www.impatience.earth

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Impatience Earth, closely linked with Ten Years Time, 'helps donors respond to the urgency of climate change'. Whilst we are not actively working with either organisation, we liked their idea of asking foundations to commit to combatting the climate crisis by pledging a certain amount to the cause each year. To this end, KF pledged £70,000pa (very likely more than our natural income) for a 5-year period, with a view to increasing this figure as our knowledge and partner base grows. Hopefully this will help create momentum and encourage other foundations to do the same.

www.farmingthefuture.uk

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Farming the Future is a collaborative fund initiated by four leading environmental funders (at the time of our first involvement) who were each focussing on food systems and realised that they could give more efficiently by pooling resources and working together. The fund aims to transform the industrial food system with a view to encouraging greater social and environmental justice. The fund has an excellent steering group and assessment process - in order to be successful applicants must work collaboratively.

https://gaiafoundation.org/

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The Gaia Foundation’s Seed Sovereignty programme has developed trust and mutual respect with a network of groups and individuals over a period of several years. These groups are carrying out vital work in trials, equipment prototyping, carving out routes to market, and groundbreaking ways of working but as they are informal and unlikely to create a legal entity etc, struggle to find funding through regular routes. Together with the Kreitman Foundation, we are trialing a model of small pots of funding to allow trailblazing work in equipment, collective working strategies, new variety trials and more. 

The impact of this funding would be two-fold as in addition to directly supporting these groups, the learnings from their work will also be made into case studies to be shared with the rest of the network.

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Economic transformation and decolonization have increasingly gained a lot of momentum within the climate movement, shifting the debate from growth-dependent policies to deeper systems-change, connecting the theme of economic insecurity with the climate crisis. KF provided a one-off grant for the initial mapping out of a documentary, working title 'Cost of Growth’, which will have a global perspective and European focus, co-created by a team of thinkers from economic justice, decolonization and feminist movements. The goal is to broaden the conversation from the climate crisis to the price we all pay for this economic system. Science is increasingly pointing towards post-growth and degrowth policies but what’s missing are accessible stories that turn a vague sense of distrust into deep economic understanding. The documentary will help people to critically look at our growth-obsessed and fossil fuel-based economy, sharing a vision of an alternative future that is centred around abundance, security and freedom, rather than scarcity, crisis and growth-dependency. 

https://siddharthaschool.org/

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A one-off grant to Siddhartha School, Ladakh towards the construction of a well. Ladakh is one of the last places traditional, Indo-Tibetan Buddhist culture remains intact with the school of particular importance. The existing low-producing well that supports the school, its 60 hostel students, and the kitchen is insufficient, even while maximising conservation efforts. As a result, water must be trucked in to refill the cisterns about 3-4 times a year. The school has a strong climate focus and an additional benefit to the well will make it possible to grow trees and other plants that would provide shade and windbreaks. 

https://giveout.org/

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Give Out has created the first fund to focus on the intersection of Climate and the LBGTQI+ community. The fund operates globally and is multi-thematic; covering Data and Research, Education and Advocacy. The LGBTQI+ community is among those disproportionately affected in humanitarian crises but the fund extends beyond this, exploring the gaps in what is essentially an emerging intersection. 

https://www.shechangesclimate.org

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KF recognises that there is an acute lack of female leadership in decision-making spaces on climate action, despite the fact that women around the world are disproportionately impacted by the climate crisis and have the experience and tools to address it. The trustees are therefore pleased to support She Changes Climate, led by a fantastic team which campaigns to ensure equal representation in climate leadership on a global scale. SHE Changes Climate has seen great success advocating for female leadership both at COP and via its own pre-COP summit. 

