Capacity development partner grants

What we fund

GMF’s Local Leadership for Climate Adaptation initiative funds partners to design and deliver technical training. This support equips local governments with the knowledge and skills to advance their climate adaptation work.

To be eligible for funding, your training project must focus on one of these three priority areas: 

• Climate-Ready Plans and Processes: Empower communities to build the skills to assess climate risks and create equitable adaptation plans. This includes a focus on integrating climate resilience into municipal systems such as land-use planning and asset management.  
• Adaptation in Action: Help local governments move from planning to implementation by supporting municipalities in scoping, designing and implementing capital projects that reduce climate risks while prioritizing equitable and nature-positive solutions. Additional funding of up-to $100,000 may be available for each participating community to implement projects.
• Financing Adaptation: Strengthen local governments’ understanding of non-grant funding options (eg. levies, loans and blended finance) to diversify how they finance climate adaptation projects. This priority area focuses on building the technical knowledge and skills needed to identify suitable projects, determine when different funding approaches are appropriate and improve overall readiness to pursue them.

Benefits 

GMF partners will help local governments to:  

• Accelerate their resilience to climate change impacts 
• Support their understanding and adoption of best practices 
• Develop and implement projects funded through GMF 
• Improve the quality of the projects they undertake, realizing greater social, economic and environmental benefits for communities 
• Scale climate adaptation initiatives developed through non-grant funding options. 

Who is this training for? 

This training is for individuals who work for local governments and organizations that support those communities, including: 

• Local governments  
  • Municipal staff 
  • Elected officials 
• Indigenous communities 
  • Staff and band members 
  • Elected and hereditary Chiefs and councillors  
  • Community representatives and knowledge holders 
• Not-for-profit organizations that support and deliver services to communities (e.g., utilities; health, conservation or transit authorities; GMF partners) 

What your project needs to achieve 

We fund deliverables that support municipal sector transformation and address the following:  

• Climate risk integration into municipal plans, processes, systems and projects 
• Equity considerations in climate adaptation 
• Reconciliation and climate adaptation: Indigenous knowledge and collaboration 
• Nature-based solutions, including natural assets and biodiversity 
• Low carbon adaptation
• Project engagement and collaboration 
• Organizational readiness to pursue innovative and non-traditional funding for climate adaptation projects 

Funded activities 

We fund three types of capacity development training activities:  

1. Foundational technical assistance training 
2. In-depth technical assistance training 
3. Technical assistance through collaborative training  

Eligible activities

The table below outlines eligible activities and their corresponding learning outcomes. 

Activity	Overarching learning outcome
Foundational technical assistance (plans, processes and systems)	Increase participant understanding of equity-informed climate considerations and their integration into plans, processes and systems.
In-depth technical assistance (plans, processes and systems)	Increase participant skills and capacity to apply climate risk information and integrate equity-informed climate adaptation into plans, processes and systems
Collaborative training (plans, processes and systems)	Strengthen the sector through collaboration and peer learning. Accelerate equity-informed climate adaptation practices by convening groups of local government staff.
Collaborative training (projects)	Strengthen local governments’ responses to climate hazards by providing guidance for the scoping, design and implementation of climate adaptation projects, while facilitating collaboration and peer learning to accelerate the delivery of equity-informed climate adaptation actions.
Foundational technical assistance (financing adaptation)	Increase participant understanding of different funding options to support adaptation projects and how and when to pursue non-grant funding.
In-depth technical assistance (financing adaptation)	Increase participants skills and capacity to assess and improve their readiness to pursue non-grant funding options for specific adaptation projects.
Collaborative training (financing adaptation)	Strengthen the sector though collaboration and peer learning. Accelerate adaptation implementation by convening cohorts of local governments with shared funding challenges to collectively explore different funding options and apply learning to their contexts.

 

Eligibility requirements 

Eligibility requirements 

Eligible lead applicants for partner grants are defined as registered and incorporated Canadian not-for-profit organizations with a mandate or proven experience with supporting Canadian local governments. 

Eligible lead applicants must have experience delivering capacity building activities. Preference will be given to those with experience delivering activities relevant to the objectives of this initiative. Examples of eligible lead partner organizations include:  

• Provincial and territorial municipal associations 
• Not-for-profit organizations operating in the municipal sector 
• Professional and industry associations 
• Educational institutions 
• Indigenous organizations

The following organizations are not eligible to become a recipient of partner grants: 

• Federal, provincial/territorial or municipal governments 
• Private-sector, for-profit organizations (firms or consultants)*  

*Private sector firms or consultants can be subcontracted to provide technical expertise, project delivery and support.

Application process  

1. Request your materials: Please complete the Application Package Request Form. We will email the full application package—including instructions, resources and timelines—directly to you.
2. Attend the information session: Once you request the application package, you will receive an invitation to a live information session on June 19, 2026. We will review requirements and answer your questions directly.
3. Submit your questions: If you have questions outside of the live session, please submit them through our Question and Answer Form.