The Ready-to-Fund Resilience Toolkit is a framework designed to bridge the gap between climate adaptation planning and the successful acquisition of project funding. Developed through collaboration between climate professionals and finance experts, the tool provides a common language and set of criteria to ensure adaptation projects are robust, equitable, and attractive to investors. It is particularly relevant to finance professionals involved in municipal bonds, infrastructure investment, and public-private partnerships.

Organisation behind the tool

The toolkit is maintained by the American Society of Adaptation Professionals (ASAP). It was developed in collaboration with several partners, including NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) and the Climate Resilience Fund, to align adaptation practices with financial market requirements.

What the tool does

The tool provides structured guidance to help project developers move from concept to investment-ready status through the following features:

• A Ready-to-Fund Resilience Guide that outlines ten key characteristics of fundable projects.
• A Project Diagnostic Tool to assess the maturity and investment readiness of specific resilience initiatives.
• A Finance Reference Library containing case studies, funding sources, and templates for project applications.
• Detailed checklists focused on project governance, community engagement, and financial structuring.

Target audience

The primary users include local government officials, sustainability officers, and urban planners. It also serves finance professionals, impact investors, and consultants seeking to evaluate the quality of resilience-focused project pipelines.

Relevance to finance professionals

Finance professionals can apply the toolkit in several capacities:

• Risk assessment – Using the toolkit’s criteria to evaluate the physical and transition risk mitigation capacity of proposed infrastructure projects.
• ESG analysis – Applying the equity and community-centred metrics within the toolkit to satisfy social and governance reporting requirements.
• Investment context – Aligning municipal and corporate adaptation projects with ESG-labelled debt instruments, such as green or resilience bonds.
• Market insights – Understanding the standardisation of “investment-ready” resilience, aiding in the due diligence of long-term environmental assets.