Funding for the Future: Assessing philanthropic foundations' contributions to transformative climate action

Abstract

Philanthropic foundations are becoming increasingly prominent climate governance actors given their capacity for and ability to support climate action initiatives. However, philanthropic foundations’ role is often overlooked in climate governance literature. To understand the transformative potential of these foundations’ climate action, this research poses the following research question: How do philanthropic foundations contribute to transformative climate change? This research outlines a novel, integrated framework that builds on transformational change literature by incorporating justice considerations. The framework identifies and operationalizes key characteristics of transformative climate action which is understood as climate action that is systemic – shifting to low-emission and climate resilient pathways and accounting for their interactions with other SDGs; is long-term oriented – emphasizing long-term planning and solutions; and just – recognizing status and embodying distributive and procedural justice. The novel framework was applied to assess the top five philanthropic foundations funding climate action globally. These foundations are the Hewlett Foundation, Oak Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, Packard Foundation and Bloomberg Philanthropies. A Qualitative Document Analysis (QDA) was conducted to gather data on foundations’ climate (sub)program strategies. This data was then thematically analyzed to determine the transformative potential of these foundations’ climate action. The analyzed philanthropic foundations contribute to transformative climate action by supporting the transition to low-emission pathways. However, the foundations do little to contribute to climate resilience given the neglect of adaption. The foundations consider how climate action interplays with the achievement of some SDGs, particularly SDG 7, but do so narrowly. Moreover, the foundations adopt a long-term oriented approach to climate action which is integral. Finally, the foundations’ climate work lacks just action which further limits the transformative potential of their climate action. This research highlights that philanthropic foundations’ climate action concentrates on climate mitigation in specific geographic regions and sectors. This concentration creates vast potential for climate mitigation but can limit transformation if initiatives are narrowly pursued. The foundations’ actions are long-term oriented, considering crucial climate goals and their achievement in a timely manner. Despite this, the transformative potential of the foundations’ climate action is limited by the lack of justice considerations. However, catalytic events of 2020 are prompting strategy reform to reflect such considerations. Overall, philanthropic foundations further reinforce commonplace technocentric, and predominantly climate mitigation solutions in global climate action. Their climate action as it stands is also seemingly unjust, potentially undermining the achievement of some SDGs, especially those tied to justice.