A More United Transit Funder Community Celebrates Federal Wins—and Looks Ahead
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Over the last year-plus, transit agencies pushed to the brink by COVID-19 have received a series of federal funding lifelines. The first pandemic stimulus package, the CARES Act, gave transit agencies $25 billion last March. Another $14 billion came from last December’s appropriations bill, which combined annual spending packages with COVID relief. And the most recent stimulus bill, the American Rescue Plan, added another $30.5 billion to the pot last month.
For the small world of transportation funders, these historic investments in transit are a victory born out of philanthropic support for local advocacy groups and national organizations—and efforts to facilitate greater collaboration between the two in ways that uplift both the experiences of riders and racial equity.
At the center of that effort is the Mobility Fund, a national matching fund that launched last May, and six months later granted $700,000 to eight mobility advocacy groups. Investors in the fund include the Barr, Bullitt, ClimateWorks, Energy, McKnight and Summit foundations, as well as the SRAM Cycling Fund and TransitCenter.
It’s difficult to parse the impact of their efforts from the many other factors in play: a new president focused on climate change and equity; a COVID-induced appreciation of transit’s role as an essential public service; a national awakening on systemic racism, including in transportation policy; a majority party that is increasingly reliant on transit-dependent voters. The list could go on.
But amid these forces, funders say collaboration between national groups and local advocates ensured that legislators not only saw statistics attesting to the vital role of transit, but also heard the voices of riders who depend on buses and trains to get to work and buy their groceries. That reflects a notable pivot in strategy among transportation funders and advocates.
“The voice of the rider had been totally absent from the corridors of Congress—and that produced a federal policy that was totally automobile-oriented and had many racist elements,” said David Bragdon, executive director of the TransitCenter, a fund partner that also does transit research and advocacy. “Being able to bring that rider voice totally changed what was possible.”
Bragdon said the approach marked a shift from the typical cast of transportation lobbyists—which he summarized as “big labor, big biz, big greens, big agencies”—and elevated perspectives from communities of color, who are disproportionately represented among the nation’s bus riders.
Transit advocates were able to secure meetings with members of Congress, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who spoke last month on a webinar organized by the Mobility and Access Collaborative, an initiative of The Funders Network that organized the Mobility Fund. “For too long, we’ve been stuck in this transportation paradigm… ‘four-wheels good, two-wheels and train cars bad.’ And that’s got to change,” Schumer said.
What brought the partners together
A seminal moment in the development of this effort was a December 2019 meeting organized by the TransitCenter and hosted by the Greater New Orleans Foundation. Grantees from around the country gathered to learn from each other and share notes. A game plan of sorts came in the form of a 34-page report, Winning Transit, which reviewed a wide variety of successful local advocacy campaigns.
Another key factor was TransitCenter bringing on board a new nonprofit partner focused on organizing, Alliance for a Just Society. While the organization had limited transportation experience, it helped train groups in the network on organizing principles. That work helped connect local energy to national work. When the pandemic hit, those efforts accelerated.
“Transit advocacy has been very local,” said Martha Roskowski, coordinator of the Mobility and Access Collaborative, and a long-time mobility advocate. “There’s been very little transit organizing around federal issues. That changed dramatically when coronavirus hit.”
Bragdon had a similar observation. “When you start building community power, even though it was originally built to be focused on local action, it can be redirected quickly when there’s an opportunity at the federal level,” he said.
While the Mobility Fund is relatively small so far, research suggests it’s significant relative to the amount of grant dollars in the space. A recent ClimateWorks analysis that found climate philanthropy gives $50 million toward transportation each year—and only a fraction of that is spent in the United States—out of the estimated $1.1 billion granted annually worldwide on climate change mitigation in recent years.
How local funders are coming on board
A small network of grantmakers in the Pacific Northwest offers an example of how the Mobility Fund is drawing local funders into the mix.
The Sustainable Communities Funders, a grantmaker group based in Seattle, had previously funded some transportation work, but nothing since 2015. When the Mobility Fund launched last summer, a common link brought the efforts together. Neelima Shah, senior program officer at the Bullitt Foundation, is both a member of the Sustainable Community Funders and serves on the Mobility Fund’s advisory committee.
It was a good match. The local grantmakers—the Bullitt, Satterberg and Seattle foundations, and three individual donors who give via family foundations—loved the opportunity for matching dollars. And the fund’s expertise, along with half-hour YouTube videos on federal transportation policy, helped group members with limited transportation knowledge get up to speed. “The easier you can make it for folks, the more money that can come in,” Shah said.
The new connections helped national and local advocacy groups coordinate. Shah said Smart Growth America, a national nonprofit that played a major role in advocating for federal funding, was able to help local groups get involved in a national advocacy campaign of sign-on letters, media outreach, and online town halls. One of those was Transportation Choices, a Seattle-based coalition.
“[Transportation Choices is] doing so much work here in the state of Washington that they can’t always pay attention in great detail to what’s happening at the federal level,” Shah said. “[Smart Growth America was] able to say, ‘this is the time to pay attention.’”
