The CLIMA Fund is pleased to share our impact report on our five-year anniversary of supporting grassroots climate justice movements worldwide. The CLIMA Fund was created to provide an efficient and effective vehicle for funders and donors to invest in growing grassroots climate solutions. We collaboratively support movement ecosystems led by women, Indigenous Peoples, youth, and small-scale farmers.

The four CLIMA Fund member organizations have given over 18,000 grants over a collective 120+ years of grassroots grantmaking. In the last five years, the CLIMA Fund has made 300+ grants to grassroots groups in 71 countries. Here is what we have learned:

1. New philanthropic dollars, primarily from the tech sector, are inclined towards technology fixes to the climate crisis. We are in a rare moment to steer these dollars towards more systemic and grassroots solutions that address the root causes of the crisis.
2. Grassroots movements are powerful and they are growing, both in their responsiveness to short-term crises and achievement of long-term systemic shifts. They are growing quickly, but funding has not risen to match their action. 
3. Funders and donors are starting to re-examine how to incorporate a justice and equity lens into their grantmaking. Because of movements like Black Lives Matter, funders are starting to listen. Whether that will translate into action is unclear. 
4. Philanthropic funding continues to support white-dominant nonprofits in the Global North. Grassroots-centric intermediaries exist to help flip that script. 
5. Grassroots movements create community sovereignty, or people’s control over their local land and water. The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrates that strong movements are able to respond nimbly and creatively to a plurality of impacts. 

The food and energy sectors are the top polluters globally, accounting for over 70% of greenhouse gas emissions. Our industrialized food system produces 30% of the world’s food, yet uses 70% of the world’s agricultural land. Fossil fuels still constitute over 80% of energy consumption. The CLIMA Fund is launching a new Food & Energy Initiative to support grassroots-driven energy and food transitions worldwide over ten years.

We are grateful for the support of our institutional and individual donors who have helped resource grassroots movements to shut down mines, close factories, ensure a reliable supply of food for impacted communities, and share COVID information and protective equipment. We stand in solidarity with our grassroots grantee partners who have responded to climate injustices with strength, creativity, and ambition.

Read the report here.