Best Climate Change Grants in Europe

The 1treellion Grant aims to mobilize communities globally to plant 1 trillion trees, addressing climate change and biodiversity loss. This initiative encourages organizations focused on sustainable tree planting that enhances local ecosystems and supports community engagement. By fostering awareness and raising funds, 1treellion seeks to unite efforts in reversing environmental damage and promoting a healthier planet for future generations.

The Costco Wholesale Charitable Contributions program prioritizes support for children, education, and health services within local communities. Nonprofit organizations seeking assistance must be 501(c)(3) certified and focus on monetary requests. Applications are reviewed within 4-6 weeks, factoring in community needs and collaboration. However, Costco limits grants to 10% of the program budget and typically restricts organizations to one request per fiscal year. They do not fund individuals or direct aid for various specific purposes.

The Creag Foundation, established in 2009 in Woodinville, Washington, provides funding to innovative 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations addressing social issues. Focused on smaller organizations, the foundation seeks to support those with unique approaches to improve the human condition. Eligible applicants must have held 501(c)(3) status for at least one year and present a new or previously unaddressed solution to societal challenges. Applications are by invitation only, encouraging creativity and passion in charitable work.

The Global Fund for Children invites community-based organizations worldwide to partner in improving the lives of children and youth. They seek dynamic groups aligned with their mission, focusing on grassroots solutions to tackle poverty, injustice, and discrimination. With a commitment to education, gender justice, safety, climate resilience, and youth empowerment, GFC builds strong relationships with potential partners, ensuring mutual growth and impact without requiring formal proposals.

The Global Impact Cash Grants by Cisco Systems Foundation support innovative early-stage solutions aimed at addressing significant social problems. Targeting nonprofit and nongovernmental organizations, these grants focus on four key sectors: crisis response, education, economic empowerment, and climate regeneration. Eligible organizations must demonstrate alignment with these areas, particularly serving underserved communities. The foundation seeks to leverage technology for impactful solutions, ensuring sustainability and community resilience through strategic investments.

The Hearst Foundation: Culture Grant aims to support outstanding nonprofits that enhance cultural engagement and artistic talent in the U.S. With a focus on programs that reach young people, the grant prioritizes organizations that create lasting impacts in the arts and sciences. The Foundation allocates 25% of its funding to cultural initiatives, favoring established organizations with a history of significant results. Eligible nonprofits must encourage inclusivity and sustainability in their programs.

The Labcorp Charitable Foundation, a private 501(c)(3) entity, aims to enhance healthcare access and education for all. With grant opportunities focusing on food programs, healthcare services for underserved populations, and STEM initiatives, it seeks to support community health and well-being. Organizations eligible for funding must be U.S.-based and hold tax-exempt status. Requests are reviewed biannually, in March and September, to foster impactful community projects.

The Semnani Family Foundation, established in 1993, is dedicated to supporting marginalized communities worldwide through health, education, and disaster relief initiatives. Founded by Khosrow and Ghazaleh Semnani, it began by funding an orphanage in Romania. The foundation also operates locally, providing free healthcare through the Maliheh Free Clinic in Utah. Its commitment to human welfare drives impactful partnerships in countries such as Afghanistan, India, and South Africa, focusing on the most vulnerable populations.

The Sidney Stern Memorial Trust Grant supports charitable, scientific, medical, and educational organizations that are 501(c)(3) certified. This private funder emphasizes impactful service to diverse populations without discrimination. Grants must be utilized within the United States and cannot be awarded to individuals, political candidates, or lobbying efforts. The Trust is dedicated to enhancing the general welfare through soundly-managed initiatives that contribute significantly to community needs.

The Bank of America Foundation Sponsorship Program aims to enhance economic mobility and social progress in low- and moderate-income communities through partnerships with nonprofit organizations. This initiative focuses on critical areas such as workforce education, basic needs like food and housing, and community development. The Foundation invested $350 million last year and encourages employee volunteerism and giving, supporting nonprofits in various sectors, including arts, culture, and diversity initiatives.

