Achieving Outsized Impact on the Environment
This week, in conjunction with the Environmental Grantmakers Association annual retreat, the Windward Fund, The JPB Foundation, and Arabella Advisors shared a new memo: “How Donors Can Achieve Outsized Impact on the Environment with Non-Endowed Funds.” The memo explores how non-endowed funds are building bridges and enabling connections that are helping to advance the environmental movement.
The memo itself represents a collaborative effort: In partnership with The JPB Foundation, the Windward Fund commissioned Arabella Advisors to convene a group of six non-endowed funds, gather their collective insights, and build a narrative together around the work they all do. Through the memo, the groups exemplify the power of using these grant-making vehicles to build a stronger environmental movement and to help funders better understand how they might use such vehicles to complement their existing grant-making tools. Among the findings in the memo:
- By shifting resources to movement-building organizations who work with frontline communities, these non-endowed funds are building bridges to grassroots, community-led organizations that donors have historically found it challenging to support effectively.
- These funding vehicles enable more resources to flow to grassroots, community-led organizations and respond to on-the-ground needs. They help bridge the gap between donors who seek to strengthen the environmental movement infrastructure and grassroots organizations which have already built a strong base of supporters and are achieving impact at the local, state, and national levels.
- Non-endowed funds get more flexible funding to the grassroots, through rapid-response efforts, capacity-building grants, and more. At the same time, they provide donors with invaluable insights and narratives from communities and leaders in the field.
The six funds that contributed to the memo are:
- Building Equity and Alignment for Impact (BEA Fund)
- The Climate and Clean Energy Equity Fund (The Equity Fund)
- Energy Efficiency for All (EEFA)
- Just Transition Fund
- The Solutions Project
- The Fund to Build Grassroots Power (FBGP)
Interested in learning more about how non-endowed funds can benefit climate and environmental justice groups? Download the full memo here.