Climate

To address climate change we pursue three strategies:

1. Accelerating the shift to clean energy
2. Transforming our transportation system
3. Creating climate resilient communities

Underlying these strategies is our belief that we will be more effective at addressing the climate crisis if we build a multi-racial and inclusive environmental movement. This is why we will prioritize communities that have suffered the most from the fossil fuel economy and climate organizations whose work is centered in equity. Read more on our strategies below.

The Barr Foundation’s Climate Program is actively working to expand its grantmaking to include more partners who are committed to centering racial equity in the climate movement.

Our work is grounded in the belief that a diverse, inclusive, and equity-centered movement is essential to achieving our ambitious climate goals.

• We will prioritize communities that have suffered the most from the fossil fuel economy and climate organizations whose work is centered in equity.

• While we most typically fund non-profit organizations, we are open to supporting other types of groups or organizations who are doing work that aligns with our strategies and goals.

• We are especially interested in supporting people of color (POC)-led equity-centered organizations. We define equity-centered organizations as organizations that are building power in the communities they serve to address environmental racism.

To address climate change, we fund work related to these three topics:

• Clean Energy – Accelerate the expansion of renewable energy and energy efficiency; Geographic focus: New England

• Mobility – Reduce transportation-related emissions; Geographic focus: Massachusetts

• Climate Resilience – Help greater-Boston prepare and adapt to climate change; Geographic focus: Greater Boston

While these guide our work, we strive to take a collaborative approach to our grantmaking that recognizes that clean energy, mobility, and resilience are interconnected, especially in the ways they impact people’s lives.

We are most interested in putting our resources toward the following movement-building activities:

• Equitably reducing greenhouse gas emissions to improve the health and well-being of communities of color by improving air quality and access to clean, reliable, affordable energy and mobility options

• Building communities that are prepared for climate change, and protect and work for all people

• Providing career pathways and support for professionals of color working in the climate movement in our region

• Investing in capacity-building of POC-led equity-centered organizations so that they can become stronger and healthier and build more power in the communities they serve

• Supporting an increase in the number of POC-led equity-centered organizations that are engaged in climate action

• Fostering authentic and meaningful allyship among the legacy climate organizations

• Ensuring climate and environmental narratives are inclusive of diverse voices and center community needs, perspectives, and solutions

How to Express Interest

Please keep it short! We anticipate that we’ll receive more requests than we can support, so we want to be mindful about the amount of time we are asking you to invest in this initial submission. Review our inquiry form to see the questions that we’d like you to answer. You may submit an inquiry in either written, audio, or video form. Ideally, written content should be less than 1 page long. Audio or video content should be less than 5 minutes.

We’ll respond to you in a few weeks. We believe in the importance of conversation and do not want to be overly reliant on the written word. Once we receive your submission, we’ll get back to you in a few weeks to let you know whether or not we think your funding request might be a good match for our work.

If we choose to move forward, we’ll help you through the process. Please note that while under certain circumstances we may be able to expedite a funding request, there is generally a 5- to 6-month time period between our initial conversation and when a grant is approved/we send the first payment. This includes time needed to work with you on a proposal and for the proposal to be reviewed internally.

Submit an Inquiry

Questions: If you have questions about how to submit an inquiry, please contact ncasimir@barrfoundation.org.