As climate risks intensify, social impact leaders play a critical role in  building resilience — leveraging business assets, philanthropic capital, and cross-sector partnerships to protect vulnerable communities.

On May 29, NationSwell convened leaders from business, philanthropy, and NGOs to surface actionable insights on what’s working, how to scale solutions, and the role of impact teams in helping communities adapt to the threats posed by a changing climate. Some of the insights they surfaced have been collected below:

Insights

Combine your geographic footprint with other variables to triangulate where you can have the greatest impact on disaster preparedness and response. One participant shared that using retail density is a useful criteria for where to concentrate resources and prioritize disaster preparedness. Cross-referencing these high-density areas with existing partnerships, active employee resource groups, strong leadership presence, and community vulnerability can provide strong cues for how and where to invest and deploy resources.

Invest in communities’ fundamental needs in order to improve their resilience. Resilience begins at the most basic level: Communities need food, water, and adequate housing, and other key assets to thrive. Commitments to provide these upstream components of security should come alongside any rapid response initiatives.

Empower local leaders and sites to make funding decisions that meet community needs. Passing the budget down to those working at the most local level possible ensures that the money has the greatest chance of getting exactly where it needs to be. Community-based work can help to mobilize employee engagement, build trust on the ground, and make an outsized impact in the localities you serve.

Leverage your existing assets to increase disaster preparedness. Focus on efforts and initiatives where your company can have the greatest impact, based on your unique assets and capabilities. Taking a more targeted approach also requires making tough decisions about which initiatives to pursue and which to sunset, ensuring resources are directed where the company is best positioned to succeed.

Don’t overlook the simple solutions; they can be quite impactful. While the urgency and frequency of natural disasters deserves our attention, so too do the factors contributing to climate change. While initiatives that involve recycling or planting trees might feel overly simple to some, research shows that they have the potential to create outsize impacts in communities in more ways than one.

Leverage balance sheet capital, corporate venture funds, and other pools of resources to invest in climate technology, new energy programs, and other climate solutions. There is an urgent need to fund innovation by founders with lived experience confronting climate challenges. Diversifying funding to ensure that underrepresented founders have a seat at the table helps to create a fairer and more effective climate tech ecosystem. Working with intermediary partners like LabStart and Village Capital can help you to source these founders.