Resilient Cities Catalyst

We accelerate action and build capacity within communities, cities and regions.

We help local leaders turn complex resilience challenges into funded, implementable solutions that last.

Our Vision

We envision a world where cities and communities take bold action to ensure people, particularly the most vulnerable, are safer, healthier and more prosperous despite the increasingly frequent shocks and persistent stresses of our time.

The challenge

Cities are trying to solve 21st-century problems with 20th-century tools and structures.

RCC works with cities and communities who still rely on 20th-century structures and tools even as we face evolving climate and socioeconomic threats.

RCC supports partners in implementing effective structures, approaches, and methods that deliver better outcomes for communities.

Government Barriers
Resource and Funding Barriers
Community Barriers

HOW WE WORK

Our Approach, Step by Step

We are advisors, collaborators, and partners, working hand-in-hand with leaders and practitioners across four moments.

Our tools and methods are adaptive and flexible, and each moment produces something a city can use — a plan, a design, a funding strategy, a playbook.

01

Define and Align Priorities

We bring uncommon partners into the same room and get agreement on what the risk is and which priorities come first.

Analytical Tools
Strategic Plans
Research Reports

02

Design and Launch Implementable Solutions

Priorities become specific and we can visualize the path forward, designed with the people who will use it.

Design Briefs
Concept Notes
Policy Recommendations

03

Identify and Activate Resources

Funding and regulatory paths are established, and a real project gets built.

Implementation Plans
Financing Strategies
Funding Collateral

04

Forge New Models of Collaboration

We connect communities, public institutions, and private partners so the work keeps going. What worked gets documented and shared with other cities.

Knowledge Exchange
Workshops
Alignment Facilitation

Impact

Our Impact, By the Numbers

$776Min funding directed to project implementation

12K+people convened to develop solutions

80multi-sector partnerships activated

305projects designed, funded, or implemented

Impact Stories

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Community Co-Design to Address Extreme Heat in Phoenix

RCC, the City of Phoenix, and Unlimited Potential equipped local leaders to co-design heat and mobility solutions grounded in neighborhood priorities.
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Oceanside’s Community-Led Blueprint for Coastal Resilience

The RE:BEACH design competition combines global coastal innovation with local leadership to test a nature-based sand-retention pilot.
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Addressing the Impacts of Extreme Heat in Tampa

A citywide heat resilience playbook and neighborhood pilots are moving Tampa from vulnerability analysis toward visible cooling interventions.
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Portfolio

See RCC’s work in action.

View all Projects

Kashmere Gardens Resilience Hub

Co-designing and activating Houston’s first Resilience Hub in partnership with local government and community leaders.
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Pittsburgh Urban Tree Canopy Initiative

Between 2023 and 2025, Resilient Cities Catalyst partnered with the City of Pittsburgh on a project funded by Google.org via ICLEI USA’s Climate Action Fund to develop a data-driven, replicable approach for urban forest management that maximizes climate resilience benefits.
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Developing an International Standard for Climate Resilience Project Preparation

RCC and the Gold Standard Foundation developed and piloted a framework and assessment tool for local climate resilience projects.
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