The Western Balkans Program, supported by The Rockefeller Brothers Fund, aims to advance democracy and peace in a region undergoing transformation. With a focus on Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, the program encourages transparency in governance and sustainable development. Despite challenges from historical conflicts, the Fund promotes inclusive societies and civil engagement to foster reconciliation and support a European future. Organizations seeking grants must be tax-exempt and focused on educational or charitable initiatives.

The Pulitzer Center's Work/Environment Reporting Grants are now open for applications, focusing on the impact of climate change on workers and employment sectors. This initiative seeks compelling stories that highlight the challenges faced by vulnerable workers as temperatures rise, alongside innovative solutions being explored by companies. We encourage diverse voices and collaborative proposals that reflect the complexity of climate-related labor issues, aiming to inform the public and drive meaningful dialogue.

The Robinson Foundation Grant, established in 2016, aims to alleviate hardships faced by individuals and communities, demonstrating God's love through charitable contributions. As a family-operated foundation, it focuses on creating meaningful, long-term impacts in various areas including animal welfare, education, and disaster relief. Organizations eligible for funding must be 501(c)(3) public charities. The foundation prioritizes fiscally responsible projects with the potential for tangible results, while not supporting capital projects.

The Dudley T. Dougherty Foundation Grant supports nonprofit charitable organizations recognized under section 501(c)(3) of the IRS Revenue Code. Established in 2002, the foundation aims to empower groups committed to positive change, fostering respect for life and the environment. Their vision emphasizes collaboration for a better future, encouraging applicants to embody these values in their initiatives. With a focus on impactful projects, this grant is an opportunity for organizations striving to make a critical difference in our world.

The Georgia-Pacific Foundation Grant supports organizations in the Metro Atlanta area, focusing on education, entrepreneurship, community enrichment, and environmental sustainability. Established in 1958, the foundation prioritizes investments that align with its mission and values, promoting long-term well-being within communities where Georgia-Pacific operates. Eligible applicants include 501(c)(3) nonprofits, public schools, and local government entities located within 30 miles of GP manufacturing sites.

The TJX Foundation Grants support nonprofit organizations located within 15 miles of a TJX store that align with their community mission. Eligible areas include basic needs, education for at-risk youth, workforce training, and safety from domestic violence. Organizations must be a registered 501(c)(3) for at least 12 months and have a nondiscrimination policy. Applications are invited through a Letter of Inquiry, with funding decisions based on community impact.

The Lawrence Foundation is a private family foundation established in 2000, dedicated to granting funds for environmental and human services causes. Eligible organizations include 501(c)(3) nonprofits and public schools, with grants typically ranging from $5,000 to $10,000. The foundation supports unrestricted grants for various projects, including disaster relief and environmental programs, but does not fund individuals or for-profit entities. Applications are evaluated based on alignment with the foundation's priorities.

The Spark Good: Strengthening Community Local Grants program by the Wal-Mart Foundation empowers local organizations through grants ranging from $250 to $5000. This initiative aims to enhance community welfare by supporting diverse projects, including animal shelters and educational programs. Eligible organizations must have a verified Spark Good account, ensuring funds are allocated effectively to meet local needs and foster community development. Together, we can create lasting impacts through small yet significant actions.

Ameriprise Community Grants focus on supporting nonprofits that enhance community vitality and meet basic needs. With over 120 years of commitment to philanthropy, Ameriprise Financial engages employees in volunteerism and grantmaking. Key giving areas include hunger relief, housing stability, and community development. Priority is given to organizations with active volunteer engagement from Ameriprise advisors and employees, creating a meaningful impact on financial independence and community resilience.

