Maybe this is Earth’s wake-up call. The coronavirus is exposing our dysfunctional leadership and sparking new ways of caring for each other and the planet.
Perhaps we can refocus on collective care, cooperation, and community. Whatever unfolds, the best investment we can make is in the communities already fiercely protecting the health of the Earth and her peoples.
While the need for action is high and threats are ever-present, only a fraction of global funding supports human rights defenders. Natural resource defenders constitute over 50% of all human rights defenders’ deaths, yet they receive only 3% of private funding globally. Support is often crisis-centered in the form of rapid-response emergency funding after the threat or violence has taken place, rather than long-term funding to aid movement-building and resilience.
Original blog by Lindley Mease in Alliance Magazine on June 5, 2019 A groundswell of community-owned solutions requires investment. People are taking to the streets on climate change around the globe, tired of inaction by public officials and risking arrest to intentionally cause disruption. It’s time to step back, bring out the wide angle lens, and aggressively … Continued
By Tate Williams Original article in InsidePhilanthropy on April 4, 2019 Climate change is a notoriously underfunded issue. But climate philanthropy has also been narrowly focused, both in terms of strategy and grantees. We’ve seen some diversification, but grassroots organizations and climate justice work, in particular, still receive a small share of the funding pie. … Continued
By Rajasvini Bhansali Original article on the Environmental Grantmakers Association blog on June 6, 2018 I took my first toxic tour of South Durban, South Africa in 2012. Hosted by the South Durban Community Environmental Alliance (SDCEA), an organization led by Goldman Prize winner Desmond D’Sa, the purpose of the tour was to learn from community members how they … Continued
By Tate Williams Original article in InsidePhilanthropy posted on June 18, 2018 There’s a good argument to be made that communities on the frontlines of environmental protection—especially indigenous people, women and youth—ought to receive greater funding based on significant need and the small amount they currently receive. But for grassroots groups to become a larger … Continued
By Terry Odendahl Original post in Alliance Magazine on June 27, 2018 In the current political moment, one where we can no longer trust politicians and international actors to have human compassion and protect our rights to a healthy planet, who do we trust? Over the past decade, I have worked as an environmental and … Continued
By Jonathan Leaning Original post on Human Rights Funders Network on January 7, 2019 In the beautiful, verdant jungle of the Brazilian Amazon—the very lungs of the planet—a small handful of Indigenous Munduruku communities have lived in connection with their ecosystem for more than a thousand years. When news emerged about plans to construct a … Continued
By Rajasvini Bhansali Original post on Thousand Currents’ blog on May 02, 2017.
We were at a funders dinner the day after the People’s Climate March in New York City in 2014.
