How Funders, Intermediary Groups and Activists Are Working Together to Stop the Line 3 Pipeline

Tara Houska was in the passenger seat of a car, seatbelt on, as she spoke to some 90 funders during a February webinar.

“We’re in a moment of climate crisis and this time where we have to choose which path we’re going to take,” Houska told the audience. “We’re either going to go down the path of greed and destruction, or we’re going to go down the path of brother and sisterhood.”

Houska, a tribal attorney and citizen of the Couchiching First Nation, is the founder of the Giniw Collective, one of several Indigenous-led groups hard at work in Minnesota to stop the construction of the Line 3 tar sands oil pipeline.

Concerned about the climate implications—and ecosystem threats—of new fossil fuel infrastructure, and eager to build the growing power of grassroots Indigenous movements led by leaders like Houska, a number of funding intermediaries are working with donors and foundations to raise funding for groups trying to stop the Line 3 pipeline and similar projects.

Their efforts follow expanded funder engagement with Indigenous communities sparked by the Standing Rock uprising. They suggest increasing willingness within philanthropy to support movements led by front-line communities working both to block new fossil fuel infrastructure and, though it has received less attention, to imagine new models to replace them.

“Those who are most directly impacted and have the most to gain or lose have the most power—and we’ve been leaving that on the table,” said Katie Redford, executive director of one intermediary, Equation Campaign. Such advocates “can bring the kind of rapid and transformational change that we need in climate,” Redford said.

Line 3 is a key battleground in that fight. Running from Alberta to Lake Superior, Wisconsin, the completed pipeline would cross 337 miles of Minnesota, including lands and waters that many tribes rely on for hunting, fishing and harvesting wild rice. Enbridge, the Canadian company behind the project, bills it as a replacement of an existing 60-year-old pipeline, but the project would effectively double the pipeline’s capacity, and one section takes a substantially different route through untouched lands. One estimate says Line 3 would generate emissions equivalent to a dozen of the nation’s largest power plants, according to Minnesota Public Radio, while a MN350 analysis says it is akin to 50 new coal-fired power plants.

Time is running out to stop the project—construction is on hold due to state law until the end of this month, but the pipeline is nearly completed. Activists are gearing up for large mobilizations in early June. Here are some of the organizations involved—and the groups that are marshaling support for them.

“There’s something for everybody”

Philanthropy is infamous for its silos. But advocates say the battle over Line 3 has bearing on a wide range of funder priorities. “There’s law, there’s policy, there’s women-led work, there’s racial justice, there’s Indigenous rights,” said Redford. “For better or for worse, there’s something for everybody.” Redford helped compile a list of organizations involved, from which the funders and intermediaries below are drawn.

The beating heart of the resistance to the pipeline is happening on the ground, led primarily by Indigenous women like Houska. Tactics range from local press events to activists chaining themselves to construction equipment. Several local groups include the Giniw Collective, Honor the Earth, and RISE Coalition. Local branches of larger organizations are also in the mix, including MN350 (which has offices in the Twin Cities and Bemidji, the latter of which is Indigenous-led) and the Sierra Club’s North Star Chapter in St. Paul.

Advocacy is also happening on the state level. Some efforts aim to build political momentum by changing the hearts and minds of Minnesota residents. Others are targeted at governor Tim Walz or attorney general Keith Ellison, both Democrats, as well as at state senators and representatives. Legal challenges are also ongoing. Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy and Minnesota Interfaith Light and Power are two state-level organizations opposing Line 3. There are also groups like the Indigenous Environmental Network, which is based in Minnesota but works nationally and internationally.

Groups are also pushing at the federal level to pressure the Biden administration to cancel the pipeline. Lawsuits based on Native American law and treaty rights are also underway. National organizations that the intermediaries recommend to funders include the Center for Protest Law and Litigation, EarthRights International and the Sierra Club.

Activists are seeking to pull every lever of power available: media and communications campaigns, policy advocacy and political mobilization, finance campaigns targeting banks and insurers, challenges via the courts, and cultural campaigns through faith communities, music and other arts.

Policing has been an overriding concern. Activists say heavy-handed police tactics recall what happened during the Standing Rock protests. Many see a conflict of interest in a fund set up by companies that police can bill for time and expenses related to the pipeline. And all of this is playing out in the state where George Floyd was murdered and police killings of Black men such as Daunte Wright have brought new attention to the movement against police violence and systemic racism.

“I call them symptoms of our society and our government’s ability to devalue Indigenous bodies, to devalue Black bodies,” said Sekita Grant, vice president of programs at the Solutions Project, another intermediary supporting Line 3 activism.

Here is more detail on some of the leading funders and funding intermediaries backing efforts to oppose the pipeline.

Equation Campaign

Founded by Rebecca Rockefeller Lambert and Peter Gill Case, both great-great grandchildren of Standard Oil founder John D. Rockefeller, Equation Campaign funds movements to stop the extraction of fossil fuels. On top of $30 million the pair has pledged to the group, it has raised another $5 million as part of a 10-year, $100 million goal.

Equation Campaign has multiple ties to the family’s various philanthropic arms. It is fiscally sponsored by the Rockefeller Family Fund, works with one of that institution’s funds, the Funder Collaborative on Oil and Gas, and receives support from the David Rockefeller Fund, which also directly supports organizations involved in Line 3 activism.

Equation Campaign also directs funding for a variety of philanthropies, large and small, including the Open Society Foundations and the 11th Hour Project of the Schmidt Family Foundation. Some funders give to the campaign and also make direct grants to groups on the ground, such as Rachel’s Network and Cloud Mountain Foundation.

The organization is agnostic about how funds go out. “We frankly don’t care whether they give us money or give grants directly,” said Redford, who wrote in Alliance magazine last month about visiting the water protectors along the pipeline.

