The Resilience Accelerator is launching in 2026 and aims to boost catalytic investment in nature-based solutions that promote climate resilience. For the 2026 cohort, the Accelerator is focusing on the Colorado River Basin, one of the most water-stressed regions in North America.
The Basin is facing historic drought conditions, growing water scarcity, and heightened wildfire risk due to climate change. Improving landscape resilience and a sustainable water supply are critical for ensuring the long-term health of the Basin.
Nature-based solutions are crucial for restoring natural processes in areas disrupted by human activity. Meaningful progress in the Basin requires increasing the pace and scale of ecological restoration by mobilizing capital beyond the public sector.
The Accelerator Program
The Resilience Accelerator will bring together a cohort of nature-based solution developers with strategies suitable for program-related investment (PRIs) and impact investment.
The Accelerator will provide a peer network, workshops with experts, early conversations with investors, and collaborative critiques for each developer to advance their strategy.
The Accelerator will also facilitate collective strategy sessions on the shared infrastructure needed to increase impact investment for nature-based solutions.
Presenting an Investment Portfolio
The Accelerator will culminate with each strategy showcased to potential funders as part of a curated, investable portfolio. Support will be provided to present this portfolio at key forums and conferences, including Climate Week, Confluence Philanthropy, CREO, and others.
The primary goal of the Accelerator is to secure sufficient investment commitments to fully—or substantially—fund the strategies presented.
Outreach to funders began in 2025 and will continue throughout 2026, running in parallel with the Accelerator program.
The Resilience Accelerator: Cultivating Capital for the Colorado River is launching with funding from the Walton Family Foundation and is supported by CK Blueshift, LLC, Colorado River Sustainability Campaign, Encourage Capital, and Lyme Timber.
Application Requirements & Process
The application period will be open through November 5, 2025. Applications can be submitted at https://bit.ly/resilienceaccelerator2026. For more details on accelerator goals and programming or questions regarding your application, please contact Margot Molloy at [email protected].
Eligibility Criteria
The proposed concept is an investable model that could attract PRI or impact investment capital. Impact investment provides capital with more flexible terms and conditions than market rate loans.
The proposed concept will either benefit the Colorado River Basin and adjacent regions (preferable), and/or involve a solution that could be deployed in the Colorado River Basin.
The proposed concept utilizes or supports the use of "nature-based solutions" to enhance climate resilience. Nature-based solutions are defined as actions to protect, sustainably manage, or restore natural or modified ecosystems to address societal challenges, simultaneously providing benefits for people and the environment. For some examples, seeColorado River Basin | Ten Strategies for Climate Resilience.
The proposed concept has identified mechanisms to measure and quantify benefits, preferably via well-recognized or scientifically rigorous methods.
The applicant could receive and begin to deploy $500,000+ in PRI funding in Q4 2026-Q2 2027.
If selected, a lead participant can participate in the Accelerator from February 2026 to June 2026, which will include 1-2 in-person cohort meetings and online meetings every two weeks, averaging 2-3 hours of participation per week.
Accelerator participants will receive funding to support their participation, programmatic time, and travel expenses.
Who Should Apply
The applicant can be an individual organization or a collaboration between multiple organizations.
The applicant has demonstrated organizational capacity and a track record, but faces barriers/challenges in accessing catalytic capital.
The applicant is supportive of working collaboratively with their cohort to advance the field of conservation finance.
The applicant organization(s) are not required to be legally tax-exempt entities.