The Challenge
Across the globe, the risks of defending community rights to the environment are increasing. Many governments and corporations are tightening the vice on civil society, and those in power continue to use violence to suppress activists who are standing up to protect the planet and their communities.
Our Solutions
In response to the growing risks for environmental defenders worldwide, a group of fourteen funders, including The Cold Mountain Fund, The Overbrook Foundation, Wallace Global Fund, and the Mott Foundation, gathered together in 2017 to form a pooled fund, the Environmental Defenders Collaborative, aiming to support environmental activists by increasing access to funding and strategic resources.
Grants from the Environmental Defenders Collaborative are made within a framework that seeks to support both responsive and strategic funding opportunities. The primary aim of grantmaking is to help keep environmental defenders safe, by supporting urgent regranting for defenders under threat, and by providing funding for trainings on security.
The Collaborative also supports efforts targeting the drivers of shrinking civil space and violence against defenders, including community organizing and mobilizations and strategic litigation.
The grants have the goal of revealing the threats and violence taking place against environmental defenders at the hands of governments and corporations, while also seeking to obtain justice for the victims.
