The word “resilience” gets thrown around a lot. In Central Texas and elsewhere, disaster survivors are praised for their resilience as they mourn after storms and try to rebuild their lives. Meanwhile, marketers use the term to sell everything from face cream to cannabis oil. And fossil fuel companies—major perpetrators of the climate crisis itself—tout their commitment to climate resilience with an apparent lack of irony.
While the word may be overused to the point of meaninglessness, “resilience” does mean something. Properly understood, it can show us how to prevent disasters and recover from them. Research from various fields—ecology, the social sciences, disaster recovery—shows how people and communities can survive and thrive amid disruption.
And disruption is in our future. As humans have destabilized the climate and other natural systems, we can expect more deadly floods, fires, and heat waves. Last year alone, Americans endured 27 major weather disasters, which killed 568 people and cost more than $180 billion.
“The weather will never be better than this,” said Jeremy Hays, managing partner of Upright Consulting Services. “We’re going to look back on these crazy wildfire and storm seasons as the good times.”
In other words, we need to up our resilience game.
Hays was one of 30 leaders in climate, energy, health, urban planning, and social justice I recently interviewed for a new report, Realizing Resilience: Toward a Fairer, Greener Future, published by Island Press and The Kresge Foundation. The report offers guidance to funders and others working to build resilience in this time of urgent need.
What Resilience Is—and Isn’t
Resilience is about coping with change. Change is a constant in human and natural history. But we have entered an era in which the pace, scale, and impact of change may be greater than anything we have previously confronted. Resilience, in this context, is about the ability to anticipate, plan for, and mitigate the dangers associated with environmental and social change.
There is no “techno-fix” for resilience. Technical solutions—for example, a seawall to prevent flooding—can’t build resilience on their own. That’s because policy reflects deeply entrenched values and power structures. Which community gets the seawall, and what happens to those left unprotected? Who gets to decide, and who benefits from those decisions? Building resilience begins with deep understanding of the social and environmental dynamics that shape our communities.
Resilience requires transformation. Because so many of the systems we rely on are unsustainable and inequitable, resilience is not about “bouncing back” to the status quo. “We can’t create resilience with what we’re doing,” said Denise Fairchild, founder of the Ubuntu Climate Initiative. “We need radical shifts in consciousness and behaviors.”
Instead, true resilience calls on us to reimagine and remake the systems that supply our energy, transportation, water, and more. It calls us to live within planetary limits, to avoid further destabilizing natural systems. And—importantly—it implores us to eradicate the inequities that magnify vulnerability to disaster, while distributing opportunities more fairly.
It’s bigger than climate. Resilience encompasses climate change mitigation and adaptation. But the qualities that promote resilience—including social cohesion and equity—can help communities weather a wide range of disruptions and challenges, from pandemics to financial crises.
Resilience has its discontents. Marginalized communities and those reeling from disaster can hear calls to be resilient as code for “you’re on your own.” Resilience can be co-opted or offered as a substitute for addressing the root causes of environmental and social problems.
But done right, resilience can generate broad support. Community-led resilience efforts that align with local values and concerns have been widely embraced. In New Orleans, for example, residents have implemented more than 150 green infrastructure projects, using tree plantings and other natural features to sponge up some 50,000 gallons of storm water in flood-prone areas.
And, in a moment when “climate change” has become intensely politicized, the term “resilience” retains widespread support.
Still, resilience is under attack. In his second term, President Trump has undercut resilience in myriad ways. While the Biden administration made historic investments in climate change mitigation, the Trump administration has blocked climate funding; gutted environmental agencies; and scrapped cleaner, cheaper renewable energy in favor of “drill, baby, drill” fossil fuel dependence.
Trump is also coming after programs that help Americans deal with climate disasters today. For example, Trump has called for the elimination of FEMA and canceled a $4.5 billion program that helps hard-hit communities protect themselves from flooding. The Trump administration has even cut funding for satellite storm surveillance, so we may not know when deadly weather is coming.
How We Can Bolster Resilience
Build community capacity. Community-based organizations are the backbone of a resilient society. Groups that have earned trust by responding to local concerns are uniquely prepared to identify and solve community problems. They are also the first line of defense in any disruption—often pivoting to respond to urgent needs before public and private entities can react.