The Dr. Scholl Foundation offers grants annually to IRS 501(c)(3) organizations, primarily focusing on U.S. applicants. The foundation supports projects in education, social services, healthcare, civic and cultural initiatives, and environmental efforts. While the grant cycle runs from October 1 to March 1, it encourages innovative solutions to global challenges. Only one application per organization is accepted each year, and funding is limited to one year. Unqualified organizations, including political entities, are ineligible.

The O'Reilly Automotive Foundation Grant focuses on enhancing community welfare through philanthropic initiatives that support economic stability, workforce development, health services, and disaster relief. Established in 2020, the Foundation seeks to empower underrepresented individuals and organizations in the U.S. by addressing vital community needs. It particularly aims to provide assistance to nonprofits that foster positive change and improve quality of life for those in need, ensuring a lasting impact in local communities.

The Community Ties Giving Program by Union Pacific Foundation offers local grants aimed at enhancing community well-being through diverse funding priorities. These include safety initiatives, workforce development, community vitality, and environmental sustainability. The program emphasizes supporting organizations that promote diversity, equity, and inclusion, aiming to create impactful projects that resonate with Union Pacific's heritage and mission. Eligible applicants must be nonprofit organizations serving Union Pacific communities and demonstrate a clear need and capacity to deliver effective programming.

Common Waters: Strengthening Community-based Coastal and Riverine Stewardship

Opportunity Overview

Projects supported by this RFP must be community-based stewardship initiatives (including but not limited to stewardship driven by Indigenous and descendant communities); they should be led by an individual with a strong connection to and/or an existing track record of work in the community(ies) where the project will take place, or by a member of the community themselves, and be designed in response to community needs. Projects can focus on a wide range of specific issues, including (but not limited to) local conservation and ecosystem restoration, climate change adaptation and resilience, or sustainable fishing/agriculture. The RFP will prioritize projects in National Geographic-Lindblad Expeditions destinations, including the Arctic, Asia, Baja California, Costa Rica and Panama, Europe and the Mediterranean, Patagonia, the Peruvian Amazon, the Pacific Northwest, Southeast Alaska and British Columbia, the South Pacific, and the United Kingdom and Ireland. For more detailed information on targeted areas within these regions, please refer to the targeted areas document.

National Geographic Society

For more than 130 years, the National Geographic Society has funded the best and brightest individuals dedicated to scientific discovery and understanding of our world.

Our historic commitment to dauntless exploration dates back to our founding in 1888 when 33 prominent scholars and scientists established an organization dedicated to the “increase and diffusion of knowledge.”

Today, National Geographic Explorers are continuing to push the boundaries of knowledge, uncovering new insights about the natural and cultural worlds, and strengthening our connection to them and one another.

Developing Future Ocean Stewards

How does the ocean shape your life? How do you shape the ocean?

The ocean functions as Earth’s primary life support system. It produces half the oxygen we breathe, regulates our global climate, and sustains the livelihoods of over 3 billion people. Yet, human activities are putting our ocean in serious danger. Pollution and unsustainable industrial practices are damaging ocean habitats that are crucial for climate regulation, sustaining marine biodiversity, and supporting the global blue economy.

To combat this, we need to promote “Ocean Literacy” – an understanding of the ocean’s influence on humanity and humanity’s influence on the ocean. The knowledge-deficit model of ocean literacy assumes that increasing public education and awareness about the marine environment will lead to pro-ocean actions. However, it has not sparked large-scale behavior change.

Education without emotional resonance does not move people to act. To save our ocean, we have to expand what it means to be ocean literate. We need to foster and support ocean stewards: people who feel connected to the ocean and take responsibility for enacting change in their communities.

What we aim to fund with this call

The National Geographic Society aims to invest in ocean literacy by funding projects that focus on community-based projects that help people form strong emotional bonds with the ocean and develop or deepen a sense of ocean identity through immersive learning experiences. These projects will address the socioeconomic, psychological, cultural, and physical barriers to developing or embodying an ocean connection. This call values a “one water system” perspective, which emphasizes the fundamental understanding that all water on Earth is interconnected. As such, we aim to reach populations who are often excluded from conservation dialogues. Through these projects, learners will gain the knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed to develop a reciprocal relationship with the ocean, becoming ocean stewards.

