Project Builder
Project Builder is a program that helps you put together your grant proposal ideas. If you have a vision (or even a rough idea) for helping your community tackle flooding or extreme heat in the Great Bay Watershed and don’t know where to start, this program is for you. Applications are due July 1, 2025!
Project Builder offers a mix of mentorship, strategy-building, and creative problem-solving to help you shape a strong grant proposal. Whether you’re starting with a clear vision or just an idea, the program connects you with potential collaborators and supports you in identifying funding opportunities—including through Adapting Together's Climate Impact Grant.
While Project Builder doesn't fund projects directly, it fills the gaps in knowledge and connection that often hold great ideas back. Across the watershed, we’ve heard communities say:
- We want to make a difference, but we have no idea where to start.
- We have no idea who to collaborate with.
- We have never applied for a grant before. How can we create a compelling project with a chance at funding?
Project Builder is here to remove those barriers. The best climate solutions begin with strong ideas and even stronger teams. That’s why this program is open to a wide range of applicants—conservation commission members, artists, town planners, local volunteers, and more. We’ll help you clarify your goals, build key relationships, and lay the groundwork for a fundable, actionable project.
Adapting Together is made up of two programs that support Great Bay Watershed communities as they adapt to climate change: Project Builder and Climate Impact Grants.
Project Builder is a grant proposal incubator for climate resilience projects in the Great Bay Watershed. It helps communities turn ideas into strong, fundable projects that build climate resilience.
Each program cycle has a different theme that must be addressed in the project idea.
Project Builder applications are due July 1, 2025.
Image: Participants from the Adapting Together workshop in 2024 discussing priority climate projects that were used to inform the Project Builder and Climate Impact Grants.
2025 Project Theme & Criteria
The 2025 project theme is extreme heat and/or flooding. All projects must address the theme. To be eligible, proposals must align with the following criteria:
✔ Project Builder ideas must:
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Address or consider flooding and/or extreme heat in the Great Bay Watershed. This includes tidal, riverine, or stormwater (i.e., rainwater that has hit the ground) related flooding, as well as urban heat impacts or rising temperatures affecting people or ecosystems.
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Include a strong community engagement component. Projects must actively involve or benefit local communities—raising awareness, building capacity, or encouraging participation.
- Promote well-being of people and the environment.
- Focus on public benefits and/or improvements to public spaces.
✘ Project Builder Ideas Cannot:
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Focus solely on private property improvements.
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Be monitoring-only efforts.
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Primarily request equipment or supplies.
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Propose large-scale infrastructure projects, such as dam removals or culvert replacements.
Once a project is selected, the Project Builder Support Team will help bring in a facilitator to work with you on building a team that might include content experts, community members, and/or local municipal staff—depending on what the project needs.
Like a coach or mentor, the Project Builder Facilitator guides your team from brainstorming through project scope building and/or grant writing over 4-6 months. Your Facilitator will help support the launch of your ideas, and they will equip you with the resources and relationships you need to apply for funding and build ongoing resilience in your community.
After the 4-6 month time period, your project might be suited for Adapting Together's Climate Impact Grants (which will fund projects up to $25k) as well other local, state, or national grant funding programs or your community's Capital Improvement Plan (CIP).
- Applicants must be one of the following:
- A fiscal agent, which is either a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization or a government, institution, or coalition which can serve as a fiscal agent.
- An adult individual (18 years+) partnering with a fiscal agent.
- The project team can include youth but there must be at least one adult involved.
- The project team can include youth but there must be at least one adult involved.
- Project proposals must take place within the Great Bay Watershed. Some eligible communities are entirely within the watershed, while others are only partially included. A project may occur anywhere in the Great Bay Watershed town if benefits or activities also occur within the watershed boundary. Projects must be located within at least one of the following New Hampshire communities: Barrington, Brentwood, Brookfield, Candia, Chester, Danville, Deerfield, Dover, Durham, East Kingston, Epping, Exeter, Farmington, Fremont, Greenland, Hampton Falls, Kensington, Kingston, Lee, Madbury, Middleton, Milton, New Castle, New Durham, Newfields, Newington, Newmarket, North Hampton, Northwood, Nottingham, Portsmouth, Raymond, Rochester, Rollinsford, Sandown, Somersworth, Strafford, Stratham, and Wakefield.
