This Inside Philanthropy profile of The 11th Hour Project by Tate Williams discusses the evolution of the foundation’s giving on issues related to climate change:
The 11th Hour Project has kept a pretty low profile to date, but it’s now giving close to $100 million a year, a number that more than doubled after 2018, making it among the largest funders in the climate space. The grantmaker currently has three main focus areas—human rights, food and agriculture, and energy—the latter two explicitly concerned with climate change.
The foundation is one to watch in climate philanthropy, not only for its sizable giving to a mix of energy and sustainability work, but also for its emphasis on impacted communities and support for local campaigns that have racked up some notable wins. The 11th Hour Project played a big funding role, for example, in a coalition in New York that helped push the state to ban fracking in 2014.
“We don’t believe it’s enough to just support renewable energy projects,” says Lauren Davis, energy program director. “We need to stop fossil fuels, so our focus is on ensuring renewable energy is actually replacing dirty energy.”
The grantmaker first headed down this path around 2010 when, following the collapse of federal climate legislation, it steered away from its peers in two key ways. The team decided to focus on community-led efforts, with 60% of its grants currently going to groups with annual budgets under $2 million. It also took a strong stance against natural gas fracking at a time when others in the field were either tolerating or promoting the fossil fuel as a replacement for coal…
As it operates at a larger scale and gets involved in new areas, one challenge I can see facing the 11th Hour Project is making sure that it’s always following the lead of the communities it serves. That’s a challenge for all foundations, but especially for a national funder backing community efforts. The foundation’s team points out that they spend a lot of time in the field working alongside partners, and although they did not provide us with any numbers on staff diversity, say they are “working to continuously diversify our staff and our grantmaking to better represent the communities we serve.”
While acknowledging that challenge, support for grassroots, community-led work on climate change is critical and in short supply, so it’s encouraging to see an important player taking on this approach.
Read the entire article.