The Trustees were thrilled to see SHE secure a large grant from a large foundation during the year 23-24.

www.ulsterwildlife.org

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We isolated peatland as one of the planet's critical carbon sinks and stores, as well as being of great importance to biodiversity. We also saw a huge gap in funding in Northern Ireland, despite 18% of NI land cover being peatland and 12% being blanket bog, raised bog and fen, representing over 8% of the total UK peatland resource. The first step in working towards restoring or preserving this land is in mapping it. To this end we have funded the equipment and training required to carry out a detailed site assessment with a view to drawing up partnership management plans with landowners for each site. We have been so happy to see the impact this has had in only the first couple of years, with the mapping having saved huge amounts of time and money - and benefitted not only Ulster Wildlife but other organisations whose interests intersect. 

https://www.papuapartners.org/

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One-off grant providing urgent funding to help support Indigenous Papuans as they respond to the ongoing campaign of violence and persecution that is currently being levied against them. This long-standing conflict has escalated significantly in recent months, which is having devastating consequences for the rights and lives of Indigenous Papuans, and for their ancestral lands, which are rich in biodiversity and rely on indigenous stewardship for protection. As well as supporting partners on the ground, PP are also looking to raise vital awareness about this ongoing conflict in the hopes of securing an urgent intervention from the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights

https://www.medact.org/

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The economic crisis combined with environmental collapse is wrecking public health. In the 10 years up to COVID-19, UK health outcomes stagnated. Low-paid work, poor housing and extreme weather mean more deaths every year, and at the time of writing the WHO predicts that the climate crisis will result in 250,000 excess deaths per year by 2030 if current trends continue. Meanwhile, the current government’s response to the cost of living crisis has been to green-light new oil and gas projects in the North Sea.

Health For a Green New deal brings the power of the health community to bear on shifting public opinion in favour of a just transition. It does this through narrative setting, including supporting health workers to speak to media about why environmental collapse is disastrous for health.

Our health system and the people in it are vital to driving that change. This campaign brings people working in the health sector to act, harnessing the public trust and expertise health workers hold through their responsibilities in order to change the public narrative on climate change and health, including through media and research.

www.globalwitness.org/en/

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This was a core grant towards Global Witness, matched by the Big Give. Global Witness seeks to defend human rights and protect the planet by stopping companies putting profit first. They shine a spotlight on illegal industry and report on the killings of those defending their land from forced seizure by corporations and governments alike. They track and expose the path of corruption, pushing for global change.

https://www.nffn.org.uk

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Over 70% of the UK is farmland and its management is key to a sustainable future. NFFN encourages natural and environmentally friendly methods of tackling the biodiversity and climate crises. 

This grant was matched by the Big Give / RSPB and will help NFFN to bring on board more farmers and organisations to be part of the solution and influence farming practice.

www.follow-this.org

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In May 2022 Paradigm and Follow This seek to pass a shareholder resolution at the Shell AGM that would force Shell to reduce their emissions by 45% by 2030. KF funded campaigning efforts to mobilise 40,000 people to become green shareholders in Shell and back the resolution. The Paradigm platform is innovative in that it seeks to gain the greatest number of shareholders, rather than largest amount of stock. It coordinates closely with Share Action, XR and Just Stop Oil and fits well within the shareholder action space. Even in the event the May resolution is not successful, the goal of the platform will remain impactful for future resolutions. 

www.sumofus.org

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This was a small grant to Sum Of Us's emergency response campaign to counter Brazil’s President who has always wanted to open the forest for mining and is now using pandemic chaos as cover to finally turn over thousands of acres of sacred Indigenous land and protected rainforest to mining companies. Although we rarely engage in this area of funding, the trustees were impressed with the campaign platform and reach and felt this was a good opportunity to protect the future of the Amazon.

www.mockcop.org

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The KF Trustees identified youth movements as a key strategic route towards combatting the climate crisis. This is a well organised  event, with excellent post-event exposure to key COP26 players, including the British PM. KF felt this was a relatively small project with massive potential. The Trustees were especially impressed by the emphasis on ensuring that students from countries with less exposure at COP26 had more exposure at Mock COP.

