ECCF launches regional coalition, announces investment in local, collaborative climate solutions
Beverly, Mass — Essex County Community Foundation (ECCF), a nonprofit grantmaker and convener dedicated to improving the lives of people in Essex County, recently announced a $3 million, 5-year investment in a climate resilient Essex County for all.
The announcement came during Earth Month in April, at the launch of a coalition being built by ECCF to focus on ways nonprofit, business, municipal and community leaders can come together to face rising temperatures, increasingly severe storms and local flood events.
In Essex County, 74% of cities and towns are at risk from coastal, inland and storm surge flooding.
Coalition-building is the first step in ECCF’s multi-pronged systems-change effort to solve challenges like these and others, including a sharp increase in heat-related illness and soaring energy costs.
In addition to the coalition, ECCF’s climate resiliency efforts will also include grant programs for new, collaborative innovations (the first round slated for Fall 2025); investments in existing partnerships that can be scaled across the region; capacity-building and advocacy.
“We know that many people and organizations across Essex County have been engaged in this work to increase local climate resiliency for a long time,” said Kate Machet, ECCF’s vice president of systems initiatives and government relations. “And that work is foundational to these efforts. Our goal here is to bring that dedication and knowledge together to make an impact on a larger scale.”
ECCF has seen success in leading similar collective efforts to support the local arts and culture ecosystem and to expand digital access across Essex County.
“We heard loud and clear from our local communities that climate resiliency was a high priority and one that people felt ECCF could support as a hub for countywide solutions,” said ECCF President and CEO Stratton Lloyd. “We have a real opportunity here to work better together.”
“The time is now to unite the incredible work being done by so many into a collective effort to strengthen our region and prepare for a resilient future,” he added.
ECCF’s climate resiliency work is being supported by an initial grant from the Barr Foundation, a Boston funder committed to supporting climate efforts throughout the state. Kalila Barnett, senior program officer for climate resilience at Barr, was on hand at the coalition launch to address the more than 100 people who logged in for the virtual event. She talked about the need for climate work to be less siloed and more regional.
“What we continue to see, is that the work being done city-by-city and town-by-town is not adequate,” Barnett said. “What we need are new partnerships like the ones that will be seeded in this coalition. ECCF, for us, as a partner, is really critical.”
“I’m just super excited about the work Essex County Community Foundation has been doing to structure and build this coalition,” she added. “We have the opportunity to build something strong and effective.”
Marybeth Groff, hazard mitigation and climate adaptation coordinator for the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency (MEMA), also attended the launch. She spoke broadly about how climate change is impacting the state – by 2070, Massachusetts will experience heat like North Carolina does now, and by 2090, the state’s heat will match that of Georgia’s regular temperatures – and the solutions being implemented across the Commonwealth to prepare for the future, including the $52.4 million in Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness Grants awarded by the Healey-Driscoll administration in 2024.
Additional statewide initiatives to fund local action, like the new Disaster Relief and Resiliency Fund and $200 million in Fair Share revenue to update culverts and small bridges, are also underway.
“There’s all this great stuff happening across the state, but in Essex County right now, there’s no coordinated effort,” said Lloyd. “As a region, how can we do this differently?”
ECCF, with the launch of one of the first regional climate coalitions in the state, hopes to answer this question together with the 34 cities and towns of Essex County.
“The concept of climate resiliency is critical to so many facets of life in our region, from food security and housing to economic development and social services,” said Machet. “We’re fortunate that here in Essex County, people from different sectors and backgrounds are willing to roll up their sleeves and figure out ways to work together for the betterment of all.”
The next meeting of the ECCF’s Climate Resilience Coalition will take place June 12, 2025. To sign up to become a member of the coalition and join the movement to face our challenges together, please visit eccf.org/climate-coalition/.
