Young leaders advancing potential climate solutions could win $1 million grants
NEW YORK (AP) — Youth-led climate groups are getting a $25 million injection from a philanthropic collaborative that hopes other funders will follow their lead in supporting solutions created by younger generations grappling with a future marked by increasing temperatures and rising sea levels.
Despite recent upticks in donations to nonprofits combatting climate change, Enlight Foundation President Xin Liu said emerging leaders on the front lines of the crisis are not getting enough of that money. So, she and The Patchwork Collective are offering $1 million multi-year grants to 25 community organizations led by 15- to 35-year-olds.
'There's a little funder stigma of trusting youth, trusting young funders, trusting their capacity, their ability to lead," Liu said.
'They're really quite often very innovative and creative. And very much close to the problem, which drives them to come up with really impactful solutions," she added. "As an older generation, we have a responsibility in helping them, empowering them, to scale their work, too.'
The award is open to anyone globally who is tackling a broad range of climate issues including education, justice, resilience, conservation, sustainable agriculture and disaster preparedness. Applicants have until Sept. 22 to enter the open call run by Lever for Change, a nonprofit affiliate of the MacArthur Foundation.
The competition is part of Enlight Foundation's spenddown strategy. The nonprofit — created by Liu and Chinese tech billionaire Duan Yongping to fund education equality and youth empowerment — plans to give away all its resources in the next eight years.
Liu said the foundation won't be able to sunset without collaborations like this one. Lever for Change, which has rallied its donor network to unlock $2.5 billion across 16 open calls, made for a perfect partner. The Patchwork Collective — a family philanthropy founded by Marie and Benoit Dageville that funds grassroots programs developed by communities to address their own issues — voluntarily contributed $5 million after learning about the competition.
Lever for Change President Kristen Molyneaux said everyone has a role to play. More than a dozen young advisors gave feedback on the open call's design and will help with peer review, according to Liu. Youth-led organizations and climate experts are welcome to participate in the external evaluation panel. Liu is inviting more funders to join because she said each additional $1 million will allow them to benefit another awardee.
'The people who are most invested in this are the people who are going to be bearing the burden of climate change in their future,' Molyneaux said. 'So, they understand the importance of this issue and how to mobilize their communities.'
The length of the multi-year grants will be tailored to the recipients' needs. Recognizing that some organizations might not have the capacity to accept all that money at once, Liu said 2- to 5-year periods are 'fine.'
Enlight Foundation will also do more than just write a check. Liu promised to provide mentorship and connections 'to really watch them flourish.'
'I am very excited, especially during this very uncertain time for young people around the world,' Liu said. 'They are going to build a much better and brighter future when they are engaged.'
___
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
an hour ago
Musk renews criticism of Trump's big bill as it faces a key Senate vote
WASHINGTON -- WASHINGTON (AP) — Elon Musk on Saturday doubled down on his distaste for President Donald Trump's sprawling tax and spending cuts bill, arguing the legislation that Republican senators are scrambling to pass would kill jobs and bog down burgeoning industries. 'The latest Senate draft bill will destroy millions of jobs in America and cause immense strategic harm to our country,' Musk wrote on X on Saturday as the Senate was scheduled to call a vote to open debate on the nearly 1,000-page bill. 'It gives handouts to industries of the past while severely damaging industries of the future.' The Tesla and SpaceX CEO, whose birthday is also Saturday, later posted that the bill would be 'political suicide for the Republican Party.' The criticisms reopen a recent fiery conflict between the former head of the Department of Government Efficiency and the administration he recently left. They also represent yet another headache for Republican Senate leaders who have spent the weekend working overtime to get the legislation through their chamber so it can pass by Trump's Fourth of July deadline. Musk has previously made his opinions about Trump's 'big, beautiful bill' clear. Days after he left the federal government last month with a laudatory celebration in the Oval Office, he blasted the bill as 'pork-filled' and a 'disgusting abomination." 'Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it,' he wrote on X earlier this month. In another post, the wealthy GOP donor who had recently forecasted that he'd step back from political donations threatened to fire lawmakers who 'betrayed the American people.' When Trump clapped back to say he was disappointed with Musk, back-and-forth fighting erupted and quickly escalated. Musk suggested without evidence that Trump, who spent the first part of the year as one of his closest allies, was mentioned in files related to sex abuser Jeffrey Epstein. Musk ultimately tried to make nice with the administration, saying he regretted some of his posts that 'went too far.' Trump responded in kind in an interview with The New York Post, saying, 'Things like that happen. I don't blame him for anything.' It's unclear how Musk's latest broadsides will influence the fragile peace he and the president had enjoyed in recent weeks. The White House didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. Musk has spent recent weeks focused on his businesses, and his political influence has waned since he left the administration. Still, the wealthy businessman poured hundreds of millions of dollars into Trump's campaign in 2024, demonstrating the impact his money can have if he's passionate enough about an issue or candidate to restart his political spending.