- Projects must address the current year's climate theme and adhere to theme criteria (above). In 2025, this theme is flooding and/or extreme heat in the Great Bay Watershed.
Have eligibility questions? Visit our Frequently Asked Questions or contact Annie Cox: anne.cox@unh.edu
Projects must be located within the watershed portion of at least one of the following New Hampshire communities: Barrington, Brentwood, Brookfield, Candia, Chester, Danville, Deerfield, Dover, Durham, East Kingston, Epping, Exeter, Farmington, Fremont, Greenland, Hampton Falls, Kensington, Kingston, Lee, Madbury, Middleton, Milton, New Castle, New Durham, Newfields, Newington, Newmarket, North Hampton, Northwood, Nottingham, Portsmouth, Raymond, Rochester, Rollinsford, Sandown, Somersworth, Strafford, Stratham, and Wakefield.
Image: A group photo of the Support Team. From left to right: Lindsey Williams, Annie Cox, Abigail Lyon, and Lisa Wise.
Meet Your Project Builder Support Team
Annie Cox of PREP leads the Support Team as the Manager of the Project Builder program.
Annie can be contacted at Anne.Cox@unh.edu or (603) 862-0219
From left to right, the Support Team also includes:
- Lindsey Williams, of New Hampshire Sea Grant
- Annie Cox, of PREP (Project Builder Program Manager)
- Abigail Lyon, of PREP
- Lisa Wise, of New Hampshire Sea Grant & the UNH Extension
We support everyone on your Project Builder team, including your facilitators (more on this below). We help you exchange ideas and learn from each other, discuss thematic issues, attend professional development trainings, and increase your professional networks.
In your team, we might:
- Serve as Project Facilitator (or recruit a Project Facilitator for project teams)
- Support recruitment of project team members as needed
- Support Project Facilitator and/or project team members as needed
- Support the project teams collectively as a cohort, based on the needs of project team members
Your Project Builder Team
This would be you and/or your fiscal partner. Your team's role would be to:
- Work with your Project Facilitator to recruit project team members
- Support agenda development for the kickoff meeting
- Take notes for project meetings
- Working synchronously (3-6 meetings) and asynchronously with your Project Facilitator:
- Develop your project idea with a budget, scope, timeline, narrative, and other grant application components, including identifying and defining project goals, objectives, outcomes, and outputs
- Identify potential funding sources
- Create a final product (e.g., grant application)
Your Project Builder Facilitator
Recruited by the Project Builder Support Team, your Project Facilitator would be your primary project guide for four to six months.
Your Project Builder Facilitator would:
- Support project applicant to recruit project team members
- Set project kickoff meeting and support agenda development
- Working synchronously (3-6 meetings) and asynchronously, facilitate project team to:
- Support your work in developing your project idea with a budget, scope, timeline, narrative, and other grant application components, including identifying and defining project goals, objectives, outcomes, and outputs
- Work with you to identify potential funding sources
- Provide up to two rounds of edits of materials (e.g., grant application)
- Keep Project Builder Manager Annie Cox apprised of process
Climate Impact Grants
Climate Impact Grants are the second program within Adapting Together, offering up to $25,000 for community-led projects under the same theme and eligibility as Project Builder.
While Project Builder helps participants shape and strengthen their ideas, Climate Impact Grants provide funding to bring those ideas to life.
More information will be available in late summer 2025, with applications opening in September 2025.
Image by Scott Ripley
Frequently Asked Questions
Don't see your question below? Please contact Annie Cox! 📧 Anne.Cox@unh.edu ☎️ (603) 862-0219
More about Adapting Together
Adapting Together's Project Builder and Climate Impact Grants are funded by the NH Charitable Foundation’s Great Bay 2030 initiative. Partners from the Piscataqua Region Estuaries Partnership (PREP), New Hampshire Sea Grant, and New Hampshire Coastal Adaptation Workgroup lead both programs and provide direct assistance.