Projects funded through this RFP must:

• Be led by an individual with a strong connection to and/or an existing track record of work in the community(ies) where the project will take place, or by a member of the community themselves, and be designed with the community and/or reflective of the community’s needs
• Tailor ocean literacy to their specific cultural and geographic realities

We are particularly interested in projects that are transdisciplinary, mixing natural and social sciences. For example, projects that combine storytelling, local knowledge, and ocean-focused design

This RFP is also interested in projects in National Geographic-Lindblad Expeditions destinations, including the Arctic, Asia, Baja California, Costa Rica and Panama, Europe and the Mediterranean, Patagonia, the Peruvian Amazon, the Pacific Northwest, Southeast Alaska and British Columbia, the South Pacific, and the United Kingdom and Ireland. For more detailed information on targeted areas within these regions, please refer to the targeted areas document.

Proposals may contain one or both elements of the following:

• Project: a pilot of a new learning solution, or scaling of a learning solution with some evidence of effectiveness, to a new geography or population of learners
• Research: Measurement of the effectiveness of educational innovations

Projects must pilot, scale, or measure the effectiveness of educational innovations that develop learners of all ages’ skills, attitudes, and knowledge needed to foster ocean stewardship

Candidate must demonstrate a strong connection to and/or an existing track of work in the community(ies) where the project will take place; the project should be designed in response to community needs and include ongoing collaboration or co-creation with the local community(ies) throughout the project.

Funding

• Grant recipients become members of the Explorer Community and eligible for future funding, learning and networking opportunities.
• All Ocean RFP grantees will become part of a cohort experience to include virtual gatherings intended to promote networking amongst grantees, relationship building, sharing of lessons learned, and impact communications

Funding may be awarded in either a Level I or Level II grant. (See the guidelines/details on Level I and Level II.)

Level I Grant

What is a Level I (LI) grant?

LI grants are designed for individuals who may be earlier in their career, those looking to establish themselves better in their field, or those who want to grow their network and enhance their impact by joining a global community of National Geographic Explorers.

LI grants are open to those who are not currently a National Geographic Explorer. Individuals in our network who are not yet Explorers, including team members on previous grants, Young Explorers awarded in 2019 or later, or recipients of discretionary funding opportunities such as the COVID-19 Emergency Fund for Journalists and the COVID-19 Remote Learning Emergency Fund, and grant recipients from the China Air & Water Fund may apply for a Level I opportunity.

National Geographic Society

For more than 130 years, the National Geographic Society has funded the best and brightest individuals dedicated to scientific discovery and understanding of our world.

Our historic commitment to dauntless exploration dates back to our founding in 1888 when 33 prominent scholars and scientists established an organization dedicated to the “increase and diffusion of knowledge.”

Today, National Geographic Explorers are continuing to push the boundaries of knowledge, uncovering new insights about the natural and cultural worlds, and strengthening our connection to them and one another.

Developing Future Ocean Stewards

How does the ocean shape your life? How do you shape the ocean?

The ocean functions as Earth’s primary life support system. It produces half the oxygen we breathe, regulates our global climate, and sustains the livelihoods of over 3 billion people. Yet, human activities are putting our ocean in serious danger. Pollution and unsustainable industrial practices are damaging ocean habitats that are crucial for climate regulation, sustaining marine biodiversity, and supporting the global blue economy.

To combat this, we need to promote “Ocean Literacy” – an understanding of the ocean’s influence on humanity and humanity’s influence on the ocean. The knowledge-deficit model of ocean literacy assumes that increasing public education and awareness about the marine environment will lead to pro-ocean actions. However, it has not sparked large-scale behavior change.