Foundations can sustain and grow these community organizations by providing stable, long-term, general support. They can build local groups’ capacity by networking them with similar groups, and by connecting them to national organizations that provide technical assistance, including legal, communications, and scientific expertise.
Since inequity is deeply embedded in the problem, equity must be part of the solution.
Stay the course. This political moment is a test of our collective resolve, as many advocates and funders are questioning their strategy and commitments. But investments in community-led, equity-centered climate resilience have produced outsized gains.
For example, in 2019, New York Renews, a coalition of over 200 community-based organizations, helped the state pass one of the world’s most ambitious climate plans, which later inspired the Biden administration’s signature climate bill. Now, as the Trump administration claws back federal funding, and some foundations pivot from this work, it is vitally important that others redouble their commitment to preserve gains and continue forward momentum.
Keep equity at the center. Working-class communities, people of color, and other vulnerable groups are hit first and worst by climate impacts and other disruptions. Neighborhoods that were subject to racist redlining policies have received less investment in parks and infrastructure, for example, and as a result, they are more prone to flooding and extreme heat. Since inequity is deeply embedded in the problem, equity must be part of the solution.
Support change at the subnational level. In the vacuum left by federal support, funders and others can scale up local resilience efforts by supporting cooperation among stakeholders: community groups, advocacy organizations, local government, and the private sector. They can focus on policy change in municipal governments, state legislatures, and public utility commissions. And they can build powerful partnerships that span localities and regions, including those with shared geography and resources.
“There’s so much that people are holding….We need to make sure someone is holding the holder.”
Build connections across issues and movements. In our complex, interconnected world, problems are often linked; for example, people living in poverty are disproportionately harmed by climate impacts, which further exacerbate poverty. But solutions are connected as well. A “multisolving” approach, which addresses linked problems simultaneously, can also amplify impact. Weatherizing homes can reduce cost burdens and create jobs while lowering carbon emissions. Multisolving has political benefits too, by forging new constituencies across sectors and movements.
Support and protect leaders. Leaders catalyze movements; they are nurturers of relationships, holders of institutional memory, and invaluable sources of wisdom and perspective. Funders can back them up by mentoring emerging leaders and convening veteran leaders to regroup and think creatively. It is especially important to support leaders of frontline organizations, who often carry unsustainable burdens.
“There’s so much that people are holding,” says Jacqueline Patterson, founder of the Chisholm Legacy Project. “We need to make sure someone is holding the holder.” And, amid a rising tide of hate and political violence in the United States, funders have a special responsibility to help keep leaders safe, both online and in person.
Change the narrative. Too often, advocates have failed to connect resilience with top-of-mind issues like health and the cost of living. “You have to be talking about people’s health or their pocketbook,” says Shamar Bibbins, managing director of The Kresge Foundation’s Environment program. “It has to make financial sense or health sense.” Funders and advocates can invest in communications that emphasize these tangible benefits. For example: Subsidized solar energy can relieve cost burdens for low- and moderate-income homeowners while bending the curve of greenhouse gas emissions. Investments in cultural and narrative change can shift power, building durable support for equity-centered resilience strategies.
Amplify the message—and multiply the messengers. Fossil fuel interests have bankrolled a multi-decade effort to discredit climate change and build support for industry interests. Advocates of equitable climate resilience will need to mount a comparable effort, using legacy media as well as podcasts, influencers, social media, and arts and culture. Importantly, advocates must amplify the voices of community leaders and others who have earned the public’s trust.
Step in, speak up, and spend down. This moment, shaped by escalating climate disaster and political upheaval, is a full-on emergency. Funders can step in to help by filling some of the gaps left by the federal government and retreating foundations. They can speak up—in unison—for the values they hold and the work they support. And they can increase their grantmaking to levels commensurate with current challenges. “This is a moment of crisis on all these different fronts—climate, democracy, equality,” says Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, cofounder of the Urban Ocean Lab. “Funders need to give their money away faster, because 5 percent a year is not cutting it.”
Envision (and create) the world we want. Many of the leaders I interviewed predict dark times ahead: continued climate crisis and political chaos, a profoundly weakened democracy. But even in this moment, there are opportunities for transformative change. Disruption drives innovation, and communities continue to engage creative problem-solving at the local and regional levels.
It is critically important to build on that innovation, and craft a comprehensive vision of the world we want. That vision must include resonant values, as well as practical strategies to build resilience and improve human wellbeing.
