Project Sustainability Checklist

 

 

 

www.epa.gov/CARE

Sustainable CARE projects are 

community-based partnerships that 

continue to improve the local 

environment after CARE funding ends. 
Purpose of the Checklist 

This checklist is a tool developed to help CARE communities focus your CARE 

program activities in a manner that will help you work toward long-term project 

sustainability. It will help you think through some of the elements that have 

helped other CARE communities sustain their work. It is not a roadmap or a 

cookbook, but it is a method to ensure that you can reach the goal of project 

sustainability. The application of each element described in the checklist will 

vary from community to community depending on the circumstances. Use this 

checklist as: 

• a planning tool throughout your project; 

• appropriate and adapt it to help you plan for sustaining your work; and 

• the basis for discussions in your partnership to help identify areas that 

need additional attention. 

Remember, you have the best chance for success if you plan with sustainability 

in mind from the beginning of your project. 

Checklist Sections 

I. Developing the Foundation for Success—page 5 

II. Building and Sustaining the Partnership—page 7 

III. Developing the Project Workplan—page 10 

IV. Conducting the Work, Celebrating Success and Learning from the Process—page 11

V. Obtaining Sustainable Resources—page 12 

Appendix A—page 15 

Potential Ways for EPA to Help Communities Achieve Long-term Project Sustainability 

Appendix B—page 16 

Example Logic Model 

CARE Program Overview 

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Community Action for a 

Renewed Environment (CARE) program is a competitive grant program that 

offers communities an innovative way to address the risks from multiple sources 

of pollution in their environment. The program is designed to help communities 

build the capacity they need to continue their work long after the CARE funding 

has ended and continue to achieve results long after EPA grant funds are 

exhausted. This is the fundamental concept of project sustainability. 

www.epa.gov/care 2
Some additional information has been collected on how EPA might help 

communities work toward project sustainability. Those ideas are included in 

Appendix A. 

CARE grantees follow a four-step process to successfully complete their CARE 

project. Grantees: 

1. Bring together all stakeholders to form a broad-based partnership 

dedicated to reducing toxics in the local environment. Partners may 

include: 

• Non-profit groups, 

• Community organizations, 

• Businesses, 

• Schools, 

• State, Tribal and local government agencies, 

• EPA and other federal agencies. 

2. Identify problems and solutions. Working together, the partnership 

assesses the risks from toxics in the community and considers options for 

reducing those risks. EPA provides technical assistance as needed to 

support this process. 

3. Implement solutions and reduce risks. The partnership identifies and 

implements the combination of programs that best meet the community's 

needs with EPA providing funding to help with implementation. The 

community begins improving its environment, while continually reassesing 

risks and priorities. 

www.epa.gov/care 3
www.epa.gov/care 4

4. Facilitate self-sustaining projects. The community develops new w

to attract funding and partners into its broad-based collaborative to build 

on its success. New problem assessments are completed and new 

solutions identifie

ays 

d. As a result, the project becomes self-sustaining and 

continues to improve the environment where community members live, 

of CARE funding. CARE communities should use 

the opportunity presented by the CARE funding to plan carefully for sustaining 

their w

work and play. 

As communities identify problems and solutions, the CARE Roadmap 

(http://www.epa.gov/care/library/20080620roadmap.pdf) can be used to help 

guide the process. Similarly, this checklist provides guidance to communities as

they work toward long-term project sustainability. We all know that it is unrealistic 

to think that the environmental concerns facing communities will be completely 

solved in the two or four years 

ork over the long-term. 

Sustainable CARE projects are community-based 

partnerships that continue to improve the local 

environment after CARE funding ends. 
 

Key Elements of Sustainable CARE Projects 

The Checklist has five sections, each covering a number of key elements. 

Examples and descriptions are included to help you think about the individual 

elements and how they may apply to your project. Check whether your 

organization has addressed each element or whether your organization may 

need further work in that area. 

I. Developing the Foundation for Success

a. Develop a mission or vision statement for the organization or project. 

