Given the importance of achieving speed and scale needed to respond to the rising global temperature, funding entities are deploying millions of dollars to improve climate resilience worldwide. However, “resilience” is a contested term, is not directly measurable and it is context specific. This makes monitoring and reporting across multiple levels of the funding process challenging. But most importantly, it could impact the quality of scaling efforts. Focusing on case studies from Argentina and Guatemala, this study aims to examine what factors enhance climate resilience of rural communities within a limited timeframe.