Massive philanthropic pledges dropped like leaves this fall for the Bezos Earth Fund.
In early September, it was $130 million for climate justice by the end of the year. Later that month, it was $1 billion to preserve 30% of the world’s land and sea by 2030. In November, $2 billion to restore landscapes and transform food systems.
This week, the $10 billion fund started filling in details on where this money is headed.
With the announcement Monday of 44 grants totaling $443 million—nearly all representing payments from those earlier commitments, rather than new money—the fund offered fresh insight into where its pledged dollars are flowing and what types of groups it will support. As the Amazon founder’s philanthropy is the biggest player by far in climate philanthropy, those choices will reverberate throughout the funding ecosystem.
Let’s take a look at what this latest round of funding can tell us.
Where did the climate justice grants go?
Monday’s announcement closed the loop on the $130 million climate justice pledge the fund made three months ago, committing that full amount to 19 organizations. All are working to support the Justice40 initiative, the Biden administration’s promise that disadvantaged communities will receive at least 40% of benefits from federal investments in climate and clean energy.
A few traits stick out from a review of the new grantees. First and foremost, many climate justice recipients are experienced regrantors, whether as their primary role or as one of many responsibilities. These awards span dedicated intermediary funds to organizations like Building Equity and Alignment for Environmental Justice (which received $15 million), known most recently for its widely cited report that 1.3% of funding from top green grantmakers goes to environmental justice groups. BEA also runs two grantmaking funds.
This replicates the approach Bezos took on climate justice in his first $791 million round of grants. And, like then, several of these gifts are of unprecedented size for the recipients. As a practical matter, giving to regrantors makes sense when you have $10 billion to give away and are trying to keep your operation lean. More importantly, it puts more decision-making power in the hands of those closer to impacted communities and helps these big checks spread throughout the existing climate justice ecosystem.
Similarly, these grants prioritize organizations that bring others together. Networks and coalitions got lots of love. Examples include 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.
The grantees also suggest a willingness to back a broad spectrum of organizations. Take the group of grants to Native-led organizations. Large amounts went to the Alaska Venture Fund ($10 million), whose backers include climate heavyweights like Hewlett and Oak foundations and small progressive funders like Chorus and NorthLight foundations. Meanwhile, the Tribal Solar Accelerator Fund ($12 million) was started by the Wells Fargo Foundation and counts General Motors and US Bank among its supporters.
This round also showed repeat gifts are not out of the question. In the fund’s first round of grants in late 2020, two major grantees were the NDN Collective ($12 million) and the Hive Fund for Climate and Gender Justice ($43 million). Now, the pair will get an additional $8 million and $10 million, respectively, suggesting the Bezos team has been happy with their work so far.
Finally, climate resilience—which has traditionally received minimal support from climate philanthropy—got a (relatively) small nod. One $47 million batch of grants focused in part on supporting communities to “transform into environmentally safe, climate-resilient geographies.” How that plays out—and whether the fund makes that a priority beyond U.S. borders—could be meaningful for an area that is beginning to see wider philanthropic engagement.
This batch of grants won qualified praise from one of Bezos’ fiercest past critics in the grassroots movement. Climate Justice Alliance commended the fund both for granting to “several grassroots-accountable organizations” and for hiring Danielle Deane-Ryan, formerly of Nathan Cummings Foundation and a consultant with the Climate Funders Justice Pledge. “But they are also only a beginning,” cautioned CJA in its statement, which offered a list of suggestions ranging from continuing such funding to avoiding actions that further concentrate wealth.
Who is Bezos funding to support the 30x30 conservation goal?
Split primarily between the Congo Basin ($105 million) and the tropical Andes ($151 million), the latest conservation grants follow a familiar path: The biggest grants flowed to massive and mostly U.S.-based environmental organizations, mirroring Bezos’ early grantmaking. His team has again sent big checks to some of the largest and most well-resourced green groups in the world.
Wildlife Conservation Society was the biggest recipient, with $60 million across the two regions. An international organization that also runs three zoos and an aquarium in New York City, it has been a top recipient of U.S. foundation dollars in recent years, according to an Inside Philanthropy analysis of Candid data. Many other top recipients were familiar U.S.-based groups, such as major intermediary ClimateWorks Foundation ($30 million total), and the Nature Conservancy ($30 million), the world’s largest environmental organization.
These choices suggest that the team believes such groups, with ample staff, offices dotting the globe and oodles of Ph.D.s, are best equipped to manage these multimillion-dollar grants and multi-partner international efforts. Unlike its climate justice grantmaking, it has not given big to the U.S.-based international regranting funds that support small-scale environmental organizations around the world.
It might also be the result of a team still building its relationships and capacity to do international grantmaking. The fund’s president, Andrew Steer, told me earlier this year the foundation will live up to its name and make grants directly to non-U.S. groups. And like past grants, it appears the intention is that some of these grants are passed to local groups.
There were some lesser-known groups that came up big. One was the Rights and Resources Initiative ($25 million), an international coalition of 150 organizations focused on land rights for Indigenous communities and others, whose supporters include funds from several European nations and the Ford Foundation. Its partners include the Global Alliance of Territorial Communities, a coalition of Indigenous and local communities across much of Central and South America and in Indonesia, as well as the National Geographic and Wyss Foundation-backed Campaign for Nature. This grant follows through on a pledge made by Bezos at COP26, the U.N. climate summit.
Several big-name Bezos grantees do have smaller partners based abroad. For instance, ClimateWorks will work with International Land and Forest Tenure Facility, a Stockholm-headquartered organization that gives grants to help Indigenous people and other local communities secure legal rights to their lands.
Curiously, grants also went to two groups that have been listed, alongside Bezos Earth Fund, as funders of major pledges. The new grants include $20 million for The Rainforest Trust, which recently promised $500 million as part of a multi-partner effort, known as the Protecting Our Planet Challenge, that pledged to spend $5 billion over 10 years to achieve the 30x30 goal. Another of that pledge’s funding partners, the nonprofit Re:wild, got $30 million.
What are the first hints on landscape restoration priorities?
The final and smallest category was for restoration of degraded landscapes, drawing on the fund’s recent $2 billion commitment—its biggest but most recent pledge. The three grants in this section back an eclectic group: the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation ($30 million), the Congress-chartered fundraising powerhouse; One Tree Planted ($15 million), a global tree-planting campaign; and GroundworkUSA ($6 million), a network of local organizations working to develop the natural and built environments in low-income communities. The picture remains pretty hazy around what strategies will be prioritized in this area.
Does the announcement provide any other clues?
When the first reports came in about Bezos contacting grantees, organizations said the initial conversations involved Lauren Sánchez, the news anchor and girlfriend of the Amazon founder. Yet it was hard to gauge what role she played. Steer said the two were “very, very committed” to the fund, but offered few details. Two of the fund’s three prior press releases had quoted Bezos, but none had mentioned his partner. Following a COP26 in which Sánchez was frequently by Bezos’ side, she appears to be taking on a more public role. In this announcement, the couple’s only quote comes from Sánchez, who is the fund’s vice chair.
“Disadvantaged communities have borne the brunt of environmental damage for too long and are key players in driving the necessary solutions,” she says in the press release. “With each grant we make, we are supporting leading institutions working with communities to advance climate justice efforts.”
Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly listed Packard Foundation among the Alaska Venture Fund's supporters.