Where Environmental Action Builds Community
Environmental Action, Led by Community
These are stories from the nonprofit partners building a more resilient environment across Arizona, told through the organizers, community members, and land stewards leading each effort. Each one shows what it takes to turn local knowledge and community input into real change, and the role ACF's donors play in getting that work started.
Give Now
ACF's Environmental Fund provides flexible philanthropic capital to nonprofits and community organizations working on extreme heat mitigation, water conservation, and food system resilience across Arizona, funding that traditional grant cycles often move too slowly to provide.
Arizona's Environmental Convening Is Ground Zero for Extreme Heat. It Is Also the World's Blueprint for What Comes Next.
ACF's environmental strategy expert explains why Arizona's extreme heat crisis demands coordinated, cross-sector investment, and how Arizona's Environmental Convening is building the infrastructure to scale community-led solutions statewide.
Know the Numbers: ACF's 2026 Arizona Environment Report
ACF's 2026 Arizona Environment Report covers extreme heat, conservation, and food systems with the data ACF's team uses to guide strategic investment.
When It Rains It Pours: Inside the Arizona Community Foundation's Mid-Year Environmental Accelerator
For three days, leaders from across Arizona and the nation traveled to the Navajo and Hopi nations for ACF's Mid-Year Environmental Accelerator, trading conference rooms for farm fields and canyon meals. What they built together, cross-sector trust and shared purpose, is laying the groundwork for Arizona's Environmental Convening this December.
From the Valley's Hottest Blocks, a Cooler Future Takes Root
In Maryvale, one of the hottest neighborhoods in metro Phoenix, Rumbo and its neighbors are turning community conversations into shade, trees, and a plan to thrive. With early support from ACF donors, it is proof that the blocks hit hardest by extreme heat can lead the way to a cooler future.
See Our Impact in Action
Download our most recent annual reports, highlighting stories of impact from all corners of our state.
Community Voices
Protecting Arizona's Environment
We envision that desert communities can thrive in a cooler world, where we can do the things that we want to do, even as we're facing extreme heat.
Adriana Garcia Maximiliano
Co-Founder, Rumbo
Community Voices
Protecting Arizona's Environment
We're creating healthy challenges for our children. By encouraging them on their hands and knees, tending the land, they'll discover how much they're capable of. From this, they either learn their personal characteristics or how to work the land and harvest water.
Clint Lomawunu
Program Coordinator, Natwani Coalition
Community Voices
Protecting Arizona's Environment
Nobody can solve these issues alone. No sole institution, municipal government, state government, university, or even the federal government can solve these issues by themselves.
Nicolas de la Fuente
Director of Environmental Strategy, ACF