Sizable Gifts: Solutions Project Gets $43 Million from Bezos Earth Fund

Along with the Hive Fund for Climate and Gender Justice, another important feminist climate fund also received support from Bezos Earth Fund: The Solutions Project. The Solutions Project, like the Hive Fund, will be receiving $43 million in unrestricted funding over three years.

Among the Solutions Project’s board of directors are many familiar faces in the social justice arena, including Leah Hendrix-Hunt and Sharon Alpert. There are also stars of stage and screen including Mark Ruffalo and Don Cheadle.

Gloria Walton, President and CEO, The Solutions Project (Image Credit: The Solutions Project)

The Solutions Project’s President and CEO, Gloria Walton, is already being described as a “superstar” of the ecofeminist scene, with clear vision and strategies already in place to fund us toward a more sustainable climate and a culture centered on gender and racial equality.

The Solutions Project put out a statement regarding their newly formed partnership with Bezos Earth Fund. From that statement:

We know the people closest to the problems have the solutions but often do not have the funding to scale them or share their stories with the rest of the world. For example, pollution and climate change disproportionately impact people of color and women. Yet, only 0.6 percent of all foundation giving is targeted towards women of color, even though they are the very backbones of their communities, often solving several interconnected problems at once and creating solutions that benefit everyone. Their stories are not told in the media, where just 2% of clean energy news coverage last year referenced communities of color.  

The Solutions Project funds leaders at the frontlines of the climate crisis and amplifies the innovative work that’s happening on the ground through media and culture, so others can join our movement. We are grateful to the Bezos Earth Fund for giving us an unrestricted grant of $43 million over the next three years, our largest grant to date, as a recognition of our movement’s ability to not only imagine, but also create the future we want. We celebrate the Bezos Earth Fund for its initial round of equity investments totaling $151 million across aligned funds and look forward to showing what’s possible when hundreds of organizations that are grounded at the neighborhood level all across the country, in Puerto Rico and in sovereign Indigenous nations are resourced to win. 

The Solutions Project plans to grow its current partnerships and implement “100 visionary climate solutions all across the country.” The organization will be providing millions in grant dolors, as well as meda training, evaluation, and sharing their work “so other funders and intermediaries can continue to better align with community solutions.” 

The statement from The Solutions Projects closes with a stark reminder about how close we are to total climate meltdown:

We are in the decisive decade to achieve international climate goals and a safe, healthy planet for all. Solving the climate crisis will require significant investment in a wide set of solutions. Our intent is that this grant shows other philanthropists how to support community climate solutions on the scale needed and provides an opportunity for the Bezos Earth Fund to learn from our model of trust-based philanthropy. We know that it will take all hands on deck and a diverse set of ideas to accelerate a just energy transition and create a better future for our collective humanity.

Related:

Hive Fund Gets Huge Gift from Bezos Climate Pledge

Is Melinda Influencing MacKenzie Toward Feminist Giving?

Will Bezos $10 Billion Address Gender Equality?

Author: Kiersten Marek

Kiersten Marek, LICSW, is the founder of Philanthropy Women. She practices clinical social work and writes about how women donors and their allies are advancing social change.

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