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Attachment 1 <br /> 5 <br /> ORANGE COUNTY <br /> NORTH CAROLINA <br /> Date: December 12, 2023 <br /> To: Board of Orange County Commissioners <br /> From: Amy Eckberg, Sustainability Programs Manager <br /> RE: Orange County Community Climate Action Grant- Project Descriptions, Scoring, and Comments for <br /> General and School Applicants <br /> For the 2023-24 funding cycle of the Orange County Community Climate Action Grant program, $564,085 in <br /> funding was budgeted to support climate action projects that benefit Orange County residents both socially and <br /> financially. For this grant cycle,the Board of Orange County Commissioners reserved half of the total funding for <br /> this grant program ($282,042.50)to be awarded to projects submitted by either of Orange County's two public <br /> school districts.The remaining half($282,042.50)was to be made available to all other eligible "general" <br /> applicants. <br /> Based on feedback received from the Board, a concerted effort to publicize the grant opportunity was made this <br /> year. A UNC-Chapel Hill Eco Studio intern helped support our community engagement efforts through phone <br /> calls,flyer distribution and "door to door" canvassing of local businesses, churches, and community groups. A <br /> special info graphic announcing the grant was distributed via social media, Orange County TV screens,website, <br /> and weekly happenings email. A targeted mass email went out to community groups, churches, nonprofits and <br /> small businesses announcing the grant opportunity. As a result of all these outreach efforts, we received the <br /> most grant applications ever received since the inception of the grant and many new applicants! <br /> The Community Climate Action grant program received 11 "general" applications in this round from a variety of <br /> nonprofit and public organizations whose total requests add up to almost$615,000. In addition, both school <br /> districts submitted applications totaling almost$558,000. <br /> Following the scoring and eligibility guidelines of the Board of Orange County Commissioners (BOCC),the <br /> applications were reviewed and scored by the Commission for the Environment (CFE) and the Human Relations <br /> Commission (HRC).The BOCC asked the Human Relations Commission to score the applications on the Social <br /> Justice and Racial Equity criterion, as this pertains to their expertise and because the racial representation of the <br /> CFE as a whole does not reflect the racial diversity of Orange County. <br /> The following is a rank-order summary table of the combined project scoring and recommendations.A full table <br /> showing the scores for each project on each of the 7 scoring elements is included in the Appendix. <br /> P.O. Box 8181 * Hillsborough, North Carolina 27278 <br /> Telephone: (919)245-2625 <br />