We have recently transitioned our Environment Program.
The Environment Program, launched in 2015, was designed to incorporate a handful of California-focused grants that had been part of a Board member’s discretionary giving through the Foundation. It was also designed to intentionally dovetail with a new Civic Engagement Program that was initiated at the same time. Both programs were scoped to focus on the states of Arizona, New Mexico, and Nevada, and to support people-of-color (POC)-led organizations with an emphasis on civic engagement and organizing.
Over time, the programs have become increasingly intertwined, as many of the Environment grantees are multi-issue and have civic engagement at their core. We think we can better support these organizations through our Civic Engagement Program, which is larger, has more field-level impact and provides stronger non-monetary supports (according to our grantee perception report). As such, we have let almost half of our former Environment grantees know that they will have a new primary contact and will now be part of our Civic Engagement Program.
We felt that the remainder of the environment program was too small to operate as a standalone program, and decided it would be more aligned with our values to provide final grants representing multiple years of funding. When determining the size of these final grants, we used an equity lens, which translated into more years of funding if organizations are POC-led, smaller in terms of budget, and local or state-based (rather than national). Final grant amounts represented three to nine years of funding, and thus accelerate our spenddown by transferring some assets to key partners now.
The Grove Foundation maintains our commitment to the environment, and we believe that our grantees can have equal or greater impact by receiving accelerated funds, or by receiving funds through our Civic Engagement Program. In addition, staff time that would otherwise be dedicated to program management can now be dedicated to climate justice-centered impact investing and other endeavors that we hope will deepen our impact and partnerships.
This program transition represents a shift for our grantees as well as our staff and we realize the changes we are making will be experienced with mixed emotions and under varying circumstances. We commit to continuing to partner with and respond to grantees’ specific needs, and look forward to continuing this important work in new ways.
As noted above, these organizations are either transitioning to our Civic Engagement program, or are receiving final multi-year grants.*
-
-
-
- Center For Civic Policy
- Center on Race, Poverty and the Environment
- New Venture Fund – Climate and Clean Energy Equity Fund
- Communities for a Better Environment
- Dine Citizens Against Ruining our Environment
- League of Conservation Voters Education Fund – CHISPA Program
- Nava Education Fund
- NDN Collective
-
-
-
-
-
- Nevada Conservation League Education Fund
- Social and Environmental Entrepreneurs, Inc. – Central California Environmental Justice Network
- Social and Environmental Entrepreneurs, Inc. – Central Valley Air Quality Coalition
- Somos Un Pueblo Unido
- Sustainable Conservation
- The Nature Conservancy – California Program
- To Nizhoni Ani
- Uplift Foundation of Nevada
-
-
*Organizations included here are grantees that have received support from the Grove Foundation since 2018. This list is not necessarily comprehensive.
Photos on this page are courtesy of: The Future Coalition and CHISPA, a program of the League of Conservation Voters