The mission or vision statement is the longterm objective for the organization or 

project.

b. Develop a set of guiding principles that 

is agreed upon by all members of the 

partnership. A set of guiding principles 

helps ensure that all members of the 

collaboration are working in a similar 

manner with similar priorities.

c. Develop project goals that are 

community inspired and community 

driven. Goals should be bold and exciting 

and must be clear, simple and compelling. 

These are the individual achievements 

needed to reach the organization or 

project’s mission.

1. Engage community members in the 

development of goals. Goals must 

come from the people. They must have 

ownership of the goals and see the 

goals as crucial to their lives.

2. Ensure that the goals fit with overall community priorities. Figure out 

how the goals of your project support and help the community reach its 

other priorities. You may wish to include your work as part of a total 

community revitalization plan ensuring that it fits with the other community 

priorities.

www.epa.gov/care 5

Example of Mission and 

Vision Statements

South Atlanta for the 

Environment (SAFE) Coalition

SAFE Coalition used the CARE 

Sustainability Checklist in the 

planning process and came up 

with the following vision and 

mission statements.

Vision: A community free of 

environmental hazards, which 

promotes health and safety for 

all. 

Mission: To work together as a 

team to identify, publicize, 

reduce and prevent 

environmental health hazards in 

South Atlanta neighborhood 

planning.
 

www.epa.gov/care 6

Example of Guiding Principles and Community Inspired, 

Community Driven Goals

West Oakland - Using a Partnering Agreement 

West Oakland is immediately adjacent to the Port of Oakland, one of the largest 

container ports in the U.S. After concluding a small scale study of diesel trucks with 

13 action oriented recommendations, the West Oakland Environmental Indicators 

Project (EIP) chose to use the study results to bring together a broad set of 

stakeholders to address in a collaborative fashion the broader set of toxics issues 

facing the community. To structure the collaborative, the EIP partnered with EPA 

Region 9 and adapted a partnering agreement previously developed for use in 

Barrio Logan in San Diego. The agreement includes a formal definition of the 

Collaborative and its goals, as well as the roles of the co-leads (EIP and EPA), 

Steering Committee and member partners. The agreement provides for 

community co-chairs and neutral facilitation. The West Oakland Toxic Reduction 

Collaborative (WOTRC) was formally launched in March of 2005. 

The Partnering Agreement addressed the needs and opportunities to (1) formally 

and structurally empower the community and (2) address a broad set of toxic 

issues in a multi-stakeholder format. The formal Partnering Agreement provided 

for a neutrally facilitated multistakeholder collaborative. Key outcomes were: 

• Community co-chairing is essential. “Community” in this sense refers to 

representatives of the impacted community. The community co-chaired the 

Collaborative at every level, including every workgroup, the Steering 

Committee and the full Collaborative. 

• Neutral facilitation was essential. Further, there was a clear lesson that 

effective facilitation should not only be neutral, but knowledgeable and 

experienced regarding the issues on the table and the players at the table. 

• Effective collaboration is not as simple as bringing key stakeholders together 

around a table, but requires orchestration to ensure that all the key sectors 

are effectively represented and heard. 

• Effective involvement by the impacted community requires special attention 

due to a comparative lack of resources and capacity in comparison to other 

sectors such as industry and agencies, especially on technical and legal 

issues. 
d. Define what long-term sustainable success means for your project and 

organization. One of the key goals of the CARE Program is for each CARE 

community to develop the capacity to continue to work over the long-term to 

improve its environment and environmental health. 

1. Discuss and define what long-term sustainable success is for your 

project. 

2. Clarify and decide up front with the collaboration what long-term 

sustainability means. 

• Does it mean to merely finish the specific project that was started? 

• Will it mean continuing the work and the collaboration after the grant 

ends? 

• Will the collaboration create a new group or organization that will 

continue the work or seek to institutionalize a new function in an 

existing organization to continue the work?

II. Building and Sustaining the Partnership

a. Develop a long-term plan for continuing your work after the CARE 

funding ends. The key to continued success is having a shared community 

vision that will drive the process for the long-term.

You may need to develop a long-term plan, not just for the two or four years 

of the CARE grant. It may take much longer to make the significant 

improvements you envision. 

