Underpinning Stories of Grassroots Power and Leadership

How do grassroots movements scale? Why is international solidarity important in confronting the climate crisis? Why fund the grassroots? We synthesized some of the lessons from our online dialogue series about the what, why, and how of supporting grassroots climate action globally.

5 Years of Funding Grassroots Leadership

$10 million, 300+ grants, 5 years. The CLIMA Fund is pleased to share its impact report on its 5-year anniversary of resourcing the grassroots climate justice movements.

Climate Solutions from Soil to Seed

This World Food Day, we honor the thousands of grassroots food sovereignty movements challenging the status quo and creating equitable and sustainable food systems. We commit to standing with food sovereignty movements for the long haul and invite other funders to join us.

Funding Indigenous Peoples-led Climate Action

On August 9th, the CLIMA Fund hosted a global Twitter chat to commemorate the International Day of World’s Indigenous Peoples and ask what the world would look like if Indigenous Peoples and Indigenous-led climate action receive the funding and support they desire.

Defending Land and Community: Women on the Frontlines of Climate Justice

Funders can join women human rights defenders in their advocacy. This means creating spaces and providing funding and other resources for them to advocate for themselves and their communities, recognizing and valuing their experiences, supporting their leadership development and participation, strengthening their networks and resilience to sustain their movements.

Pushed, Pulled — and Exploited

Walls are the not the answer. The real solution doesn’t build walls. It doesn’t jail tired, hungry and frightened men, women and children. It contributes to a better world by restoring the right of the affected people to create their own solutions.

Babaçu Nut Harvesters Organize for Land and Livelihoods in Brazil

Original post by Chung-Wha Hong and Lydia Simas for Grassroots International on January 25, 2019. Babaçu nut harvesters in the northeast of Brazil have been struggling for free access to the land and forests that provide livelihoods for thousands of rural families. We went to visit a community of babaçu nut harvesters – known as quebradeiras de … Continued

The Underpinning Stories Dialogue Series II: Lessons Learned

By Gargi Sharma The End of the World as We Know It? International Solidarity in the Climate & COVID-19 Crisis The world is changing rapidly due to climate disruption and the COVID-19 crisis, and that’s not going to stop. But even as fires rage and storms brew, the impact of these changes can still be … Continued

Are Your Environmental Efforts Doing More Harm Than Good?

There is a common belief in the philanthropic sector that doing something is better than doing nothing. But what happens when some funders’ efforts to do good end up doing more harm, undercutting effective climate action? Our latest infographic explores these false promises.

Why Fund Intermediaries?

With a global pandemic and the ever-looming climate crisis, where can our philanthropic dollars make a difference? In the last couple months, grassroots movements have shown how to meet the immediate needs of communities when governments are failing to, and organize for long-term change in a moment that shows how desperately we need it. To resource grassroots movements, funding intermediaries play a critical role.

What does ‘grassroots’ mean, anyway?

Grassroots organizing has been a central strategy of almost every major social and economic transformation in world history—from ending apartheid to the recognition of Indigenous rights to women’s suffrage globally.

The seashore belongs to the people of South Africa

The media statement by the KwaZulu-Natal Subsistence Fisher Folk, the South Durban Community Environmental Alliance, and other groups highlights the right of current and future generations to access the ocean and protect their right to food.

5 ways that funders approach climate philanthropy

Original post by Lindley Mease on October 18, 2018 The problems associated with climate change are of catastrophic proportion and require diverse, systemic solutions. If these solutions are to ensure this planet is still habitable in 80 years, they will transform how we live and work across the globe. Philanthropy has the opportunity to play … Continued

Philanthropists are missing promising climate change solutions

Original post by Thousand Currents on March 13, 2019 PRESS STATEMENT New report shows overlooked grassroots leaders are already working effectively to cool the planet For media inquiries, please contact:Lindley Mease, (415) 824-8384 Ext. 126, lindley@climasolutions.org FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE  GLOBAL — Today the California Environmental Associates released a new body of evidence that demonstrates that grassroots climate solutions are needed philanthropic investments … Continued

The climate solutions we need for our survival are already in our midst

Original post by Rajasvini Bhansali on June 23, 2017 Climate change is a tough subject. It is serious and it is scary. Dig deep – beyond the very real, devastating impacts on communities around the world – and what you find is the reality of global systems of inequality. Legacies of colonial extraction. Concentrations of … Continued

People-led climate solutions

Original post by Thousand Currents on December 07, 2016 History shows us time and again: the vital lever of major social change, from decolonization to civil rights to environmental movements, has been grassroots organizing. Yet, even today, grassroots efforts often remain underfunded and overlooked. This missed opportunity is huge, especially in regards to one of … Continued

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CLIMA Fund In the News

Coronavirus pandemic shows we need new ways to look after the Earth and each other

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.

Earth Defenders Increasingly Being Killed; Funders Can Step Up!

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.

Climate justice is possible when…we listen to the grandmothers

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

A Partnership Making the Case for Supporting Grassroots Climate Work

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

Why we need collaborations to tackle climate change

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

Climate Action Rooted in People, Soil and Mother Earth: Climate Justice

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

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