Member Spotlight: Rachael Young
Rachael Young, Deputy Director of Partnerships with Just Transition Fund
Brief Bio:
Rachael leads partnership strategies at the Just Transition Fund. She previously worked for over a decade at the Mertz Gilmore Foundation, where she led place-based and national philanthropic initiatives at the nexus of climate, energy, and economic and racial justice. This work included long-standing engagement with coal transition efforts, and, in her role at MGF, she was an early JTF funding partner. Her philanthropic experience also includes leadership roles with many funder networks and collaborative initiatives. She grew up in Asheville, NC, where she lives with her husband, son, and daughter.
What is the mission of your organization, and why is this pursuit important to you? The Just Transition Fund works to create resilient communities in places across the country most impacted by the decline of the coal industry, including Appalachia, and advance economic solutions that are equitable, inclusive, and low-carbon. We’re the only national organization focused on ensuring that transitioning coal communities have what they need to envision and realize a vibrant economic future. And, since we launched in 2015, we’ve created a national model for the equitable implementation of federal funding, helping disadvantaged communities overcome the many barriers to successfully accessing federal investment in locally-led projects. Prior to joining the JTF about three years ago, I worked in national climate philanthropy and saw the critical importance of ensuring that everyone is able to benefit from the transition to a clean energy economy, which requires exactly the kind of place-based, bottom up approach to solutions that the JTF is so committed to. I’m also a native of and transplant back to the region, and on a personal level I care deeply about this work.
What is a project you are working/have recently worked on that you’re passionate about? What was the impact of this project? How did you demonstrate that impact There are now hundreds of billions of dollars available at the federal level to support economic development in disadvantaged communities, but at the same time, the very communities that these programs are designed to serve face so many obstacles to actually accessing this funding (burdensome matching fund requirements, complex application processes, etc). The JTF has been helping communities overcome these barriers since our founding, and over the past couple of years, we’ve expanded that work, in the form of our Federal Access Center, to ensure that coal communities are able to take full advantage of this moment of opportunity. To date, we’ve now helped to drive nearly $2B in federal investment into coal communities to support locally-led projects that are creating tangible economic impact.
What do you see as the greatest strength of Central Appalachian communities? It sounds cliche, but the people, who bring such incredible leadership, creativity, and love of place to the work. The region has been dealing with the decline of the coal industry for so long, and communities here have developed visionary solutions that are having a transformative economic impact on local communities and the people who live there. Places across the country that are at earlier stages of transition are looking to Appalachia for models of what works – subverting false national stereotypes and assumptions about the region, which in fact in so many ways is at the forefront of just transition nationally. There is still plenty of work to be done, but I’m so inspired by the people in this region and the remarkable progress being made toward building just and inclusive communities.
What is one thing you’d like to see improved in how funders work together in Central Appalachia? Working in partnership with practitioners. In addition to working with each other, to facilitate shared understanding of the region’s challenges, and identify ways to maximize our collective impact, we should also be working in close relationships with practitioners, to ensure that these funding strategies are closely informed by the needs and opportunities on the ground. This is easy to say but harder to put into practice, so I appreciate that AFN is so intentional about creating spaces for these kinds of dialogues and helping to ensure that they lead to action.
What do you see as the primary hurdle in the pursuit of equitable Appalachian transition? How would you approach this challenge? Capacity. The JTF is actively working to bring more philanthropic investment to Appalachia and distressed coal communities nationwide. There is such an important role for philanthropy to play in building the community capacity that is needed to plan and develop projects, which can in turn help to drive transformative levels of public and private sector investment. We’ve seen this model work in Appalachia, and we see so much opportunity for national investment to help leverage and build on all the assets that are already here and create more stories of success.
What questions do you think funders in Appalachia should be asking regularly about improving their grantmaking processes? What else can we do to ease the administrative burden? This helps to ensure more equitable access to grantmaking resources and frees up capacity for organizations to do the work that directly serves communities. In our work to support our community partners in the federal application process, we see the many barriers that exist to leveraging public resources. This helps us to keep front-and-center efforts to ensure that our own processes are as accessible as possible.
What do you enjoy most about your current position? It is truly such a privilege to be able to work with so many visionary and dedicated leaders, from Appalachia and across the country. I’ve learned so much from them, and I love being in a position to be able to lift up the stories of their work and to help them to learn from each other.