With a Growing Base of Support, Climate Justice Fundraisers Are Asking More of Philanthropy

A Recent Climate Protest in Brussels. Alexandros Michailidis/shutterstock

Large, legacy environmental organizations may still be the main beneficiaries of philanthropic dollars for climate change and clean energy, but climate justice fundraisers are finally scoring big.

In the past year or two, new resources, most notably from the $10 billion Bezos Earth Fund, have begun flowing toward equity and justice-oriented organizations. Many have pointed out that of Bezos’ climate giving, justice groups still represent a small percentage, and data still shows a similar dynamic in overall climate and energy grantmaking. But momentum has been shifting.

Well-established climate justice intermediaries such as The Solutions Project are racking up more funders, and groups are organizing to encourage climate funders to do more through efforts like the Climate Funders Justice Pledge. Meanwhile, new intermediaries, like the upstart Hive Fund, which has backing from major players like Hewlett, MacArthur and Packard, are populating the space.

Fundraisers say they are just getting started and are hoping to seize on this momentum. We spoke with several fundraisers who are challenging philanthropy to make even bigger investments in the climate justice movement at a pivotal time, and taking steps to remain accountable to the communities they serve.

Meeting local needs, led by local leaders

Founded in 2018 in Rapid City, South Dakota, the NDN Collective is a holistic effort to organize and empower Indigenous people. All programs aim to build resilience in Native communities against the disproportionate effects of climate change. The group’s Climate Justice Campaign—which supports policy change and coalition-building to develop climate solutions based in Indigenous traditional knowledge—is a prominent part of its activities.

NDN Collective has been a beneficiary of growing interest in providing grassroots and movement-building organizations a bigger piece of the climate and clean energy pie. They received a $12 million general operating grant from the Bezos Earth Fund in 2020, as well as grants from the Equitable Recovery COVID-19 response program of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Ford Foundation’s Social Bonds program, and the JPB Foundation.

Director of Advancement Michael Johnson (Nuxbaaga, Sahnish and Anishinaabe) spoke about the dynamic between the organization and donors who have recently taken greater interest in this space, which can be a source of inner conflict for some. But Johnson sees accepting the Bezos Earth Fund grant, for example, as taking back power from those who have “hoarded resources.” He also noted that the $791 million distributed by the Bezos Earth Fund in 2020 went mostly to large, white-led environmental organizations.

Founder and CEO Nick Tilsen further articulated the position of the organization in a statement that read, in part, “Receiving this substantial grant is part of an overall strategy to shift power, decolonize wealth and resource Indigenous people who are on the front lines of fighting for justice and equity.”

The organization decided not to continue its COVID-19 rapid response program in 2021. Instead, it introduced a framework on resiliency and strength against the disproportionate effects of climate change that became their Community Self-Determination grants. The goal is to create infrastructure—such as clean water systems, mutual aid networks, broadband internet, and emergency planning—that will strengthen local communities before the next crisis arises. Johnson reported that staff surveyed community members and incorporated their priorities directly into the program, exemplifying how organizations led by community members can act more quickly and effectively.

“How do we grow the pie?”

Founded in 2015, the California-based Solutions Project was among the first of several climate and equity intermediary funds—organizations that fundraise as well as operate grantmaking programs—that have emerged in recent years. The Solutions Project received a three-year, $43 million grant from the Bezos Earth Fund in 2020. Other funders include JPB, Surdna Foundation, and Eric and Wendy Schmidt’s 11th Hour Project.

The majority of its grantees are BIPOC-led, grassroots organizations (with an emphasis on those led by women of color) that are advancing climate solutions through organizing and building power in their communities. The organization also invests in capacity-building for its grantees in media training and networks.

The Solutions Project’s first executive director, Sarah Shanley Hope, stepped aside in 2020 to introduce the leadership of current CEO and President Gloria Walton (Walton’s also a guest contributor to IP). Hope is now vice president of brand and partnerships. When discussing the organization’s intermediary role, Hope noted that their model is what Walton and other BIPOC leaders have termed “movement accountable.” Hope said the core idea as Walton describes it is “making sure that we’re generative and not extractive as we fundraise. That is, not competing with our frontline grantee partners, but rather organizing and attracting new, bigger resources into the climate justice movement.”

Hope emphasized that the organization followed the principles of movement accountability in the application process to the Bezos Earth Fund. “Gloria [Walton] was a key leader in educating the Bezos Earth Fund about the role of equity intermediaries and brought in three of our peer intermediaries. Ultimately, we were able to win and now deploy significant resources that were not present for the movement before, in keeping with those same values: How do we grow the pie? How do we not compete, but rather create space for a larger movement ecosystem?”

A matter of urgency

In addition to advocating for a larger pool of funding, climate and energy fundraisers are calling for greater urgency. In recent years, we’ve seen the growth of splashy climate change pledges, along with the rise of mega-donors channeling large sums at whatever pace they desire, as opposed to the traditional 5% payout. When asked to think toward the future of sustaining grassroots organizations in this philanthropic context, Hope said that there is a lot between those two ends of the spectrum.

“These big, bold commitments are key for pushing the status quo beyond the constraints that [foundations have] currently set for themselves. [They] are typically giving out the 5% minimum each year, but what would happen if every endowed foundation, especially those committed to climate, saw that we’ve got five to 10 years to make a transformative impact? What if they were going up to 20%? Now is the time!”

Hope noted, however, that as climate and energy funding grows, equity and justice grants still make up a small share of commitments from climate and energy philanthropies.

