OVERVIEW: Bezos Earth Fund is the climate funder created by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. It supports environmental conservation and justice, climate change and clean energy, marine and freshwater restoration, and animal and wildlife preservation.
IP TAKE: This is not nearly as transparent or accessible as it could be. Since its founding, the Bezos Earth Fund has committed roughly half of its initial $10 billion pledge to several climate, conservation, and marine initiatives. Some of these beneficiaries are listed on the fund’s website; however, some have yet to be announced.
The fund is not accessible and does not run an open application program, choosing instead to remain a proactive funder that conducts its own internal grantee searches. Grantseekers could reach out via social media to get on the Bezos Earth Fund’s radar, but it may be better to network with previous grantees to get on this funder’s radar. Predominately established foundations that can scale their work will have the most success here, not grassroots efforts.
PROFILE: Established in early 2020 through a $10 billion pledge to combat climate change, the Bezos Earth Fund was created by Jeff Bezos to address what he has called, “the biggest threat to our planet.” Bezos is founder and former president and CEO of Amazon. He is one of the richest people in the world. His philanthropy is often tied to high profile, news making endeavors; immediately after his ten minute suborbital space flight in July 2021, Bezos announced no-strings attached gifts of $100 million to chef José Andrés, founder of World Kitchen, and Van Jones, CNN commentator and climate change activist.
The Bezos Earth Fund is “committed to fighting climate change and protecting nature.” While it is still a relatively new organization and consequently difficult to discern patterns, initial grants have gone to established, well-known groups, including Environmental Defense Fund, Natural Resources Defense Council, The Nature Conservancy, World Resources Institute and World Wildlife Fund, and others. Each received $100 million. The fund’s programs are focused on Nature Solutions, Environmental Justice, Decarbonizing the Economy, Monitoring and Accountability, and Economics, Finance, and Markets.
Grants for Environment, Climate Change and Clean Energy
The Earth Fund’s Nature Solutions program works to “The Earth Fund will advance nature solutions in critical ecosystems to safeguard the health of our planet and the wellbeing of people around the world.” The Environmental Justice program supports “projects, communities, coalitions, and initiatives that explicitly address” the systemic issues that disproportionately burden low-income communities and communities of color with the negative effects of climate change. The Decarbonizing the Economy program works to “accelerate coalitions and projects that have the potential to spur [just and equitable] systems transformation and accelerate decarbonization across key emitting sectors and geographies.”
An incomplete list of past grantees can be found on the fund’s Programs page. Some of the most significant grant recipients include $100 million each in the first round of grantmaking to the Environmental Defense Fund, the Natural Resources Defense Council, The Nature Conservancy, World Wildlife Fund, as well as the World Resources Institute.
In the second round of grants, the fund promised grants to Seed Commons ($10 million), a national network of loan funds; Future Coalition ($3 million), a national network of youth-led organizations; and the Emerald Cities Collaborative ($12 million), a national network of groups working on climate resilience projects with economic benefits for low-income communities of color. A round of $110 million in grants in December 2022 focused on supporting restoration projects in in Africa and the United States, including $30 million to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.
The fund has also pledged $500 million to a joint effort, created by the Rockefeller and IKEA foundations, to help poor countries fund the transition to clean energy. Additionally, it gave $50 million to the African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative.
Grants for Work and Economic Opportunity
The Bezos Earth Fund centers climate change and environmental justice in all of its grantmaking. This is true for programs that do not give funds directly to climate organizations. The Economics, Finance, and Markets program seeks to “invest in innovative and catalytic projects that seek to chart a new course” toward climate action and environmental justice through “induced new technology, increased economic efficiency, shifts in expectations about the future, first mover advantages, and entrepreneurial thinking.”
Previously funded projects include The Seaweed Solution, which works to transform food security, ocean health, and climate mitigation through seaweed farming; Transforming Indian Farming, which seeks to reduce Delhi’s air pollution by half through regenerative agricultural practices; Supercharging Industrial Decarbonization through the Mission Possible Partnership; and Harnessing the Power of Investors, Banks, and Insurers to Accelerate Climate Mitigation. An incomplete of previous partners and grantees can be found on fund’s Programs page.
Grants for Marine and Freshwater
While the Bezos Earth Fund does not have an individual program dedicated to ocean and freshwater restoration and preservation, it does support this issue as part of its larger push for environmental justice and climate change mitigation. Additionally, in June 2022, the fund pledged $50 million to groups working in Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, and Panama working toward marine protection. An incomplete list of past grantees across all the Earth Fund’s projects can be found on its Programs page.
Grants for Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems
In 2021, Bezos pledged to devote $2 billion of the Earth Fund’s initial $10 billion pledge to support land restoration and encourage greater sustainability in agricultural production and food consumption. Half the pledged amount will go to landscape restoration. One segment of this funding will initially prioritize work in Africa to plant trees, revitalize grasslands and add trees to farmland. Another portion will focus on the United States, specifically landscapes key to carbon storage, biodiversity and local communities. The other half of the pledge will go toward changing how the world grows and consumes food. The fund hopes to increase crop yields while reducing agriculture’s footprint, encourage more people to switch to plant-based diets, improve agricultural supply chains, and reduce food loss and waste.
Important Grant Details:
Because the Bezos Earth Fund is still a relatively new organization, it can be difficult to determine grant sizes and recipients beyond those announced and promoted by the fund itself. New grantseekers can see lists of select grantees, subdivided by program area on the Earth Fund’s Programs page. This funder does not accept unsolicited proposals or requests for funding, but it does offer a way for grantseekers to reach out and introduce themselves at info@bezosearthfund.org.
PEOPLE:
Search for staff contact info and bios in PeopleFinder (paid subscribers only).
LINKS: