The Greater New Orleans Foundation and its subsidiary, the New Orleans Community Support Foundation, are thrilled to announce the selection of twelve organizations across four parishes for the first round of funding through our Community-Led Green Infrastructure grantmaking program. A total of $1,025,000 will be distributed over the one-year grant period to support projects that advance stormwater and flood resilience in the region’s most vulnerable communities.
This federally funded program is designed to support community-based and nonprofit organizations working to reduce flooding and strengthen stormwater resilience. Funded projects focus on working with communities to better manage water through green infrastructure solutions while centering the voices, leadership, and lived experience of residents in areas most impacted by flooding and climate impacts. Leveraging its track record of grantmaking for vulnerable communities impacted by extreme weather events, the Foundation will distribute $725,000 in grants over round two of this grantmaking program.
“We are proud to support these deserving organizations and the work they are doing in their communities,” said Andy Kopplin, President and CEO of the Greater New Orleans Foundation. “These projects reflect the power of community-driven solutions and the importance of investing in green infrastructure to improve regional resilience.”
Three types of grants were awarded during this round: $50,000 for planning and design, $150,000 for implementation, and $62,500 for storytelling and evaluation.
Planning and Design Awardees:
- Freedom to Grow – The Legacy and Resistance Gardens will demonstrate that green infrastructure can be an antidote to despair by transforming community gardens in New Orleans’ 7th and Lower 9th Wards into living spaces of storytelling, resistance, and ecological healing, with measurable environmental impacts.
- South Louisiana Wetlands Discovery Center – This effort will design a community-led green infrastructure education and demonstration site, featuring a native plant rain garden and permeable sidewalk to reduce flooding, improve water quality, and engage Terrebonne Parish residents and students in hands-on learning about sustainable stormwater management.
- United Houma Nation (UHN) – This project supports the design and planning of green infrastructure at the historic Daigleville Indian School in Terrebonne Parish, engaging UHN citizens in the design process and providing UHN citizens, local residents, and visitors from outside the area with educational programming to promote sustainable water management and honor the site’s legacy.
- Urban Conservancy – This community-led planning project in the Rosedale, Academy Park, Melia, and Pines Village neighborhoods of eastern New Orleans will strengthen local partnerships and resilience by tackling flood risk, extreme heat, and other climate threats. By centering residents’ voices and aligning with city agencies, the planning process aims to co-create solutions that improve safety, health, and overall quality of life across these interconnected communities.
- Wake – The Wake Nonprofit Cemetery Site Selection and Land Use Planning Program entails the planning phase of a new cemetery, which will include the selection of the site, the formation and engagement of a community advisory group, the assessment of the hydrologic and geologic properties of the site, and the creation of landscape architectural plans to incorporate water management for community flood reduction.
- Woven Roots – The Port Sisters Micro Forest & Rain Garden will transform a section of urban land in New Orleans into a biodiverse, climate-resilient forest and rain garden, designed through community-led planning to restore soil health, enhance local ecology, and reconnect residents with the regenerative potential of their landscape.
Implementation Awardees:
- Ironton Reconstruction & Development Board – The Ironton Green Resilience Initiative implements bioswales, permeable surfaces, and native plantings to reduce flooding in a historic riverine community in Plaquemines Parish, integrating stormwater management directly into ongoing disaster recovery efforts and building community capacity through resident-led design and youth workforce development.
- Lowlander Center – This project harvests the abundance of rainfall in Southeast Louisiana by installing cisterns in the two Indigenous bayou communities of Grand Bayou in Plaquemines Parish and Pointe-au-Chien in Terrebonne Parish. Cisterns are urgently needed stormwater infrastructure that strengthens communal autonomy, resilience, and sustainability by addressing the dire situation both communities experience before, during, and after storms: interrupted access to drinking water, saltwater intrusion, and erosion caused by stormwater runoff.
- New Wine Christian Fellowship – Transforming flood-prone areas of its campus in St. John Parish into a resilient, sustainable landscape featuring permeable pavement, rain gardens, and native plantings will reduce stormwater runoff, mitigate flooding, and enhance community environmental stewardship. This project will ensure that community members in the surrounding area are able to reach this location, which is also a Community Lighthouse, to access critical services following disasters and flood events.
- Recirculating Farms – The Rain to Roots Farm at Myrtle Banks in Central City will be a living model of community-led green infrastructure. This project will transform the historic site into an urban farm and edible community green space integrating nature-based, regenerative agriculture practices and rainwater management and reuse, to reduce flooding, repurpose water, expand local fresh food access, and advance environmental health and equity in a vulnerable neighborhood.
Storytelling and Evaluation Awardees:
- Sankofa Community Development Corporation – This project will document and evaluate the transformation of the Lower Ninth Ward through community-led green infrastructure and nature-based solutions, combining data, storytelling, and lived experience to demonstrate how resident-driven ecological restoration, cultural heritage, and environmental justice are rebuilding resilience, restoring wetlands, and reclaiming hope in one of New Orleans’ most vulnerable neighborhoods.
- Water Wise Gulf South – Leveraging the community resident experience, expertise, and involvement, this project in Orleans Parish will evaluate the impact of completed green infrastructure projects, use resident testimonials and videos to conduct storytelling, and disseminate these findings through community events and fact sheets to educate residents and officials on the tangible benefits of Water Wise’s community-led green infrastructure model and to incorporate residents’ priorities and feedback into future .
To support applicants in the application process for the first round and in building capacity for future funding opportunities, the Foundation provided a variety of technical assistance offerings. Applications for the second round will open in fall 2026.