Toyota facilities for people with disabilities
📅 Feb 18, 2026 📍 United States (near public lands)
💪🏾 Apply Now
Open Call Grants by the Clif Family Foundation
💰 $5,000 - $50,000
✍🏾 General operating grants for organizations advancing regenerative farming, food justice, climate solutions, and healthy community access.
📅 Mar 1, 2026 📍 United States
💪🏾 Apply Now
Fellowship by Camelback Ventures
💰 $50,000
✍🏾 16-week fellowship providing capital, coaching, and connections to early-stage entrepreneurs addressing education and technology inequities
📅 Mar 2, 2026 📍 United States
💪🏾 Apply Now
2026 Grants Competition by the Climate Smart Communities Initiative
💰 $60,000-$115,000
✍🏾 Grants for community-based climate resilience projects in frontline US communities
📅 Mar 12, 2026 📍 United States
💪🏾 Apply Now
💼 Jobs & Fellowships 80+
Senior Manager, Programs and Development for Just Economy Institute
💵 $90,000 - $115,000
✍🏾 Oversee programs, fundraising, and communications for a fellowship connecting financial innovators working toward a just economy.
📅 Apply ASAP 📍 United States (West Coast Preferred; Remote
💪🏾 Apply Now
Climate Organizing Director for Jobs with Justice San Francisco
💵 $92,000-$101,000
✍🏾 Lead statewide labor coalition organizing for worker-led climate transition and good jobs in California
📅 Apply ASAP 📍 San Francisco; Hybrid
💪🏾 Apply Now
Director of Originations for DC Green Bank
💵 $147,000
✍🏾 Lead investment origination and execution for clean energy and green infrastructure projects at DC Green Bank.
📅 Apply ASAP 📍 Washington, D.C.; Hybrid
💪🏾 Apply Now
Project Manager, Southern Appalachian Land Protection for Trust for Public Land
💵 $82,423-$96,000
✍🏾 Lead investment origination and execution for clean energy and green infrastructure projects at DC Green Bank.
📅 Apply ASAP 📍 Southern Appalachia; Hybrid
💪🏾 Apply Now
Sustainable Justice HBCU Fellowship for Sustain Our Future Foundation
💵 $5,000 stipend + $10,000 scholarship
✍🏾 Paid summer fellowship for HBCU students focused on climate justice and community-driven environmental solutions
📅 Mar 27 📍 United States; Remote
💪🏾 Apply Now
📝 RFP & Contracting 15
Call for Applicants: Southwest Louisiana Leadership Cohort by Healthy Gulf & Rainforest Action Network
💲 N/A
✍🏾 Leadership training cohort for Southwest Louisiana community organizers working on environmental justice and petrochemical issues
📅 Feb 4 📍 Southwest Louisiana
💪🏾 Apply Now
RFP: Accelerator Workshop Delivery Partner by Work for America
💲 Not disclosed
✍🏾 Seeking consultant to co-facilitate 8-week virtual workshops helping city HR teams improve government hiring systems
📅 Feb 5, 2026 📍 United States
💪🏾 Apply Now
RFP: Multimedia Production Services by Brookings Institution
💲 Not disclosed
✍🏾 Video production services for 1.5-day Mississippi Delta event with B-roll, interviews, and optional recap video
📅 Feb 28, 2026 📍 Yazoo City and Jackson, MS
SOMETIMES YOU NEED A LIL EXTRA
⚜️ Lagniappe
Image source: @blackfoodfridays on Threads
Largest private equity firms won’t exit fossil fuels until at
least 2090 at current pace by Matt Parr for Private Equity Stakeholder Project
The Take: Amongst the largest private equity firms in the country, more than 60% of their energy portfolios are invested in fossil fuels with these investments continuing until the turn of the century. So much for those 2050 committments huh? 😉
The Take: I was talking a friend over the weekend about how both the fossil fuel industry, data centers, and other extractive developments use the language of “inevitability” as a tactic to push their agendas onto communities. As the fossil fuel industry continues to cling to their dominance, when the math doesn’t math, communities are left holding the bag. None of this is inevitable; we have agency.
SOME GOOD ENERGY FOR Y’ALL
⚡️ Recharge
Baldwin was clear-eyed and often prescient about how intertwined our fates are: our country cannot flourish unless Black people flourish
"I can't be a pessimist because I'm alive, so I'm forced to be an optimist. But the future of the Negro in this country is precisely as bright or as dark as the future of the country. It is entirely up to the American people whether or not they are going to face and deal with and embrace this stranger whom they maligned so long.”
For those of us from the frontlines, for those in solidarity with us, for those who want to ensure that the transition of our economy away from extraction is into a regenerative one where we all have sustainable, prosperous futures — Common River is for you.
Thank you for being here.
In solidarity,
Trace