Building a more resilient future
The Resiliency Company mobilizes the funding, innovation, and policies required to shift markets and minds toward resilience to end $1B disasters in the US.
Over the next 100 years, accelerating disasters will strain U.S. communities physically, socially, and financially.
spent on disaster damage costs in the U.S. over the last ten years (1)
of American counties were impacted by a disaster that required a federal disaster declaration over the past 10 years (2)
As more frequent climate threats destroy lives and livelihoods, the costs associated with climate disasters continue to rapidly increase. Since 1980, the US has averaged eight “billion-dollar disasters" every year. As of mid-2024, however, the U.S. had already experienced 19 such disasters, collectively costing the U.S. nearly $50 billion (3)
If we want to reverse the accelerating costs of climate driven disasters, we must adapt our country’s infrastructure to be resilient instead of just rebuilding the same way we always have.
The U.S. faces a massive financing gap in the adaptation capital required to fortify our country’s infrastructure. In the landscape of climate financing in 2022, adaptation accounted for only 5% of total global climate finance. (4) And according to the World Economic Forum, the total climate adaptation and resilience financing deployed amounts to only 20-30% of projected annual Adaptation and Resilience financing needs. (5)
Meanwhile, most of the resources deployed following a disaster are allocated to either short-term relief or rebuilding “back to normal,” leaving insufficient funding to make the necessary upfront investments to build with resilience so that the next disaster is less destructive. In most climate-driven disasters, 90% of the funds raised come in within the first 6 weeks, and flow out within the first 6 months, leaving little capital for the longer-term recovery that lasts 3-6 years for most communities.
As the rate of climate-driven disasters in the U.S. accelerates, we must imagine better financing strategies in order to catalyze capital toward adaptation and resilience.
Annual number of billion-dollar disasters
Until the early 2000s, a $1 billion disaster (including CPI adjustment to 2023) hit the U.S. about every 73 days (meaning roughly 5 disasters per year). As of 2023, a $1 billion disaster hits roughly every 18 days. By 2030, a $1 billion disaster could hit the US every week.
Annual Number of Billion-Dollar Disasters, 1980-2024
From Hurricane Katrina to the Maui wildfires in 2023, disasters of this magnitude reveal the structural failures of critical social, economic, and physical infrastructure in the U.S.
Disasters exacerbate the underlying socioeconomic challenges that have long plagued this country. The American Society of Civil Engineers’ most recent report gave the U.S. infrastructure a C- and outlined that the U.S. faces $2.59 trillion in infrastructure needs over the next 10 years.
While leaders work diligently to get communities back to normal following a disaster, “normal” not only misses the opportunity to build back with infrastructural resilience, but also the opportunity to right existing inequities. Resilience and recovery efforts must account for underlying issues–-the historical impacts of redlining, generational wealth inequities, among others–otherwise, such efforts only serve to reinforce persistent disparities and communities will remain fragile to future shocks.
Leaders, funders, and innovators must take an intersectional approach that accounts for race, ethnicity, gender, disability, age, and circumstance in disaster recovery and rebuilding. The Resiliency Company seeks to partner with trusted intermediaries in the communities hardest hit by climate-driven disasters.
The Resiliency Company’s mission is to inspire and empower humanity to adapt to the accelerating challenges of the next 100 years to create a more abundant and equitable future for all.
Opportunities to engage
The Resiliency Company mobilizes the funding, policies, and innovation required to shift markets and minds towards resilience, which will end $1B disasters in the US.
Creating the market of resilient infrastructure
The Resiliency Company is building a community of investors across the capital stack to advance best practices in resilience and adaptation financing. We aim to reduce the accelerating costs of climate-driven disasters by catalyzing investment toward resilient critical infrastructure opportunities.
Driving adoption of resilient solutions
Federal, state, and municipal governments, as well as mortgage lenders, insurance, and utility and energy companies all have a vested interest in adapting U.S. infrastructure to be climate resilient. The Resiliency Company is connecting stakeholders around innovative projects and pilots that can reduce disaster impacts by centering resilience practices.
Creating conditions for long term success
The Resiliency Company's Advocacy Lab creates conditions to crowd in more private capital to resilience investments. This includes fundraising for state and local advocacy, creating new incentive structures, and funding research for policy change.
Critical infrastructure
As climate-driven disasters increase, our country’s infrastructure must adapt. The Resiliency Company defines infrastructure as essential systems that are crucial to the functioning of the economy and society and that enhance the people’s standard of living. We seek examples of ideas and innovations that are adapting U.S. infrastructure to be more resilient and offer either financial returns for investors or social returns for communities.
Jobs, Education, & Childcare
Energy
Financial Services & Tools
Food & Agriculture
Healthcare & Emergency Services
Real Estate, Housing, & Shelter
Natural resources, Water, Land, & Air
Communications, Internet, & IT
Transportation
Community & Social Cohesion
The Resiliency Company envisions a world in which communities, families, and businesses in the United States can thrive amidst the growing challenges of the climate crisis. We believe that by shifting markets and minds towards resilience we can reverse the increasing costs associated with more frequent and severe climate hazards.
The Resiliency Company is the sister organization to Network for Good, a philanthropic platform that has helped finance disaster recovery as part of the critical financial infrastructure for nonprofits in times of disaster.
Since its founding in 2001, Network for Good has distributed over $5 billion to more than 400,000 charities, with donations to disasters consistently ranking among the platform’s most significant giving categories. The Resiliency Company is also the creator of The Epicenter, a platform and publication for capital allocators investing in adaptation and resilience to ready their portfolios for more frequent climate-driven disasters.
The accelerating rate of climate-driven disasters in the U.S. requires us to catalyze capital toward adaptation and resilience. As the frequency of extreme climate events increases, the costs of disasters are rising due the exposure and vulnerability of assets and post-disaster premiums that make rebuilding ever more expensive as demand outpaces supply. It’s within this context that The Resiliency Company seeks to create the market of resilient infrastructure, drive adoption of resilient solutions, and create conditions to crowd in more private capital.