Funder Community, 2021
Environmental Justice Fund
The GMA Funder Community has established the Environmental Justice Fund (“the Fund”) to explore local, inclusive responses to the challenges posed by climate change. The six-month pooled giving and comprehensive learning experience is open to donors eager to understand the place for philanthropy in a large-scale problem and fund innovative community-driven solutions.
Focus on local action
UPDATE: The Fund has now concluded with $20,000 unrestricted and unexpected grants to the following greater Boston organizations that are doing exemplary work to create more livable communities for all:
- Boston Food Forest Coalition
- Codman Square Neighborhood Development Corp.
- The Harborkeepers
- Lawyers for Civil Rights Boston
- Mothers Out Front, Massachusetts
- Native Land Conservancy
- Speak for the Trees, Boston
- Urban Farming Institute
Given the complexity and scale of climate change, funders can be tempted to defer to the larger powers of government and business innovation for solutions. This is a rational response yet funders’ grantmaking strengths position them to be part of the solution. Read about some approaches to Funding Climate Resilient Communities explored in the Fund’s learning sessions.
Complementing state plans to reach carbon neutrality by 2050, the Fund’s learning focused on local work to build:
- sustainable food systems,
- land conservation and access,
- infrastructure, and
- community-level resilience.
Historically, low-income, Black, Indigenous, and immigrant communities have borne a disproportionate share of environmental exploitation and the effects of climate change. We are at a turning point: aligned with grassroots calls for action, a new federal administration, and the state’s renewed commitment to this work, community groups have seized the moment and are driving change for a better future.
Together, participants in the Fund considered the evidence with expert speakers, discuss priorities, and select promising approaches that are equitable and inclusive.
Read about Three Grantmaking Approaches for Climate-Resilient Communities identified in a recent conversation with leaders of nonprofit organizations that participated in Boston’s Climate Action Plan.
Fund Participation
The Fund is a project under the fiscal sponsorship of Philanthropy Massachusetts. Participation is open to private foundations, corporate giving programs, donor-advised fund accounts, and individual donors. It is a funder-directed initiative that does not accept unsolicited applications.
Participants in the 2021 Environmental Justice Fund are:
Louis and Anne Abrons Foundation, Paul and Edith Babson Foundation, The Devonshire Foundation, Lookout Foundation, The Herman and Frieda L. Miller Foundation, Mabel Louise Riley Foundation, the Schrafft Charitable Trust, and Philanthropy Massachusetts
Contact GMA Director Phil Hall by phone 617-391-3097 or email phall@gmafoundations.com to learn more about the GMA Funder Community.