Equation Campaign hosted the February webinar where Houska and other activists spoke about their Line 3 work. Redford’s team also worked with other groups to assemble a list of needs and resource gaps for groups working to stop the pipeline.

While figures are in flux and clear delineations can be tricky when funding movements, Equation Campaign has made more than $500,000 in grants specifically around Line 3 to date. It has also provided additional general support to organizations working on multiple pipeline campaigns and tracked roughly $750,000 in direct support from its partners to activist groups, according to Redford.

Solidaire Network and Movement Voter Project

Nearly everyone I spoke to about how philanthropy is responding to Line 3 mentioned Laura Flynn. Flynn, who lives in Minneapolis and is a donor herself, has been deeply involved in raising funds for front-line organizations, including by working with Equation Campaign to map the field. She is a board member of Solidaire Network and works for Movement Voter Project—both organizations have been part of the philanthropic response to Line 3.

Within Solidaire Network, a progressive donor group focused on social justice, Flynn has helped organize donors. Solidaire held a December call featuring four Indigenous women leaders that roughly 50 funders attended. It also does regular one-on-one calls. The network has also made grants to front-line Line 3 organizers “facing really heavy police surveillance” through its Janisha R. Gabriel Movement Protection Fund, Flynn said.

In addition to her work with Solidaire, Flynn also engages with donors from the Movement Voter Project’s network. That nonprofit’s focus is progressive voter organizing, but it also works year-round to grow movements, particularly in communities of color. Minnesota is one of the Movement Voter Project’s target states, and some of its partners, such as MN350 and Honor the Earth, are involved in Line 3 work. Flynn, who serves on the organization’s advisory board, has helped donors who support the group connect to groups on the ground. “We’re a donor-advising institution,” she said.

Funding linked to both groups has come from a mix of individuals and foundations, all focusing on Indigenous front-line groups. With Solidaire in particular, reporting requirements typically vary depending on the group’s size. Based on her experience with the Movement Voter Project, Flynn also encourages donors to fund the ecosystem rather than picking favorites.

Flynn highlighted the risk of “a donor coming in and being like, ‘I really like this one group, I’m going to fund them,’ and then one group becomes the group, because the donors aren’t here very often and they don’t really know about all these tiny little other entities doing work,” she said. “We’re trying to avoid that by spreading things out a little bit more so we don’t end up with one group receiving a huge mass of funds and exacerbating tensions within the communities.”

The Solutions Project

The Solutions Project has also put its funding toward grassroots Indigenous-led groups. The Oakland-based intermediary fund, which recently named a new CEO, received a three-year, $43 million gift from Jeff Bezos late last year, more than the organization had received in its history up to that point.

Its Line 3 funding went to three core anti-pipeline groups: Honor the Earth, Rise Coalition and Giniw Collective. Each received a one-year, $30,000 grant, the organization’s standard first-time amount. It has also provided some media and communications support.

Grant, the vice president of programs, said some money went out the door even before the groups were contacted, and that the grants do not have reporting requirements. “Some of them couldn’t call us back because they were literally arrested,” she said. Cell reception is another struggle for many front-line Line 3 organizers, making it hard to speak with media or funders. And as Houska made clear from the passenger seat of her car, there’s a lot for organizers to balance.

The Solutions Project also has longer-term relationships with several Indigenous-led organizations whose work is aligned with the struggle over Line 3. Those include Thunder Valley CDC, Native Organizers Alliance and Indigenous Environmental Network. Each has received grants of $50,000 or more, according to Grant.

The organization sees the battle over Line 3 as critical, but also wants to support the broader Indigenous movement that helped seed and lead last year’s racial uprisings by raising awareness about white supremacy. That movement is gaining momentum, with promising developments such as the appointment of Deb Haaland as interior secretary, Grant said.

“You have Indigenous communities and organizations that are literally on the front lines and putting their bodies on the line for our future,” Grant said. “There’s way more support that’s needed.”

Additional backers

These groups are just a sampling of the philanthropic response to Line 3. Many funders are giving directly to groups involved in Line 3 activism. According to Redford, they include the Energy Transition Fund, Overbrook Foundation, Wallace Global Fund and Zegar Family Foundation.

Another funding intermediary, the Hive Fund for Climate and Gender Justice, has also been active. Like the Solutions Project, the fund received a $43 million gift from Bezos late last year.

Flynn estimated that about $2 million has been channeled through the efforts she’s involved in, as well as through the Equation Campaign, with which she has worked closely. But that’s not the full picture. “There are definitely other funders who are funding some of the key groups who are not going through us,” Flynn said.

Time is running out

With construction due to resume in June, activists are preparing for a series of mobilizations at the beginning of the month. But those preparations—ensuring food, shelter, safety for hundreds or thousands of people, as well as paid media to run against the industry’s ad buys—will be expensive, Redford said. The goal is to delay the work long enough to secure a bigger victory. For instance, President Joe Biden could stop the project with a signature, as he did with the Keystone XL pipeline.

“The future of [the Line 3] pipeline, whether it gets completed or cancelled or delayed, is going to be decided in the next couple months,” said Redford. “It’s a now-or-never situation.”

Of course, Line 3 is hardly the only ongoing fossil fuel project or the only current flashpoint for Indigenous-led activism. While funding for Line 3 really did not begin to arrive until the situation was at an emergency point, other fossil fuel projects are still in earlier stages—and there are more avenues for resistance groups to pursue. Many funders are looking at how to grow a movement that is still nascent—Giniw Collective, for instance, is not yet a 501(c)(3)—and to double down on the approaches Indigenous activists are promoting, such as Winona LaDuke’s hemp farm.

“It’s a little David-and-Goliath-looking at first, but there are some amazing wins that are coming out,” Grant said.

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