Between the 19th November and 1st December 2020 Mock COP sought to fill the void of the postponed COP26 with a big, inclusive online Mock COP. The event was run by young climate activists and aimed to get between 3 and 5 delegates from as many countries as possible, with a focus on the Global South. The two-week event was comprised of empowering and informative keynotes and panels by global names and youth activists, followed by high-level opening statements by the youth delegates and facilitated workshops and regional caucuses. The discussions were framed around five conference themes: climate justice; education; health and mental health; green jobs; carbon reduction targets. The event culminated in a powerful conference statement to world leaders from the youth of the world, raising ambition for COP26.

KF's funding, whilst core, went towards subsequently supporting and mentoring delegates to engage their domestic politicians in the year to COP26.

https://www.ethex.org.uk/elc---social-performance_1888.html

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The KF's first direct impact investment, the Ecological Land Cooperative provides ecologically managed, off grid, low impact small farms ready for new farmers to produce good, healthy food for local markets. Sustainably managed small farms provide low-impact livelihoods, regenerate marginal land and produce good food for local communities, increasing resilience and improving the soil, ecology and biodiversity for future generations. ELC is supporting 9 new entrants to farming to make a success of their farm businesses. Investment is in Community Shares which are targeting 3% interest, so for the KF this is a direct impact investment.

www.divestinvest.org

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The fossil fuel divestment movement encourages moving investments away from fossil fuel companies on the basis charities (of all institutions) should not invest in companies that perpetuate issues they're trying to address with their grant making. Whilst divestment may have little financial impact on those companies, it nevertheless raises awareness and hopefully prompts fossil fuel companies to make greater efforts to focus on renewable energy. It may also help give politicians a basis for action, not to mention redistribute wealth on a global scale. The funds divested will be reinvested in climate-positive initiatives.  

Subscribing to this movement was free.

https://helprefugees.org

 

The KF made a grant via fiscal hosts, Help Refugees, to help the Kayapó tribe of the Brazilian Amazon to stage the largest meeting of its leaders in over a decade. Following the worst-on-record Amazonian fires and Brazil’s election of a hostile rightwing government, the Kayapó face unprecedented threats as a people and as custodians of 10m hectares of pristine rainforest. The need to agree a coordinated action plan to push back against encroaching loggers, miners and politicians was urgent. This summit brings together 450 senior figures from 80 villages, including 2019 Nobel Peace Prize nominee, Chief Raoni. Funds will facilitate a complex logistical operation, ensuring a population spread across remote rainforest can speak and act as one.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p081w7mw

https://www.wildcard.land/

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The UK is among the most nature-depleted countries in the world with only a handful of small pockets of temperate rainforest remaining and vast areas of low-biodiversity, much of which contributes little to food security. 

Over 50% of England is owned by 1% of its population. In Scotland, under 500 landowners own more than half the nation. 

Alongside actively exploring land purchase for rewilding, KF sees immense value in Wild Card’s efforts to provide the public pressure needed to create the conversations that result in these pre-existing landowners creating change. Wild Card facilitates meetings with trusts and organisations that can help with project planning, implementation and stewarding and have just transition for farmers at the core of their work. 

www.synchronicityearth.org

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Recent workshops highlighted to the KF team how critical (and relatively underfunded) freshwater systems are. We really liked Syncronicity Earth's concept of a pooled fund which would have multi-thematic, long term, capacity support and multi-funder angles. At the time of entering our 3-year grant, the project only has 2 other funders and 12 partners in 6 programme regions; a strong focus on the Global South, indigenous communities, women in climate and empowering people. We see value-add in funding freshwater via a pooled fund which can provide extra support beyond just money. Our hope is also to help attract other funders to get involved. The fund also provides a way of safely and efficiently funding areas of the world which are harder to monitor and arguably the most affected by the climate crisis.

https://www.chooseearth.co

KF entered a partnership with the Roddick Foundation and Choose Love, which also hosted all the funds for the Kayapo Summit in January 2019 (an earlier KF grant).

The Roddick Foundation, Culture Hack Labs and Choose Love initially began working together with partners in Brazil inc.; Fundo Casa, Mídia Ninja, and Articulação dos Povos Indígenas do Brasil (APIB) as well as 12 key indigenous leaders including Ailton Krenak, Sonia Guajajara and Dario Kopenawa - to create a step-change in international support for indigenous communities and the vital natural worlds they protect. 

This fund secures direct financial support for leaders and activists on the front-line at a time of acute stress in Brazil. Highly grantee-led, the fund is the result of conversations and collaboration between funders and Brazilian partners, including leading grass-roots organisations and respected visionary leaders from indigenous communities.

https://platformlondon.org/

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Platform is a non-profit working towards a just, green future beyond fossil fuels. By bringing together researchers, organisers, educators, environmentalists, artists, and community
activists across four key areas: community, energy, finance and culture - Platform aims to build a just transition and achieve climate justice. Deep, long term partnerships with impacted communities and grassroots groups are at the core of how the organisation operates. 

 

KF are supporting Platform to add their expertise on just energy transition to the 5-year Climate Action Plan in Leeds. The collective purpose is to help shape a Leeds which is zero carbon, nature friendly and socially just by the 2030s. Platform are particularly helping the community-led Leeds African and Caribbean centre, a place with important cultural heritage in the city, to develop into an "eco-hub". The aim is for this to become a model for other community spaces planning for a green future.

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This collaborative pilot between Love Our Ouse, Environmental Law Foundation and Moral Imaginations aims to secure rights for the River Ouse. Building on a Rights of Rivers summit held in 2023, the collaborative will support Lewes District Council to hold a citizens assembly, where local communities along the Ouse will decide together how to protect the river and represent it in future decision making by local authorities. 

 

Similar models have been trialled elsewhere in the world but will be a first for the UK - a strong evaluation component has therefore been built in, from which a toolkit will be developed for others to follow when developing interspecies governance structures. 

https://www.everydayplastic.org/

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This was a one-off grant to Everyday Plastic which is an evidence-led social enterprise delivering accessible learning and campaigns that tackle the effects of the plastic problem that are felt across our society. The Trustees felt this was a great opportunity to effect impact in the plastics landscape.

www.bio-leadership.org

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The Bio Leadership Project is supporting a new ecosystem of leaders and organisations that centre regenerative practices that work within, rather than in tension with, nature. Through their global fellowship programme and learning community, the ultimate mission is to change human systems to be more resilient and in service to a thriving, healthy planet. 

https://www.york.ac.uk/sociology/our-staff/academic/peter-gardner/

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The goal of this project is to write a public-facing book that tells the stories of activists who have been imprisoned for protesting inaction on climate change. A core aim of this project is to elevate the voices of those calling for climate justice with a view to helping to change minds among the public, transforming them from oversimplified spectres and spectacles to ordinary humans who care deeply for the planet.

By increasing public awareness of climate activism and placing the actions taken in the context of the climate and ecological emergency, the book will hopefully help transform the conversation toward effective governmental action on the issue. The trustees also felt this would serve as an important record for the future.

https://www.murmur.earth/

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Murmur's mission is to unite the visual arts and music industries in addressing the climate crisis with the highest possible ambition. An active regranter, its work is threefold: supporting Arts organisations to decarbonise; empowering artists' to speak confidently about taking action on climate; and financing transformative climate projects. 

www.greenfunders.org

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This represents our annual membership fee to EFN who provide a fantastic range of learning, funding and networking opportunities. We have made invaluable connections with other funders through EFN events, which have allowed us as a foundation to amplify our impact whilst simultaneously increasing our understanding of the Climate landscape. It's been great seeing the organisation evolve over the years; the team are passionate and motivating and we really value their contribution to Climate philanthropy.

www.projectseagrass.org

 

KF identified seagrass as another underfunded but hugely valuable tool in combatting the climate crisis. As well as capturing carbon up to 35 times faster than tropical rainforests and absorbing 10% of the ocean's carbon each year, it is also vital to marine biodiversity. 

