Rockefeller unveils first batch of grants from $1B climate pledge

The Rockefeller Foundation has unveiled the first tranche of grants under a $1 billion climate investment strategy, described as the “first of its kind” in the foundation’s 110-year history. The 25 new grants focus on addressing the global impacts of climate change and show how the foundation is “reimagining” its longstanding model of scientific philanthropy for “the climate era,” The Rockefeller Foundation President Rajiv Shah said Wednesday. In this first phase, the foundation is giving more than $11 million to support the development of climate solutions in low- and middle-income countries in Africa and Asia. The funding will support work in a range of areas such as global food and health security, regenerative agriculture, climate finance, and indigenous rights. Grantees include Dalberg Catalyst, a United States-based nonprofit organization that is researching the health impacts of extreme heat on people in urban communities worldwide. Hivos Foundation, an international organization based in The Hague, also will receive funding for its efforts to study the impacts of climate change on Amazonian people and identify how they have been able to mitigate and adapt to climate change. The Open Contracting Partnership — a U.S.-based collaboration of government, business, and civil society partners — and the CivicDataLab research institution also will get funding for work to help the Indian government access more high-quality data that can be used for data-driven climate policies. “These grants are the start of our work to operationalize our $1 billion big bet to break down the barriers preventing so many people around the world from the transformations that are essential to speeding opportunity and slowing climate change,” Shah said in a statement. The Rockefeller Foundation first announced its five-year, $1 billion climate solutions strategy during the United Nations General Assembly meetings in September. The foundation has an endowment of $5.7 billion. Providing funding for reforestation and the global transition away from fossil fuels are also among the top priorities of the pledge. Grants were given to groups such as Rocky Mountain Institute in Washington, D.C. for its green energy research and the U.S.-based Schatz Energy Research Center for its efforts to help develop a secondary market for repurposing solar panels across the Middle East and Africa. The two “central pillars” of the strategy are to “bring the world together to fight climate change in a more concerted and effective manner and create opportunity for the billions of people worldwide who have historically been denied it,” the foundation said in September. All of the foundation’s operations worldwide, including its New York City headquarters, also will become net zero facilities under the plan. The Rockefeller Foundation has historically prioritized funding for scientific research since it was established in 1913. In recent years, it has shifted its focus more to climate change. The Rockefeller Foundation co-founded the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet funding collaborative with the IKEA Foundation and Bezos Earth Fund in 2021 and has committed $500 million to that initiative. In 2022, it announced plans to make climate change central to its programmatic, operational, and investment strategies. Prior to that, it said it would divest its endowment from fossil fuels. Rockefeller is among the few major foundations to make a significant shift toward climate funding. Climate philanthropy experts have been pushing for more funders to increase their giving for efforts to mitigate and reduce the impacts of climate change. Data released earlier this month shows that climate mitigation funding remains less than 2% of all annual global giving.