San Francisco Chronicle
3 hours ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Elon Musk renews his criticism of Trump's big bill as it faces a key Senate vote
WASHINGTON (AP) — Elon Musk on Saturday doubled down on his distaste for President Donald Trump's sprawling tax and spending cuts bill, arguing the legislation that Republican senators are scrambling to pass would kill jobs and bog down burgeoning industries. 'The latest Senate draft bill will destroy millions of jobs in America and cause immense strategic harm to our country,' Musk wrote on X on Saturday as the Senate was scheduled to call a vote to open debate on the nearly 1,000-page bill. 'It gives handouts to industries of the past while severely damaging industries of the future.' The Tesla and SpaceX CEO, whose birthday is also Saturday, later posted that the bill would be 'political suicide for the Republican Party.' The criticisms reopen a recent fiery conflict between the former head of the Department of Government Efficiency and the administration he recently left. They also represent yet another headache for Republican Senate leaders who have spent the weekend working overtime to get the legislation through their chamber so it can pass by Trump's Fourth of July deadline. Musk has previously made his opinions about Trump's 'big, beautiful bill' clear. Days after he left the federal government last month with a laudatory celebration in the Oval Office, he blasted the bill as 'pork-filled' and a 'disgusting abomination." 'Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it,' he wrote on X earlier this month. In another post, the wealthy GOP donor who had recently forecasted that he'd step back from political donations threatened to fire lawmakers who 'betrayed the American people.' When Trump clapped back to say he was disappointed with Musk, back-and-forth fighting erupted and quickly escalated. Musk suggested without evidence that Trump, who spent the first part of the year as one of his closest allies, was mentioned in files related to sex abuser Jeffrey Epstein. Musk ultimately tried to make nice with the administration, saying he regretted some of his posts that 'went too far.' Trump responded in kind in an interview with The New York Post, saying, 'Things like that happen. I don't blame him for anything.' It's unclear how Musk's latest broadsides will influence the fragile peace he and the president had enjoyed in recent weeks. The White House didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. Musk has spent recent weeks focused on his businesses, and his political influence has waned since he left the administration. Still, the wealthy businessman poured hundreds of millions of dollars into Trump's campaign in 2024, demonstrating the impact his money can have if he's passionate enough about an issue or candidate to restart his political spending.
Politico
3 hours ago
- Politico
Senate nailbiter
Senate Republicans stepped up their attacks on U.S. solar and wind energy projects by quietly adding a provision to their megabill that would penalize future developments with a new tax. That new tax measure was tucked into the more than 900-page document released late Friday that also would sharply cut the tax credits in the Inflation Reduction Act for solar and wind projects. Those cuts to the IRA credits were added after a late-stage push by President Donald Trump to crack down further on the incentives by requiring generation projects be placed in service by the end of 2027 to qualify. The new excise tax is another blow to the fastest-growing sources of power production in the United States, and would be a massive setback to the wind and solar energy industries since it would apply even to projects not receiving any credits. 'It's a kill shot. This new excise tax on wind and solar is designed to fully kill the industry,' said Adrian Deveny, founder and president of policy advisory firm Climate Vision, who helped craft the climate law as a former policy director for Democratic Senate Leader Chuck Schumer. Analysts at the Rhodium Group said in an email the new tax would push up the costs of wind and solar projects by 10 to 20 percent — on top of the cost increases from losing the credits. 'Combined with the likely onerous administrative reporting burden this provision puts in place, these cost increases will lead to even lower wind and solar installations. The impacts of this tax would also flow through to consumers in the form of higher electricity rates,' Rhodium said. The provision as written appears to add an additional tax for any wind and solar project placed into service after 2027 — when its eligibility for the investment and production tax credits ends — if a certain percentage of the value of the project's components are sourced from prohibited foreign entities, like China. It would apply to all projects that began construction after June 16 of this year. The language would require wind and solar projects, even those not receiving credits, to navigate complex and potentially unworkable requirements that prohibit sourcing from foreign entities of concern — a move designed to promote domestic production and crack down on Chinese materials. In keeping with GOP support for the fossil fuel industry, the updated bill creates a new production tax credit for metallurgical coal, which is used in steelmaking.
