This will be the last installment of the Power & Progress newsletter, in which we analyze how elected leaders are impacting global climate action, and the economic and societal power dynamics at play.
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Can Philanthropy Replace US Climate Funding?
As the Trump administration and DOGE are cutting everything from foreign aid to climate funding, the philanthropic community is buzzing with activity, albeit quietly. Inside Philanthropy’s climate reporter, Michael Kavate, wrote in April that his attempts to check in with top climate funders and regrantors were largely unsuccessful, “with nearly all either silent or sharing brief and measured statements.” Despite that, he reports that those willing to speak shared that “there is much activity behind the scenes.”
There is no doubt that the Trump administration’s funding cuts and other threats to universities has had a chilling effect on those who fund climate-related research and projects. As The New York Times’ David Gelles noted in early February, “under Trump, billionaire climate champions have gone quiet.” Two big funders, Jeff Bezos’ Earth Fund and Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Energy, went further, slashing funding to climate projects abruptly in February.
In April, a rumor that Trump was planning to target the nonprofit tax status of climate philanthropy and nonprofit groups in an executive order on Earth Day was widely reported. That didn’t happen, but it put many groups on notice and contributed to the uncertainty surrounding the future of climate action based on Trump’s policy rollbacks and the administration’s blacklist. A provision in the budget bill that allows the Secretary of the Treasury to strip nonprofits of their tax-exempt status passed the House in May, posing an “existential threat” to all nonprofits in the US.
Some philanthropists, however, are stepping up. Two days after President Trump withdrew the US from the Paris Agreement, Michael Bloomberg announced that Bloomberg Philanthropies and other US climate funders would cover the funds owed by the US to UN Climate Change (UNFCCC) and work with others to uphold the country’s reporting commitments under the agreement.
It was the second time that Bloomberg, who is also the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy on Climate Ambition and Solutions, volunteered to pay the US’s share, which has been estimated to be $16.8 million annually, or 22% of the UNFCCC budget. “From 2017 to 2020, during a period of federal inaction, cities, states, businesses, and the public rose to the challenge to uphold our nation’s commitments — and now, we are ready to do it again,” Bloomberg said in the statement.
Of course, the sheer number of cuts to climate research, staff, and clean energy funding that the Trump administration and DOGE are making can’t be solved by philanthropy alone. Before Trump took office, the US was on track to spend more than $500 billion “on climate technology and clean energy over the next decade,” according to analysis by non-profit RMI. But as reporter Ayenat Mersie notes in Devex, “philanthropy is increasingly being seen as a key player in filling funding gaps and driving large-scale collaboration on climate initiatives.”
Currently, less than 2% of global philanthropic funding is dedicated to addressing the climate crisis, reports the ClimateWorks Foundation. That amounts to between $9.9 billion and $16.4 billion out of an estimated $885 billion annually, “suggesting ample scope for scaling up,” according to the World Resources Institute. And although 85% of US foundation funders “stated that climate change was a top three issue” for them in a December 2023 Aspen Institute survey, “only about a third reported they were ‘open to considering funding efforts’ to address climate change.”
Despite that reticence, “climate giving grew by 20% year over year, with foundation funding reaching a record $4.8 billion [in 2024] — nearly triple the $1.7 billion in 2019,” according to the ClimateWorks Foundation.
A new coalition of financial advisors hopes to triple US climate funding over the next five years, reports Kavate in Inside Philanthropy. “The hope is that by bringing donor advisors together and sharing tips and techniques, they can convince more donors to take the leap into climate giving.” The Climate Philanthropy Catalyst Coalition, a group comprising 44 organizations, launched a website last month and plans to offer “data, insights and strategies” to “encourage potential funders to shift from being ‘climate curious’ to embracing climate action.”
Story Ideas
- According to Candid, the US has about 15,000 climate nonprofits and about 7,000 climate-focused foundations. Report on nonprofit groups and funders in your region. What are they funding? Where are they pulling back? Is their work replacing activities cut by DOGE?
- Some climate-focused funders, notes Jacob Harold at the Chronicle of Philanthropy, have frontloaded their dispersal of funds to align with what Helen Mountford, president and CEO of the ClimateWorks Foundation, calls “the decisive decade” (2020-2030) to make grants quickly to have the most impact on the crisis. Interview these funders — the Waverly Street Foundation, Taproot Earth, among others — about “the urgency of now” and their spend-down strategies.
- Grant Watch is a database project tracking “the termination of grants of scientific research agencies under the Trump administration in 2025.” MIT Technology Review’s James Temple reported that a search of climate related words “showed that the NSF has canceled funds for 118 projects, which were supposed to receive more than $100 million in total.” Interview scientists whose grants were cancelled about their research. Are funders stepping up? How do they hope to continue their work?
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