At Daily Acts we take a heart-centered approach to fulfill our mission of catalyzing transformative action that creates more connected, equitable and climate resilient communities.  We believe that our collective actions have the power to create positive impacts for our communities and planet. 

Through collaborative partnerships with nonprofits, municipalities, businesses, schools, community organizations and individuals, we can create more resilient local food systems, economies, and communities. We can address the pivotal issues facing our planet, from flood and fire to drought and pandemic. We can ‘be the change’ we wish to see in the world. That’s why we are big fans of action campaigns, and why we have run one every year since 2010! 

While the name has changed over the years, the intention has stayed the same – to educate, connect and mobilize our community; to get folks to register and take practical actions that help address the effects of climate change. 

The Challenge aims to not only inspire individual action, but also to spark collaborative projects, build relationships and strengthen networks to create lasting change. The campaign encourages individuals, schools, organizations, municipalities and businesses to take practical actions to create more resilient homes, schools, workplaces and communities. We ALL benefit from collective action. 

In addition to the cumulative impact of all the actions, participants become part of a movement. Even those who take only individual action within their home life are connected to all others who engage, and the sense of solidarity inspires buy-in and sustained engagement. 

Read on for more history and impacts of our annual action campaigns.

350 Garden Challenge

In 2010, after seeing the success of similar efforts by Santa Monica’s 100 Garden Challenge, 350.org and Portland’s Village Building Convergence, Daily Acts was inspired to launch our first community action campaign: the ‘350 Garden Challenge’! The goal for our first-year was to create 350 gardens in a single weekend. We were blown away by how our community stepped up to the Challenge. This targeted weekend of action was an overwhelming success, engaging hundreds of individuals and over 40 partner organizations in the planting, expansion or revival of 628 gardens!

350 Home and Garden Challenge

In 2011, building on our initial success, Daily Acts decided to expand the Challenge to include home actions as well. The 350 Home and Garden Challenge registered a whopping 1,044 home and garden actions and was replicated locally by the Marin Garden Challenge, the Victory Garden Foundation and nationally through Transition U.S.

In 2012 and 2013, the number of actions continued to grow exponentially (2,300 and 3,558 actions respectively) and other groups such as Sustainable Contra Costa successfully replicated the Challenge in their communities. 

Community Resilience Challenge

In 2014, 7,058 actions were registered and the name was changed to the ‘Community Resilience Challenge’ to more accurately reflect the spirit of the event. 2015 and 2016 resulted in 16,201 more actions for a grand total of 30,787 actions over seven years. Now that is a reason to celebrate!

The Community Resilience Challenge (the Challenge) was our annual springtime community mobilization campaign that inspired thousands of individuals, leaders and groups to take action to save water, grow food, conserve energy, reduce waste and build community.

We provided a simple registration form with 25 suggested actions – everything from installing a greywater system to planting a fruit tree to making a zero-waste pledge. Participants could also register their own actions by selecting the ‘other’ action field when registering. The offered actions presented options for people of all levels of experience with sustainability and resilience concepts, and participants could register any action they had not taken in previous years’ campaigns. 

Sonoma Climate Challenge

In 2019, we pivoted to the Sonoma Climate Challenge. Check out our Sonoma Climate Challenge page for more information. 

Frequently Asked Questions

The Community Resilience Challenge is an annual community mobilization campaign that runs throughout April and inspires thousands of citizens, leaders and groups to take action to save water, grow food, conserve energy, reduce waste and build community.

In short, when faced with adversity, resilience is the ability to adapt and spring back, be it a person, a community, an economy or an ecosystem. Given the urgency of California’s worst drought on record and a growing confluence of social and environmental challenges, now is the time to act. The growing resilience movement utilizes local networks of people, information and resources to create solutions that address our modern day challenges. Together we can adapt and spring forward by catalyzing action towards becoming more food, water and energy independent, and building our communities stronger, healthier, more beautiful and resilient!

The Challenge’s action areas (Save Water, Grow Food, Conserve Energy, Reduce Waste and Build Community) are the pillars of resilient communities. For example, when faced with drought, resilient communities will have access to water from rain catchment systems and will be irrigating with greywater from showers and washing machines. A resilient community will be able to feed itself and its members will have access to fresh, local and chemical-free foods produced by workers that are paid a fair, living wage. A resilient community will generate energy from alternative sources such as sun, wind and hydro and supports neighborhood and local groups through a web of connection that strengthens and builds community during both prosperous and challenging times.

There are a number of fantastic reasons why you would participate in the Challenge, even if you’re a seasoned sustainability aficionado!

When you sign up you’ll be joining thousands of others who are also taking action. Our collective effort makes our work visible and engages others in transforming our communities to make them more resilient.

