For foundations giving green grants, there’s no shortage of communities to join.
Fund food systems? There’s a group for that. Concerned about climate? One for that too. Biodiversity? Another group. Transportation? Check. Animals? Ditto. Water? Yup.
Not that there’s only one option for each issue. Just like the complex challenges they face, most philanthropy supporting organizations in the environmental space touch on a variety of related areas. A program officer looking for peers can choose from a wide range of complementary networks — or even sign up for them all.
To give a better sense of this potentially dizzying array of possibilities, I’ve put together a list of nine notable networks, beginning with some of the largest and long-running of the bunch.
Some of these groups, such as Environmental Grantmakers Association and The Funders Network, have subgroups that are sizable or influential in their own right. Others were seeded by members of other networks, as in the case of Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems Funders and Funders for Regenerative Agriculture.
This post offers an introduction to several of the best-known groups, but the list could easily go on. There’s a whole host of oceans and marine life groups, from Oceans5 to the Shark Conservation Fund. This collection also focuses on national groups and omits the many regional groups. Agriculture funders, for instance, have local networks like California Foodshed Funders and the Midwest-focused Fresh Taste.
Below are the basics on nine networks that both help guide green grantmakers and grow the field.
Environmental Grantmakers Association
Perhaps the oldest and best-known group on this list, EGA likely has the broadest membership of any environmental affinity group, encompassing a wide range of green funders. Its Tracking the Field initiative is one of the few data-tracking efforts on green funding and offers one of the most comprehensive databases on environmental grantmaking available, albeit only for members. The network played a key role in spawning several of the other groups on this list. It also has initiatives that are widely known in their own right, such as the Blue Sky Funders Forum, which is focused on environmental literacy and education.
Biodiversity Funders Group
This network brings together roughly 75 environmental, conservation and climate and energy grantmakers, mostly based in the U.S. With climate change helping to fuel a sixth mass extinction, the link between species survival and ecosystem health is clear. BFG’s semi-autonomous initiative, Climate and Energy Funders Group, is one of the few explicitly climate-focused funder networks.
Health and Environmental Funders Network
This group works to inform and coordinate grantmakers funding at the intersection of environment, health and community concerns, with a focus on justice. One example is a one-stop resource portal it launched last year to help funders respond equitably to the health and environmental challenges brought on by climate change. Like several others on this list, it also maintains subgroups. For instance, its Past Petro Funder Group, formerly known as the Fracking Working Group, focuses on communities transitioning from fossil fuel-based economies.
Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems Funders
This network works with roughly 100 members, which are predominantly located in the U.S., to support just and sustainable food and agricultural systems. Like others on this list, its work includes organizing policy events, such as a session this month with the White House on nutrition, hunger and health. Another ongoing effort is to marshal philanthropic dollars in service of making Americans care as much about what’s in our closets as what’s on our plates.
The Funders Network
Formerly known as the Funders Network for Smart Growth and Livable Communities, this group works with its roughly 200 members to foster sustainability in communities, with an emphasis on equity. Subgroups dig deeper on specific issues, such as its Mobility and Access Collaborative, which works on transportation systems, or Smart Growth California, a network focused on how to build healthy communities.
Animal Grantmakers
Founded more than two decades ago, this group is small compared to some others on this list, with around 35 members. But it is an important presence in its sphere, particularly for funders focused on companion animals. Like others, some of its core activities include hosting an annual conference, tracking the field’s grantmaking and connecting members with their peers.
Funders Table
Hosted by ClimateWorks Foundation, this group brings together most of the largest funders of climate change mitigation and clean energy on the planet. Formed about a decade ago, it is still described as an informal collaboration, lacking even a website. But it’s quite active and influential, and the group’s calls and multi-day conferences are spaces for members to discuss strategy and coordinate their grantmaking. For years, the invitation-only group was a limited space, but due to COVID, more participants are welcomed to the table, and more changes are afoot, according to ClimateWorks’ new president.
Funders for Regenerative Agriculture
Known as FORA, this group was founded in 2019, making it one of the youngest on this list. Its 60-plus members range from billionaires to small family foundations, and address concerns including health, climate change, water conservation and employment. What they share is a faith that regenerative agriculture is a key solution. Despite its relatively small size, it has also seeded offshoot funder collaboratives, such as Grassfed Alliance.
Water Table
Like FORA, this group is one of the newer and more narrowly focused groups on this list. Created by the Walton Family Foundation and S.D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation, the group is now hosted by the Water Foundation. It works to both bring more funders and funding to this space, as well as more broadly ensure the resilience and sustainability of watersheds and water systems amid a rapidly changing climate.
Is there an environmental funder network I missed that should be on the next list? Let me know.