When the Shockwave Foundation opened its doors in 2020, it did so with an unusual combination of urgency and patience. Its founder launched it as a 20-year spend-down foundation with a $50 million endowment to invest exclusively in climate adaptation.
“Adaptation and resilience are dramatically underfunded,” Shockwave CEO Jeny Wegbreit told the audience at a Devex Pro Funding briefing. “When we began, almost no climate philanthropy was focused on adaptation, and even today, less than 7% of global climate financing supports it.”
From the start, the foundation’s strategy was to direct funding toward communities already living the consequences of climate change — not those still preparing for it. “Floods, droughts, typhoons, extreme heat, crop failure — those aren’t future scenarios,” said Wegbreit, who joined Shockwave soon after its launch. “They’re current realities.”