Plan to work consistently for at least the length of time of the one or two 

CARE grants; avoid stopping and starting work, as this can be very disruptive 

to community members and can drain their energy. 

b. Develop short-term gains or milestones that are steps in your long-term 

plan. A long-term plan may seem overwhelming for some members of your 

collaboration. Short-term gains or milestones break the project into doable 

steps. Attempt to progress through your short-term plan at every meeting. 

Acknowledge and/or celebrate even the smallest successes or victories. 

c. Enlist and develop leaders from all sectors of your partnership. Projects 

need collaborative leaders interested in promoting leadership skills in 

everyone.

www.epa.gov/care 7
1. Create and implement a plan for leadership development. Ensuring 

strong leadership for the long-term will require planning for leadership 

development from the start. 

2. Recognize and value diversity (e.g., age, ethnic, economic, social) in 

your leadership team. 

3. Plan for succession so that the organization/partnership is not 

dependent on a single individual or leader. 

4. Make sure that the organization has a succession plan for 

management. 

d. Develop a plan for engaging organizations and community members. 

To succeed you will need both a partnership with the key stakeholders and 

deep community involvement. 

1. Seek organizations that help you reach and engage community 

members, such as churches, clubs, business associations, PTAs, 

neighborhood associations or local government representatives. By 

reaching out to diverse and already established and supported community 

organizations, you will help ensure that many members of the community 

will be represented. In determining your plan for reaching out, consider, 

"Who is currently not represented from this community?" 

2. As needed, bring government agencies, universities, nonprofits, 

business groups, and other stakeholders into your partnership. 

Engaging each sector of your partnership may require a separate 

approach. Some stakeholders may have had adversarial relationships in 

the past and will need special attention and planning. 

Know that there are EPA resources currently available to address some of 

the social issues that many communities face. 

3. Ensure that the impacted community is fully represented. Their 

insights and participation will be crucial to the partnership’s success. 

Remember, that unless you are a member of the impacted community, 

you may need to spend a significant amount of time building trust.

4. Engage the youth and elders of the community. Their participation has 

proven to be a key driver for many successful projects. How will you get 

youth and elders involved in the work?

www.epa.gov/care 8
5. Seek partners who have special skills that can enhance the project. 

For example community college professors who can help analyze data, or 

understand survey research techniques. People or organizations with 

meeting facilitation skills can also be extremely valuable.

e. Develop a governance structure for your 

project that helps build a strong 

partnership and organization. You will 

need a strong governance structure to 

coordinate and lead the work of your 

partnership for the long-term. Your structure 

should reflect your mission statement and 

guiding principles.

1. Develop policies and procedures 

agreed upon by all members of the 

partnership. Establish policies and 

procedures to ensure smooth operation of 

the decision-making process that 

encourages participation and builds trust.

2. Engage Stakeholders. Members of your 

partnership will become involved, commit 

their resources, and remain for the longterm if:

• They think that the organization is 

doing important work; 

• They are respected by others;

• They trust the organizations or 

individuals involved in the project;

• They feel they are making a significant 

contribution to the work; 

• The work is shared equally; 

• Decisions are made in a fair manner; 

• Throughout the project they see progress; and 

• The time spent together is generally fun and fulfilling.

3. Avoid creating a governance structure that makes decisions in a 

vacuum, creates barriers to involvement, or does work separate from 

the broader community. Regularly reassess your structure to look for 

unintended consequences. Build an organization that sees itself as the 

facilitator for community decisions and community action, helping to 

www.epa.gov/care 9

Example of Policies and 

Procedures

Consider developing policies and 

procedures such as: 

• Establishing open procedures 

for filling leadership positions, 

setting agendas, and making 

decisions; 

• Setting meeting times carefully 

and providing support where 

necessary to accommodate 

members, especially 

community members; 

• Modeling respect and 

demonstrating a clear desire to 

be as inclusive as possible; 

• Ensuring enough time for 

education and the exchange of 

ideas to create a level playing 

field among members, and; 

• Using a consensus model for 

decision-making.
ensure community ownership of and community resources for the work 

that needs to be done.

III. Developing the Project Workplan

a. Develop a workplan based on the short and long-term goals of the 

project. Using your goals as a guide, develop a workplan consisting of 

individual activities. Assign leads for each activity and time frames for 

accomplishing them.