It encourages you to do things that might not get done otherwise. When you sign up, you might even decide to do some things that you haven’t thought of before!

If you live in Sonoma County, you’ll have access to special incentives donated by locally owned businesses for the purpose of helping you reach your goals.

No and yes… In collaboration with our partners you can register for the Challenge from anywhere in the United States. However, you have to be a resident of Sonoma County to receive Sonoma County incentives. When you register make sure to check the box next to the organization that best represents you. If you live in Sonoma County make sure to check the Daily Acts box. The box you check will determine which organization you receive information from. After you register, you’ll receive a list of local incentives via email. If you have any questions about registration and incentives, just email us at [email protected]

Please email us at [email protected] and we’ll set you up! Additionally, you can view our Business Toolkit for more ideas on how to engage your company and your customers in the Challenge.

After the Challenge wraps up, we’ll report back on the total number of people that registered for the Challenge, as well as the total number of actions registered. For our Challenge Business Partners and Challenge Sponsors, we’ll analyze data specific to each partner or sponsor and will compile summaries for them to share with their employees and customers.

We’ll also be quantifying actions in relation to each theme such as gallons of water saved, amount of energy conserved, number of fruit trees planted, square feet of turf transformed, etc.

While the annual Challenge and its outcomes alone are inspiring, our dream is that this initiative becomes a positive catalyst that will transform participant’s relationship to water, food, energy, waste, and community throughout the entire year. After all, daily acts do matter and they really do add up!

Yes. You will need to supply all the materials required to complete your actions or project. We are actively working with our sponsors and local business community to provide incentives to Challenge participants and will be notifying registrants via email as soon as these become available. We highly encourage you to support local hardware stores, nurseries and purchase heirloom seeds and organic plants whenever possible.

If you can’t find what you’re looking for on this page or the Resources pages, please contact us and we’ll be happy to answer questions. Email: [email protected].

Yes! By becoming a Resilience Organizer, you can engage your community by organizing a local project, by getting people to sign up for the Challenge, by helping us distribute outreach materials or by tabling at local events to promote the Challenge. We would be thrilled to work with you to make an even bigger impact this year! We even created a Community Toolkit to help guide you in being a Resilience Organizer. Please email [email protected] for more information.

Yes, there is a list of community projects that are looking for volunteers on the Challenge home page.

Yes, please! Donations make the Community Resilience Challenge possible. Just click on the Donate button to support this great event.

Over the years we’ve seen over 1,000,000ft² of lawn sheet mulched — that’s more than twenty football fields! We estimate a savings of over 1,000,000 gallons of water per year from the actions our community members have taken. They’ve closed so many loops: growing food at home, composting, harvesting rainwater, capturing energy with solar, conserving energy and other resources, and more!

The impact of these actions is greater than their sum, though. Over the years, participation in The Challenge has created a culture around resiliency and doing more with less. It has established a network of experienced individuals, organizations, schools and businesses that are committed to these concepts and created  a network of empowered leaders who can spread skills and education. 

Our campaign models have been replicated by partner organizations, counties and cities around the country. Below are some of our past key collaborators.

Transition US
tus-logo3Transition US is a nonprofit organization that provides inspiration, encouragement, support, networking, and training for Transition Initiatives across the United States. Since the beginning of the Challenge, they have been a key partner in launching the Community Resilience Challenge nationally. This initiative, in partnership with the Transition Streets initiative, is helping communities lower their carbon footprint, while saving money and building community.

Sustainable Contra Costa
scc-logo3Founded in 2007 by the tireless Tina King Neuhausel, Sustainable Contra Costa has taken up the East Bay Resilience Challenge with gusto. Lovingly called Sustainable Coco by many, the organization fulfills its mission to inspire, educate, collaborate and demonstrate through courses, collaborations, and events like their Sustainable Living Workshop Series held at Rodgers Ranch demonstration urban farm.

NorCal Resilience Networknorcal-resilience-logo
Founded in 2015 and spearheaded by the efforts of Susan Silber, the NorCal Resilience Network has helped Daily Acts ripple and replicate the Community Resilience Challenge, pioneering the “East Bay Resilience Challenge” and inspiring community resilience actions across the East Bay Region and Northern California.

Ashevillage
ashevilliage-logoAshevillage is a modern-indigenous, one-acre, eco-urban, living learning laboratory in Asheville, North Carolina, dedicated to catalyzing community-based, on-the-ground programs, projects and people that foster a vibrant, just, and resilient world.

Sustainable Lafayette
Sustainable Lafayette is a grassroots non-profit that is working to transform Lafayette into a highly sustainable community that enhances the quality of life for current and future residents.

Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour
The Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour attracts more than 6,000 Bay Area residents annually and features home gardens that are pesticide-free, water-conserving, provide habitat for wildlife, and contain 60% or more native plants.

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