Education without emotional resonance does not move people to act. To save our ocean, we have to expand what it means to be ocean literate. We need to foster and support ocean stewards: people who feel connected to the ocean and take responsibility for enacting change in their communities.

What we aim to fund with this call

The National Geographic Society aims to invest in ocean literacy by funding projects that focus on community-based projects that help people form strong emotional bonds with the ocean and develop or deepen a sense of ocean identity through immersive learning experiences. These projects will address the socioeconomic, psychological, cultural, and physical barriers to developing or embodying an ocean connection. This call values a “one water system” perspective, which emphasizes the fundamental understanding that all water on Earth is interconnected. As such, we aim to reach populations who are often excluded from conservation dialogues. Through these projects, learners will gain the knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed to develop a reciprocal relationship with the ocean, becoming ocean stewards.

Projects funded through this RFP must:

• Be led by an individual with a strong connection to and/or an existing track record of work in the community(ies) where the project will take place, or by a member of the community themselves, and be designed with the community and/or reflective of the community’s needs
• Tailor ocean literacy to their specific cultural and geographic realities

We are particularly interested in projects that are transdisciplinary, mixing natural and social sciences. For example, projects that combine storytelling, local knowledge, and ocean-focused design

This RFP is also interested in projects in National Geographic-Lindblad Expeditions destinations, including the Arctic, Asia, Baja California, Costa Rica and Panama, Europe and the Mediterranean, Patagonia, the Peruvian Amazon, the Pacific Northwest, Southeast Alaska and British Columbia, the South Pacific, and the United Kingdom and Ireland. For more detailed information on targeted areas within these regions, please refer to the targeted areas document.

Proposals may contain one or both elements of the following:

• Project: a pilot of a new learning solution, or scaling of a learning solution with some evidence of effectiveness, to a new geography or population of learners
• Research: Measurement of the effectiveness of educational innovations

Projects must pilot, scale, or measure the effectiveness of educational innovations that develop learners of all ages’ skills, attitudes, and knowledge needed to foster ocean stewardship

Candidate must demonstrate a strong connection to and/or an existing track of work in the community(ies) where the project will take place; the project should be designed in response to community needs and include ongoing collaboration or co-creation with the local community(ies) throughout the project.

Funding

• Grant recipients become members of the Explorer Community and eligible for future funding, learning and networking opportunities.
• All Ocean RFP grantees will become part of a cohort experience to include virtual gatherings intended to promote networking amongst grantees, relationship building, sharing of lessons learned, and impact communications

Funding may be awarded in either a Level I or Level II grant. (See the guidelines/details on Level I and Level II.)

Level II Grant

What is a Level II (LII) grant?

LII grants are designed for individuals who are more established in their field, have previously received a grant from the National Geographic Society, or are seeking a higher level of funding. You are not required to have previously received a grant from the National Geographic Society to apply for this opportunity.

Projects at this level should push the boundaries of the applicant’s field or discipline and be designed to achieve significant and tangible impacts. LII grants are open to those who are already National Geographic Explorers, as well as those who are not Explorers.

The Mutual of America Foundation Community Partnership Award honors exemplary nonprofit organizations in the U.S. that foster collaborative partnerships across sectors. Annually, a national competition showcases numerous organizations demonstrating impactful community partnerships. Six organizations receive recognition, including the Thomas J. Moran Award, which offers $100,000, and the Frances R. Hesselbein Award, granting $75,000. Since 1996, the award has acknowledged 262 partnerships, emphasizing Mutual of America's commitment to societal improvement through collaboration.

The Gupta Family Foundation Grant aims to empower disadvantaged individuals by providing financial support to organizations that foster self-reliance. Headquartered in Herndon, Virginia, the foundation offers grants ranging from $5,000 to over $250,000, prioritizing smaller organizations with a strong commitment to their missions. Eligibility typically includes US-based IRS 501(c)(3) entities, with operations extending to countries like India and Kenya. The foundation emphasizes mission alignment and effective resource allocation to ensure maximum impact.