Climate Change Grants
Learn about grants for climate change and clean energy by browsing our curated list of top climate change funders below. Members can also research funding opportunities using the search tool for GrantFinder. Become a member.
Key Climate Funders
- Ballmer Group
- Benificus Foundation
- Bezos Earth Fund
- Bloomberg Philanthropies
- Breakthrough Energy
- ClimateWorks Foundation
- Gates Foundation
- The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
- The Kresge Foundation
- Libra Foundation
- The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
- McKnight Foundation
- Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
- The David and Lucile Packard Foundation
- Robertson Foundation
- Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
- Rockefeller Foundation
- The Schmidt Family Foundation
- Sea Change Foundation
- Sequoia Climate Foundation
- Skyline Foundation
- Bernard and Anne Spitzer Charitable Trust
- Walton Family Foundation
- Waverley Street Foundation
- Wellspring Philanthropic Fund
Trends in climate funding & foundations
Climate crisis is here and mounting, with extreme heat, floods, storms and wildfires devastating communities around the world. 2024 was the hottest year on record, right after record-high 2023. It’s probably too late to achieve the Paris Agreement goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels in order to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. Still, every fraction of a degree matters. As ClimateWorks Foundation says, “every breakthrough in lowering [greenhouse gas] emissions can help save lives, limit costs and protect biodiversity.”
For several years, grantmakers concerned about the climate stepped up with the serious commitment the issue demands, and philanthropy has supported some significant wins. Philanthropic funding for climate mitigation nearly tripled from 2019 to 2023, ClimateWorks Foundation reported. Unfortunately, 2025 has seen the retreat of some mega donors from climate philanthropy while the U.S. president pushes regressive climate and energy policies and global progress on reducing emissions has stalled. The climate funding sector is now “growing in places, but struggling to match the pace or promise of earlier years,” writes IP’s Michael Kavate.
In addition to the billionaire major donors who for a few years drove growth in climate philanthropy, there has been extraordinary growth in the number of green regrantors. These intermediaries are especially impactful in moving funds to grassroots groups and local communities on the frontlines of climate impacts around the world.
Community foundations are also important players in this philanthropic space, often serving as leaders in emergency response funding amid local climate disasters, supporting local climate adaptation initiatives, and acting as connectors in local philanthropic ecosystems and public-private collaborations.
Climate philanthropy is highly collaborative, with major funders participating in pooled funds, collaborative initiatives and cross-sector partnerships.
In the U.S, even in climate philanthropy’s growth years, grants to address climate change represented a small fraction of all giving (estimated at 2–3%). Given extreme government funding cuts, the enormity and urgency of what is at stake, and the fact that climate change will affect every other area that philanthropy addresses, grantseekers will continue to appeal to philanthropic funders to sustain and increase grantmaking for the climate. IP ongoingly covers how philanthropy is responding to the actions of the Trump administration and the scale at which philanthropy supports continued progress away from fossil fuels and toward a livable future on Earth.
Where are climate grants going?
From 2019 to 2023, 29% of foundation funding for climate initiatives went to global or multi-region efforts, reported the ClimateWorks Foundation. Most climate grant dollars go to organizations based in the United States and Europe, though foundation funding to Africa, Asia and Latin America is increasing.
Clean energy, forests, and food and agriculture are the issue areas that receive the most climate funding, ClimateWorks Foundation reported. Reducing super-pollutant emissions, especially from methane, is the fastest-growing issue area. Climate grants also support initiatives such as the creation of green jobs; mitigation of the many impacts of climate change; and grassroots movements for a just transition away from fossil fuels.
Public engagement (including grassroots organizing and communications campaigns) is the top-funded strategy in climate philanthropy, with the fastest-growing strategy being sustainable finance. Impact investments in clean energy, and divestment from fossil fuels, have long been important strategies of green funders.
Climate grants increasingly support holistic and cross-sector efforts, as funders recognize the interrelatedness of both the causes and the impacts of climate change.
Gaps in climate funding
The majority of climate grants go to organizations based in the United States and Europe, even when the funding supports climate initiatives in other parts of the world. There is a clear gap in direct funding to frontline groups and local communities outside the U.S. and Europe.
In particular, more funding should be moving directly to Indigenous groups on the frontlines of climate change. “An estimated 36% of the world’s remaining intact forests, at least 24% of the above-ground carbon in tropical forests and up to 80% of the world’s remaining forest biodiversity are found within Indigenous Peoples’ territories,” according to the report “Tracking Funds for the Indispensable Partners” by Charapa and the Global Alliance of Territorial Communities. And while more funding is flowing to Indigenous people than ever before, it still represents only a small fraction of climate funding. In 2024, just 7.6% of funds given in alignment with the Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities Forest Tenure Pledge went directly to Indigenous peoples and local communities.
Another community that would benefit from more climate funding is youth. Youth-led climate initiatives received only 0.96% of grants from the largest climate foundations from 2022 to 2024, according to a study by Youth Climate Justice Fund and ClimateWorks Foundation.
When it comes to climate finance, One Earth found “major imbalances” in funding, with 89% of investment dollars going to energy solutions, and just 7% to agriculture and 4% to nature. “[Nature] is the only pillar where philanthropic funding actually exceeds private capital, which gives grantmakers a key role in seeding and scaling new models,” IP’s Michael Kavate writes.
Now, in the face of the U.S. president calling climate change “the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world” after making drastic cuts in federal funding for climate science, renewable energy, climate disaster response and more, philanthropy will need to step up boldly to ensure continued funding of critical research, action and initiatives. Bloomberg Philanthropies sent a promising signal when they and other climate funders committed to covering the funding gap left by Trump’s withdrawal of the U.S. from the Paris Agreement. But there is concern that the changing political allegiances of billionaire donors could create new gaps in climate philanthropy.
While many climate change funders focus on mitigating greenhouse gases and reducing fossil fuel and coal use, the climate change work of other funders centers on building green jobs, as well as building climate equity through an intersectional lens. It is unclear, however, just how many dollars are going to climate justice efforts, climate migration issues or climate adaptation funding. As well, as federal agencies in the U.S. stop funding for climate change in the coming years, it is unclear how funders will fill the gap left behind in the mounting housing crisis. It remains to be seen how grants for climate change will evolve in the coming years among legacy funders and newcomers — and whether billionaires will be as generous as in years past.
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