We were extremely impressed with Project Seagrass's ambitions and made a core grant accordingly. Dr Richard Unsworth lectures at Swansea University and leads the Seagrass Ecosystem Research group. We felt that his years of global, collaborative research adds huge value to the project.

www.wearepossible.org

 

We really liked Possible's approach to combining individual and local actions with larger systemic change and made a core grant towards their work. They motivate people to take more ambitious action on climate change by focussing on five key areas; cleaning up energy (achieving zero carbon power and zero carbon homes), changing how we travel (swapping cars for public transport and active travel, planes for trains - and electrifying everything), changing what we eat and buy (switching to plant rich diets, ending waste), working with nature (restoring nature to lock up carbon and protect us from climate impact) and talking about the climate crisis (breaking the climate silence, and empowering everyone to understand the crisis we face).

www.greengrants.org

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Global Greengrants take a really interesting approach to  protecting the planet and the rights of people by supporting grassroots-led efforts via a diverse community of people on the frontlines. As a relatively early grant for KF in the climate space, this seemed a good starting point and opportunity to learn from a more established organisation. We also liked how well they recognised the relationship between human rights and climate. Our target action areas were Climate Justice and Women's Environmental Action and Youth Movements.

www.climateed.net

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There's a huga gap in climate education, despite the key role students play (and will continue to play) in combatting the climate crisis.

Showing a solid strategy and understanding of the system in which they're working, Climate Ed aims to not only educate students but empower them to take action.

We liked that particular thought was given to eco-anxiety and the need for students to be given agency to do something about a problem they are effectively inheriting.

The focus of the pilot is not on effecting wider policy change but rather creating a quickly scalable educational model that can produce an immediate impact. It is early days in this space and we're really excited to see it evolve.

www.citizensuk.org

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Restricted grant towards emergency response project headed up by Citizens UK.  Heathrow is the biggest single site employer in the UK - 114,000 people. Since the pandemic, it has been closed down, putting thousands of people out of work. As furlough comes to an end, many of these people want jobs whilst at the same time, London needs a massive retrofit program to become carbon neutral by 2030, for which thousands of people need to be trained and employed. A key moment for ex-Heathrow workers to create political pressure for jobs is the London mayoral election on 6 May 2021. The goal is to register 10,000 Heathrow workers and their families to join the Citizens Mayoral Assembly on 28 April 2021 and publicly call for 60,000 new green jobs from the candidates

https://www.openkitchenmcr.co.uk/food-waste

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We were initially reviewing Open Kitchen as part of our Covid response however discussions unexpectedly led us towards a climate grant. Corin at OK has bold ambitions to help intercept edible veg that would otherwise not be harvested, taking advice and inspiration from Feedback's Gleaning Network. That food could then be sold (at reduced rate) to local authorities and other organisations with a social aim. The hope is that by supporting larger UK farmers, supermarkets etc won't move to buying abroad, which in turn would have a negative carbon and economic impact.

​​https://fundercommitmentclimatechange.org

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A small number of founder organisations came together to create this concept which asks funders to commit to a number of steps towards incorporating the climate crisis into their work. Not all of these funders necessarily have the environment as a grantmaking focus but all recognise the need to 'climtise' their thinking. The Kreitman Foundation wholeheartedly endorses this process. 

https://bateswells.co.uk/recordings/webinar-how-does-the-butler-sloss-judgment-on-trustee-investment-powers-and-investment-harms-impact-your-charity/

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The focus of this coalition is to encourage debate surrounding whether charities' investments ought to align with their objects. We believe this is a worthwhile discussion and have put our name to it. Subscribing to this movement was free.