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Wallace Global Fund

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OVERVIEW: The Wallace Global Fund makes grants and investments for climate change mitigation, democracy, corporate accountability, environmental justice, women and girls, and human rights. Giving is global in scope, though the majority of grants go to U.S. organizations.

IP TAKE: The Wallace Global Fund is a progressive funder that takes a mission investing approach to the types of organizations it supports. This is a mid-sized foundation, but its influence extends beyond its size. Under the leadership of former executive director Ellen Dorsey, Wallace helped launch the global fossil fuels DivestInvest network, which, as of 2024, has helped move roughly 60,000 individuals and more than 1,600 organizations to commit to divest over $40 trillion in assets from fossil fuels. The Wallace Global Fund (WGF) is also known for its commitment to exceed the annual 5 percent grantmaking payout rate legally required of U.S. foundations. Wallace was an early backer of the Sunrise Movement, which brought international attention to the Green New Deal. In a recent email to Inside Philanthropy, Wallace’s executive director, Robby Rodriguez, said WGF continues to be influenced by its founder, Henry A. Wallace, whose “concerns about outsized corporate power, and his commitment to racial and gender justice, inform our grantmaking. Those values and ideals have informed WGF’s strategy for decades to support an equitable and vibrant democracy in the U.S. and across the globe.”

WGF does not accept unsolicited grant proposals or inquiries. It is not a particularly accessible funder, although it does offer detailed information about the movements it prioritizes in its grantmaking and investing strategies at its website. Global giving focuses on Africa, while U.S. giving goes to nonprofits headquartered in a number of U.S states. In addition to networking with past grantees, grantseekers may avail themselves of the fund’s social media accounts, linked at the bottom of the website, to get on Wallace’s radar.

PROFILE: The Wallace Global Fund (WGF) was established in 1996 when the Wallace Genetic Foundation splintered into three, separate foundations. Founded by progressive politician and businessman Henry A. Wallace, the Wallace Global Fund was further endowed by his son, Robert B. Wallace. The fund is a Philanthropy’s Promise signatory, which means that it has committed to allocating at least 25% of its grantmaking toward vulnerable and marginalized communities. WGF’s mission is to support “people-powered movements that advance democracy, protect human rights, and fight for a healthy planet.” To support its mission, the fund names four strategic priorities: Democracy and Disinformation, Climate and Energy Justice to Reverse the Course of Global Climate Change, Women’s Rights and Gender Justice, and Corporate Accountability. It also names two “spotlight” areas of funding interest: human rights and democracy in Southern Africa and Global Energy Access and Justice.

Grants for Civic Engagement, Democracy, and Journalism

Wallace’s Democracy and Disinformation program was established in response to rapidly growing inequality and “the effects of unchecked corporate control of government and policy on critical issues like climate change and economic inequality.” It has also made media misinformation a focus of its grantmaking.

  • According to IP’s coverage of this funder, grants target “organizations that ensure everyone is at the decision-making table and have a say in the decisions that affect their lives, including those who have been historically excluded from the democratic process.”
  • Specific areas of focus include election finance reform, tax reform, expansion of civic engagement and voting, as well as a careful examination of the media and other corporations that “enable misinformation and corrode democracy.”
  • A significant portion of recent giving has supported youth organizations including the Alliance for Youth Organizing and Nextgen America.
  • Other recent democracy grantees include When We All Vote, the Fair Elections Center and the Center for Popular Democracy.

The Wallace Global Fund’s grantmaking for democracy also includes its Corporate Accountability focus area. This initiative names two main goals: holding large corporations accountable to governments and people and shifting economic power toward progressive social and environmental change.

  • The fund has prioritized organizations and projects in areas concerning the development of policy toward global standards of corporate accountability and movements for community- and investor-based models of corporate ownership, particularly in the energy field.
  • Recent grants have supported the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre and the B Team, a New York City-based organization that works to create “new norms of corporate leadership that can build a better world.”

A smaller portion of Wallace’s democracy work stems from its Southern Africa spotlight, which supports efforts in South Africa and Zimbabwe. The fund helped to establish the Zimbabwe Alliance, which provides grants and technical assistance to civil society organizations, and has also given to Africans Rising, a “Pan-African civil society movement.”

Grants for Environment, Climate Change, and Clean Energy

Wallace’s giving for climate change has expanded over the past several years. The foundation’s focus area for Climate and Energy Justice to Reverse the Course of Global Climate Change funds mitigation efforts and policy grounded in “accountability, equity, and justice.” Three main priorities are:

  • Efforts to “[s]trip the fossil fuel industry of its license to operate”;
  • The amplification of “people power” in the global transition to clean energy; and
  • Solutions to persistent problems in the area of “climate and energy justice.”

Energy Access and Justice is also one of Wallace’s spotlight issues. This program works globally through grants, investments and advocacy for equitable energy access.

  • Giving prioritizes efforts for clean energy distribution from small-scale providers that provide reliable, efficient and affordable service.
  • Grantmaking and investments also support efforts for “a just transition for fossil fuel workers and their communities.”
  • Other priorities include communities of the Global South that have experienced energy poverty and partnerships with Native American communities to develop “new economic models by building and scaling renewable energy systems.”
  • Climate and energy grantee partners include the Standing Rock Sioux community, which received funding to build, own, and operate their own wind farm, and the International Trade Union Center, which works toward a “just transition for workers who may be displaced from fossil energy jobs.”
  • Other grants have supported the Windward Fund, the United Nations Sustainable Energy for All initiative, Green Faith and As You Sow, which promotes environmental justice through corporate accountability, shareholder advocacy and coalition building.

Grants for Global Security, Human Rights, and Women and Girls

The Wallace Fund’s grantmaking for Women’s Rights and Gender Justice acknowledges the disproportionate effects of climate change and “authoritarian political and religious trends” on women and girls, especially in developing nations and regions of the world. Grantmaking from this focus area aims to provide direct support to “women’s movements and organizations as they respond creatively and energetically to the world’s intersecting crises and contribute to solutions.”

  • An ongoing priority for this giving concerns awareness and elimination of female genital mutilation practices.
  • Other areas of primary interest include women’s leadership, activism and participation in efforts to “transform economic structures and systems” for a more socially just world.
  • Grantees include Africa Women Rights Advocates, Indigenous Women Rising, the Global Media Campaign to End FGM and Safe Hands for Girls, which provides “services and advocacy to survivors and at-risk girls of FGM and child marriage.”

Human rights giving also stems from the fund’s Global Spotlight on Southern Africa.

  • This program aims to “strengthen civil society organizations” and works primarily in South Africa and Zimbabwe.
  • Grantmaking overlaps with the fund’s climate justice and democracy work.
  • Grantees include the South Durban Community Environmental Alliance, Trustafrica, the Fund for Global Human Rights and the South Africa Development Fund.

Important Grant Details:

The Wallace Global Fund’s grants generally range from $10,000 to $500,000. Grants can be sizeable but range widely. It gives at both the national and international levels.

  • Wallace Global makes hundreds of grants annually.
  • This funder gives to organizations of all sizes, but its largest grants support U.S. causes and U.S.-based NGOs.
  • Southern Africa appears to be a priority of the fund’s global grantmaking, while U.S. giving has recently prioritized Indigenous groups and D.C.-based organizations.
  • Grant applications are accepted by invitation only. For additional information, see the What We Fund page.
  • For more information about this funder’s past giving, see its news section.
  • The foundation may be contacted by direct message on its social media accounts, which are linked to the bottom of its website, or via telephone at (202) 452-1530.

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