Sustainable Cities Fund – Brandon Rothrock – 2024

Summary

Brandon Rothrock supported evaluation and learning efforts for the Fund’s Local Infrastructure Hub (LIH) Cohorts Program by refining impact methodology and co-creating tools and organizational data structures.

Goals

The Sustainable Cities Fund (SCF), a project of the New Venture Fund, operates as a strategic regrantor, working with cities, local partners, and other subnationals to advance equitable climate action in support of Funders’ programs and projects. SCF is critically examining their role in providing financial support, technical assistance, and guidance for partners, programs, and projects that create economic opportunity for all, improve lives, and help meet climate goals. SCF enlisted Climate Corps Fellow Brandon Rothrock to:

1. Capture indicators and metrics to deliver strong evaluation and impact reporting
2. Develop internal systems and processes that increase internal Fund capacity while promoting SCF’s approach to supporting local governments and community partners.

Solutions

Rothrock identified a list of impact and reporting metrics that are collected throughout the Fund’s ecosystem, from its own funders to grantees and technical assistance providers. He also streamlined reporting requirements and produced a narrative report template for grantees to utilize at the middle and end of their grant period. Rothrock further produced a Logic Model detailing the Fund’s activities as a strategic regranter and how it can invest in long-term impacts by driving resources and capacity building to local communities facing the most significant and disproportionate impacts of climate change. Aside from these main tasks, he also participated in Salesforce testing, data clean-up with regard to contracts and grants reporting logs, and aided SCF’s Climate Corps Communications Fellow in interviews with key stakeholders and community members.

Potential Impact

Rothrock drafted materials that have the potential to increase the Fund’s ability to capture relevant data while supporting the idea that supporting local governments and community partners is key to broad climate progress. The impact metrics and Logic Model outlined by Rothrock will be utilized to streamline data collection schema and increase staff capacity. If Rothrock’s recommendations are implemented, the Sustainable Cities Fund could further their mission while simultaneously supporting the resilience of the Fund and its ability to communicate its successes and harbor further investments from funders interested in accelerating both racial wealth equity and climate action.