Several national U.S. foundations have announced the collaborative launch of BuildUS, a pooled fund to accelerate America’s transition toward a worker-centered, cleaner, and more equitable economy.

The pooled fund is launching with an initial commitment of more than $50 million over the next three years and includes support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, Omidyar Network, Wellspring Philanthropic Fund, and the Marguerite Casey, Open Society, Skoll, William and Flora Hewlett, and W.K. Kellogg foundations as well as other partners.

The fund will support the implementation of four landmark pieces of federal legislation enacted over the past two years—the American Rescue Plan, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the CHIPS and Science Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act—and help ensure that the broadest swath of Americans see and feel the investments from the legislation. To that end, BuildUS aims to maximize the economic and decarbonization potential of legislative progress by making complementary investments in communities of color and rural communities and strengthening public support for equitable economic and clean energy reforms.

“Now is the time for America to build,” said BuildUS lead Jennifer Harris. “By rebuilding the country’s energy, physical infrastructure, and technology backbone—through public investment that attracts private investment to create good jobs—we can rebuild our very economy to make life better, fairer, and healthier for workers and families. And we can start in places that are too often overlooked, from Black and brown communities, to former industrial strongholds, to rural mining and agricultural regions.”

(Photo credit: Getty Images/Fahroni)