Consider using a "Logic Model" to document your plan and your progress. An 

example logic model is included in Appendix B. 

b. Lay out strategies for accomplishing the activities in your workplan. 

Each activity might require separate tasks. Determine what resources are 

needed to accomplish the tasks. An organizational structure may need to be 

developed to track the tasks as they are completed.

c. Establish measures of success for your work. What will success look 

like? How will you know you are achieving it? These are questions that are 

critical to project planning and management. The use of measurement 

enables you to demonstrate to yourself and outside parties that you have 

thoughtfully considered what work needs to be accomplished to evoke 

positive environmental change, and that you are accomplishing your goals 

and documenting your progress. 

1. Choose behavioral measures touching on each key work area (e.g., 

building and maintaining a strong collaborative, achieving 

environmental and public health benefits, developing community 

capabilities) and use them to inform your partnership. What could 

you do to move further towards empowering your community to take on 

these issues? During your grant project, what targets can be set that will 

keep the partnership focused on meeting its goals? What key behaviors 

do you aim to influence and change? Write these behaviors down and 

determine ways to measure these actions, monitor them throughout your 

grant, and report your successes. 

2. Focus on a few strong environmental measures and back them up 

with a solid calculation methodology. 

www.epa.gov/care 10
Example of Measurable Goals and Outputs

Sonora Environmental Research Institute, Inc. (SERI) 

SERI set the following goals to measure the success of its program Community 

Assist of Southern Arizona (CASA). 

Goal 1: Implementation of a voluntary pollution prevention program for all industry 

sectors of concern with a goal of 50% participation where participation is defined as 

successful referral to business assistance organization, attendance at a pollution 

prevention workshop, and/or implementation of best environmental management 

practices. 

Goal 2: Participation of 75% of the families found to have lead containing items in 

their homes in a voluntary childhood lead poisoning prevention strategy. 

Goal 3: Development of a draft zoning ordinance based on the environmental 

zoning concepts. 

Goal 4: Participation of 25% of the families receiving home visits in other CASA 

activities. 

Goal 5: Retention of promotoras in the program during the grant period with a goal 

of 95%. 

d. Prepare an evaluation plan. You must have a program evaluation process 

with methods to measure the effectiveness of the program, as well as be able 

to make any necessary changes. This is key to sustaining a long-term project. 

Participants need to have a clear and open way to develop lessons learned, 

correct mistakes and celebrate breakthroughs. Without this, the effort will 

eventually break down.

IV. Conducting the Work, Celebrating Success and Learning 

from the Process 

a. Conduct activities as laid out in your workplan. Conduct your activities 

according to the workplan, while remaining flexible to opportunities that arise. 

 

www.epa.gov/care 11

b. Set a tone that makes it fun to be part of the organization and project. 

Make the organization and project fun and exciting to be a part of by including 

food, learning opportunities, retreats, celebrations and awards. 
c. Evaluate progress and revise activities as needed. Evaluation, followed 

by revision or adjustment, is a critical component of sustainability. As a 

collaborative, regularly evaluate your progress so that you learn from your 

successes and failures and grow as a group. 

d. Celebrate success and acknowledge steady progress that is real and 

tangible, so that people are encouraged to continue the long-term effort. 

Clear progress and even small successes will be a key to enthusiasm. Ensure 

that success is celebrated. Plan for accomplishing something at least every 

six months. Put up a chart and mark off progress visually at each meeting 

and/or develop another method to track the group's success.

e. Regularly report progress to funders and to the community. You will be 

asked to report to funders on a regular basis about the progress you are 

making. Make this a reflective and valuable time to assess your work and 

processes. Report out your findings to the group and readjust the plan, if 

necessary.

V. Obtaining Sustainable Resources

a. Determine your core funding and resource needs and develop a plan for 

how to obtain them. Most projects will need some funding or other 

resources to continue long-term work. Take the time before your CARE 

funding ends to work together to identify your core funding and resource 

needs and develop a plan for obtaining these funds. Will you need funding for 

insurance, office space, printing? Funding and support for the staff and 

community leaders who do the work to organize and facilitate the partnership 

will be especially important for sustaining your work. Can you get your partner 

organizations to commit to sharing this responsibility? How will you find 

funding to support community leaders to do this work? 

b. Carefully consider where to use your grant funds and your partnership 

resources to make your work both successful and sustainable. You will 

need to make tough choices as you find the best balance between using your 

resources, including your grant funds, to get immediate results and using your 

resources to ensure the continuation of your work for the long-term. Aspects 

of your work, such as training and development; strengthening the 

relationships in your partnership; broadening community engagement; and 

advertising your successes, will help to ensure the sustainability of your work. 

