The Donors of Color Network (DOCN)—a cross-racial community of donors and movement leaders committed to building the collective power of people of color to achieve racial equity—has announced four new signatories to its Climate Funders Justice Pledge, which calls for a climate-related funding baseline for Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC)-led justice groups.

The pledge comprises two parts: to make a foundation’s climate-related grants transparent, and to direct at least 30 percent of that funding within two years to organizations that are run by, serving, and building power for communities of color and have majority-POC boards and senior staff and a justice lens. The new signatories, the Climate Initiative, Solidaire Network, the Christensen Fund, and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation (which has taken the transparency portion of the pledge) join 32 other foundations that have committed to all or part of the pledge.

According to DOCN, only 1.3 percent of $1.34 billion in annual climate-related funding goes to BIPOC-led, justice-focused groups. Data from 2019-20 indicates that the Packard Foundation distributed $2.45 million (or 18 percent) of its climate-related funding to BIPOC-led groups, while the Christensen Fund distributed $2.45 million (69 percent) of its related funding, and the Heising-Simons Foundation—already a signatory—distributed nearly $2.7 (6 percent).

“Every foundation that takes this pledge is helping push climate philanthropy to center racial and economic justice in pursuit of a winning climate movement,” said DOCN executive director Isabelle Leighton. “There is no reality in which we effectively tackle climate change without resourcing BIPOC-led organizations, who are often closest to the solutions.”

For a complete list of current pledge signatories, see the DOCN website.

(Photo credit: Getty Images/Leo Patrizi)