“Even if there are more BIPOC-led, community-rooted organizations receiving dollars, we are looking for the total amount to begin to achieve parity with what is invested in white-led, legacy environmental organizations,” she said, an idea Walton often emphasizes. “When you take a justice lens, you’re over-investing in those communities that have been disinvested in for decades or centuries, even. So parity is not justice, representative funding is not justice. Justice is going well beyond that to address the historic inequities.”

Changes throughout the field

The growing emphasis on climate equity and justice is also affecting the fundraising priorities of older clean energy and climate organizations. We spoke with Anne Evens, CEO at Elevate Energy, a clean energy nonprofit primarily serving Illinois since 2000, when it was part of the Chicago-based Center for Neighborhood Technology. Elevate became an independent organization in 2013, and its largest programs today are energy efficiency, solar power and workforce development.

Inside Philanthropy research shows that Elevate is the ninth-largest recipient of grant dollars in the climate and clean energy sector, receiving just over $25 million from 2015 to 2019. The Energy Foundation is a long-time donor, supporting policy work and strategic communications. To better support organizations working toward equity, Evens said that providing multi-year funding “could inject sustained energy that will help drive toward climate and racial justice more quickly.”

When asked how Elevate has responded to increasing calls for equity and justice, Evens said that the organization has been committed to equity from its origins through its service to low-income, urban populations, but has expanded that commitment in the nearer term. The organization has diversified its staff—which is now more than half people of color—and shifted its mission and programs to focus on bringing the benefits of the growing clean energy economy to working and BIPOC communities “first and not last.”

“Because of our organizational evolution, our increasingly diverse staff have made this intersectionality central to our work,” Evens said. “We can no longer talk about climate justice via clean energy without talking about systemically oppressed populations, unhoused populations, and populations recovering from a climate crisis.”

Additionally, Hope suggested thinking of the current state of climate philanthropy within the larger context of the economic transition to a green economy. “The just transition framework is about having an economy that doesn’t concentrate wealth in so few people. And that’s about changing the tax code, salary structures, and minimum wage so that you are diversifying and redistributing wealth.”

Asking more of funders

Johnson believes that the NDN Collective has been so successful in fundraising, in part, because of CEO Nick Tilsen’s efforts to build authentic relationships within established philanthropies, even before the organization was officially formed. Tilsen was closely involved in Standing Rock Dakota Access Pipeline demonstrations in 2016, helping to shepherd funders and donors to support water protectors.

It is also part of the organization’s ethos to ask more of their supporters. Johnson noted that Tilsen has formed a relationship with the Ford Foundation in which he can honestly critique programs like the foundation’s social bonds, which allow Ford to pay out more in grants while still protecting its $16 billion endowment.

This type of relationship is grounded in the principles of trust-based philanthropy, to which Johnson said the organization adheres. These principles include multi-year unrestricted funding, streamlined applications and reporting, and soliciting and acting on grantee feedback. Mutual and honest exchanges that begin with a grantee are important to build trust.

At The Solutions Project, Hope said that following these principles also ensures movement accountability. This includes a governance structure that is majority front-line women of color grantees and annual evaluation by grantees.

“Without that oversight and accountability, intermediaries can very easily become gatekeepers and inefficient middle men,” she said, citing an analysis Walton brought to the organization. “That’s not contributing value to the funders or the movement. Are we… authentically contributing to their success? Because if we’re not, we’re just a gatekeeper, not a piece of movement infrastructure.”

Hope believes intermediary grantmakers can also hold their own funders accountable, and that Walton’s education of the Bezos Earth Fund team affected the grants announced in the second round. Grants to environmental justice veterans are well-represented in the recently announced $203.7 million batch of grants and pledges, and three-quarters of the funds will also support the Justice40 Initiative, through which the Biden administration has committed to directing at least 40% of investments in climate and clean energy to disadvantaged communities.

Hope said, “Bringing forward the history of the climate justice movement was a success of Gloria’s education of the Bezos Earth Fund team. She attached a long appendix to our proposal about the history of environmental degradation affecting front-line communities and communities of color the most. And that they are often first to the solutions because of their proximity to the problem.”

Hope added that media coverage of the 2020 grants also encouraged the Bezos Earth Fund to invest in organizations centering equity and justice. “The Bezos Earth Fund received significant critiques for their predictable grants to the ‘big greens,’ but the media celebrated their more surprising equity commitments.”

Is increased funding here to stay?

Fundraisers we spoke with were energized and determined to take advantage of this moment of increased visibility and resources. They believe deeply that philanthropy can help move the needle more quickly on climate change if the people who are affected first—BIPOC communities and the poor—are properly resourced. But it remains to be seen if this philanthropic trend, building for some time, will endure.

When asked if real power-sharing was beginning to happen, Johnson expressed optimism in this moment of opportunity, but also commented that philanthropy is still “very metric-driven and Keynesian, and is stuck there.” He said it will take the release of more resources to really make a difference. Johnson also hopes that the increased philanthropic giving does not just recreate existing infrastructure, but strengthens Indigenous communities that have been disinvested in for so long.

One thing that all agree about is the need for urgency, as the planet’s temperature continues to rise. As Hope put it, “There’s no question that more resources can be put to very good use right now in the climate justice movement. We need billions of dollars committed and moved out the door now, not saving for a rainy day 20 years from now. The floodgates have opened.”

Clarification: This post has been updated to attribute certain ideas guiding The Solutions Project to President and CEO Gloria Walton.

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