How much of your time and resources can you devote to building your longterm sustainability?

www.epa.gov/care 12
c. Explore a full range of funding and resource options, diversify your 

income, and reduce reliance on a single revenue source. Look for other 

funding sources besides government grants, such as private foundations and 

local community organizations. When possible, utilize in-kind and donated 

services. Plan to continue to mobilize volunteers for community projects. Ask 

your partnership to help with this responsibility. 

www.epa.gov/care 13

Example of Approach to Sustainable Funding

WE ACT for Environmental Justice’s Approach to Sustainable Funding 

Since 1988, WE ACT for Environmental Justice has consistently raised funds to support various 

multi-year projects in environmental health, sustainable development, movement building, and 

government/corporate accountability. Our annual budget currently stands at $1.6 million, 

represents a combination of public and private dollars, and is a reflection of our philosophy that 

any non-profit organization must implement Sustainable Funding practices to survive. WE ACT’s 

approach to Sustainable Funding is built on 3 pillars: 

1) Diversification of Funding Sources 

As part of our diversification strategy, WE ACT pursues a wide array of government 

(state and federal) and foundation support throughout each year. We also hold 

fundraising events through which individual donors and gifts are cultivated. 

2) Leveraging Existing Dollars 

When pursuing government and foundation grants, we make it a point to leverage 

existing dollars by designing new projects that build on the foundations of previously 

successful initiatives. Thus, none of our work is unnecessarily repetitive, and funding 

from one supporter is used to set the stage for the work that is carried out under a new 

supporter. For example, our current NYC Lead Outreach Campaign was designed to 

build on resources and relationships nurtured through the Our Housing is our Health 

Campaign (OHOH), and utilize trainings that were piloted under OHOH. Our current 

CARE grant was designed to leverage resources and relationships developed through 

our previous environmental health projects. 

3) Obtaining In-Kind Support from Partner Organizations. 

Retaining in-kind support is important to remain sustainable. Our in-kind support is 

mostly in the form of meeting space donated to host meetings or shared collaboration 

with other organizations with expertise and capacity not housed within the organization. 

WE ACT is able to add value to our projects and significantly ramp up the impact of each 

individual initiative through in-kind assistance. This is done without adding money for a 

consultant or technical expert to the organizational or project budget. 

Together, these 3 practices have enabled WE ACT to sustain and grow our funding over the past 

20+ years.
For more information go to: http://www.epa.gov/care/ 

The Sustainability Checklist was developed by: 

• Mike Bandrowski, EPA Region 9

• Ogonnaya Dotson-Newman, We ACT for Environmental Justice, Inc.

• Michelle Mandolia, EPA 

• Abayomi Noibi, Executive Director, ECO-Action 

• Hank Topper, Former CARE Lead for EPA 

• Ann Marie Wolf, Sonora Environmental Research Institute, Inc. 

Special thanks to Remmington Jackson for her production efforts. 

If you would like to provide comments or suggestions for revision, please send 

them to Mike Bandrowski at: bandrowski.mike@epa.gov 

www.epa.gov/care 14
www.epa.gov/care 15

Appendix A

Potential Ways for EPA to Help Communities Achieve Long-term 

Project Sustainability 

 In developing the Sustainability Checklist, some ideas were provided on 

measures that EPA might take to help CARE communities in working toward 

sustainable projects. While the Checklist focuses on what communities can do to 

work toward sustainable projects, we wanted to capture the ideas of what EPA 

can do to help communities. Below are some examples of ideas. If you have 

others, please provide them to Mike Bandrowski at bandrowski.mike@epa.gov 

 

Potential Ideas for EPA to Help Provide Project Sustainability

1. CARE Academy- Look at providing funding to CARE projects that have 

successfully completed Level 2 to remain as subject experts to provide expertise 

to new CARE communities and to the CARE program as a whole. Funding 

would allow successful CARE communities to attend the national meeting and to 

visit with new CARE projects to help them benefit from their expertise and 

experience. 