How a national grantmaker known for electrification work got involved
The story of how ClimateWorks Foundation became one of the newest members of the Mobility Fund illustrates how the global funding intermediary has broadened its approach.
When the foundation launched in 2008, transit was not on its agenda. ClimateWorks staff were concerned about transportation—which accounts for the largest share of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions—but it saw fuel efficiency and electrification as the biggest levers for change. Transit, after all, accounts for roughly 3% of all trips Americans take. Then ride hailing apps, rental scooters, and other new transportation options took off. The foundation expanded its work to take into account last-mile trips and the other elements of urban mobility, said Lina Fedirko, transportation program manager at ClimateWorks.
By the time the Mobility Fund got off the ground, the foundation had been part of the Mobility and Access Collaborative for a few years. Several factors led it to commit to the new effort. As for the local funders, leveraging matching funds was attractive. “That was a huge selling point,” said Fedirko. They also saw transit support as one step in addressing how systemic racism has shaped transportation decisions ranging from where highways are built to which forms of transport are funded.
“In the clean energy transition, there’s an opportunity to rebuild a system that includes and centers those who have been excluded from the system we have now,” she said.
In a fascinating parallel with its smaller peers, it also gave them cover. Shah told me that among her group of grantmakers, the fund let them share the risk on grants that they could not have made individually. For ClimateWorks, which works globally, it gave them leeway to support local efforts that might otherwise not pass their typical internal requirements.
“Anything we do has to, first of all, fit into a broader strategy. We’re always thinking about, how can it be replicated, how can it scale?” Fedirko said. “It was a way for us to support work that we would not normally be able to support due to replicability.”
Bringing electrification funders into transit
Beyond its part in securing an extraordinary sum for the nation’s public transit agencies, the fund has offered a venue for collaboration across a longstanding dividing line in transportation funding and philanthropy: transit vs. electrification (particularly of cars).
ClimateWorks and the Energy Foundation are both known for their work on electrification. ClimateWorks, for instance, recently launched the Drive Electric Campaign, a public face for its efforts to accelerate the transition to 100% electric road transportation. The campaign includes bus electrification, but the program's emphasis remains elsewhere. “Transit alone, as a focus area, is not part of our program,” Fedirko said.
But both have signed onto the Mobility Fund—and Roskowski and others are excited to see them join the fold. “Those are two who have been really welcome new partners in this body of work,” she said. Shah sees a shift in cooperation—and acknowledges the dual roles of transit and electrification. “To meet all the climate goals, you really need to do both,” she said.
Shah and other advocates still have plenty of concerns about electrification, from the sprawl that it enables to the increased energy demand it will fuel, considering all power generation has some cost. For instance, she’s concerned about the impact of the Pacific Northwest’s hydropower on salmon and orcas. Shah would like more attention to the full range of benefits of transit, such as leading riders to walk more, shifting land use patterns, and shaping communities that reduce loneliness, particularly among the elderly.
“Groups and the funders are starting to come together on this and be less divided,” Shah said. “But we don’t all agree necessarily.”
What’s ahead for transportation and funders?
While federal money has provided a much-needed lifeline to transit agencies, funders are wary of the many challenges ahead.
First, while the figure is eye-popping, so are the losses. Bragdon and others say the funds will only cover red ink from lost ridership and other losses during the pandemic. “It sort of gets American transit back to where it was, but where it was was really pretty crummy,” he said.
Second, while the advocates I spoke to hoped the money would be used to get buses and trains running full schedules again—and thus lure back riders—there’s no guarantee on either front. “There’s been some instances of federal money coming in and transit agencies not using it to restore service,” Roskowski said. “Local advocates are engaging to ensure it’s used to restore service.”
Third, the upcoming reauthorization of the federal transportation funding bill offers some real levers for change, but funder engagement has been limited. Roskowski said she’s optimistic, but that work should have started a lot sooner—and it might be better to look further ahead. “If we got our act together, and started investing now, we could make significant change on the next bill,” she said.
On the other hand, there’s President Joe Biden’s infrastructure bill. It proposes spending $85 billion over eight years to upgrade city mass transit, roughly doubling annual federal spending on public transportation. Another $115 billion is provided for roads, but the focus is on repair, not expansion. The New York Times called the bill “one of the most ambitious efforts yet to challenge the centrality of the automobile in American life.” Whether it can get through the Senate—or even the House—is unclear.
The Mobility Fund will do a second round of grants later this year, likely at the end of summer. The focus will remain on bringing the power of local advocates representing transit riders to the federal level. The other aim is to bring more funders on board.
While the fund’s most prominent recent additions have been climate funders, the nation’s ongoing reckoning on systemic racism may bring wider interest in transit reforms, starting with philanthropy, said Darryl Young, director of the Sustainable Cities program at the Summit Foundation, a fund partner.
“If all these philanthropic organizations are committed to justice, are committed to a race-class narrative, why aren’t they invested in transportation?” Young said. “If you want social mobility, where are you on mobility?”
