Climate

Dr. Ron Naito understood and was concerned by the climate crisis and its rising impact on health outcomes. Consequently, we seek to fund initiatives that work aggressively to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to prevent new emission sources now, both at the frontlines and through policy, markets, litigation, and legislation.

This includes (but isn’t limited to) organizations that:

• Support or lead upstream policy, advocacy, or other reform initiatives that deter new fossil fuel investments, accelerate decarbonization, and promote renewable energies, both domestically and internationally.
• Advance grassroots organizing by Indigenous or other frontline communities, or work to advance climate justice in systems or markets.
• Regranting organizations that can pool our resources with other funders’ and direct them to impactful, proven organizations.

Please see our recent grant history for examples of funded organizations and initiatives in our Climate priority.

What we don’t fund:

• Next generation climate leadership (but we do seek to build capacity and diversity amongst current climate leaders)
• Regenerative agriculture or ranching, reforestation, or other longer-term carbon sequestration strategies
• Clean/green technology research and development
• New: Community-specific renewable energy installations, clean transportation, or other locally-focused capital projects
• Cap and trade initiatives
• Species and habitat conservation, including land and marine trusts
• Environmental clean-up initiatives (although we do fund some organizations that advocate or litigate upstream against greenhouse gas emissions or health-related industrial pollutants)

We don’t fund these areas not because we don’t value them, but because either 1) we are still learning about these areas and how to fund impactfully within them, 2) we have determined that our average grant sizes can’t be effective within these fields, or 3) we are seeking more aggressive, near-term interventions. We are grateful for your work even if you are not eligible for our funding.

Please also visit our Sustainable Communities and Health Equity pages: there are intentional areas of overlap between these funding priorities, and something that may not seem like a good fit here may be a good fit elsewhere.

Be sure to review our general eligibility information before applying.

Thank you for your consideration.