2. Certificate of Support- As CARE projects apply for further funding with 

organizations, it would be helpful for them to be able to provide a letter of support 

from EPA that states they have successfully completed the CARE Level 2 

program. Since EPA may not be able to provide individual letters of support, it 

might be helpful to provide successful Level 2 projects with a certificate of project 

completion and support that could be used to show their participation in the 

CARE program to help them get further funding. 
Appendix B

Example Logic Model: West Oakland Toxic Reduction Collaborative (WOTRC)—

This logic model is an abridged version of one that WOTRC created to plan for the third phase of their wor

Where WOTRC is now and 

what we see WOTRC’s work being SHORT TERM OUTCOME

Resources/ 

Inputs 

Activities 

(only things 

that WOTRC 

does, not that 

Port or targets 

do) 

Outputs/ 

Products 

2a) WHO has the power to bring about the outcome [that we need to influence] 

2b) WHAT we want [them] to do 

2c) HOW [we influence them] 

INTERMEDIATE OUTCOM

WOTRC multiple stakeholder participants and what they bring to the table in expertise, experience, relationships and resources such as staff time and funding: • Community based 

organizations 

• Elected officials • Government • Industry • Intermediaries 

/technical experts 

• Labor Funding In-kind contributions (e.g., staff time, meeting space) Non-WOTRC activities that can be leveraged 

WOTRC capacity building to successfully implement focus areas 1 and 2 Convening forums for collaborative problemsolving Outreach to educate, engage, and maintain momentum Assessment, analysis and monitoring 

Grants and funding, MOU’s for joint work, in-kind member contributions of staff time and other resources Meeting proceedings, plans of action, learning Documentation 

A. AIR QUALITY Those responsible for air plandevelop and implement local aplan(s) that reduce community health risk from (growing goodmovement) Improved community and government/ agency collabora• Meaningful community 

engagement in the proces

• Transparent disclosure of 

government/ agency operations to impacted communities 

B. LAND USE Those responsible for land usplanning develop and implemlocal land use plan(s) that mopolluting trucks and truck servbusinesses out of the West Oakland residential neighborhand onto appropriate industrialands (i.e., base reuse) C. CAPACITY BUILDING 

See the table below 
Short Term Outcomes* 

WHAT (2b) WHO (2a) HOW (2

A. AIR QUALITY 1 TRUCK ROUTES

Make sure that truck routes are implemented, monitored, enforced 

The city (e.g., the planning department) The county (interstate) 

2 TRUCKER OUTREACH AND EDUCATION

Provide education and outreach to truckers Pertains to truck routes and clean up plans 

The city/unions/other industry associations/ dispatchers 

Public pressure Have them report to WOTRC Periodic reporting back from the cit

3 ALTERNATIVE FUELS 

Use alternative fuels and alternative fuel vehicles 

Progressive truckers Terminal operators Fuel suppliers Elected officials State/county 

Create opportunities (e.g., green laApply pressure and generate will (epolitical support, champions, grants support) 

4 BLUEPRINT (Move it forward) JPC/ABAG “70 block program” WOTRC (HIP

development and implementation acommunity goals (assess at the froestablished metrics during impleme

5 & 6b 

HEALTH STUDIES - Help West Oakland obtain funding to do health studies - Really recognize disparate impacts - Collaborate with other officials - Bring site health data and other information into region/local health database/repository 

Federal elected officials Alameda County Public Health Department 

Briefings, testimony, reports (Identiletters from agencies/academics ar(research/action) Tell elected officials the top prioritieThrough WOTRC 

6a AIR PLAN

- Create a local air quality plan focused on reducing all health risks - Create an enforcement “task force” (county, CARB, 

BAAQMD, city planning, EPA, city attorney department) - includes truck clean-up plan 

Alameda County Public Health Department 

Through WOTRC 
www.epa.gov/care June 2010 EPA ‐530‐F‐10‐002 18

Notes