Charitable giving to fight climate change rises 25% to $7.5B

Charitable giving to organizations that work to slow climate change have increased in the past year, and many more groups are receiving funds than just a few years ago. But despite the increases, giving from individuals and foundations to climate-related causes remains a stubbornly small percentage of overall charitable giving according, to a new report by the ClimateWorks Foundation. 

The jump in giving was significant — 25% over 2020 — and it outpaced the growth of giving overall. Yet contributions to climate philanthropy accounted for just 1 to 1.5% of all giving, according to the report — just $7.5 billion to $12.5 billion out of the $810 billion given to all causes in 2021. 

Donors should be recognized for increasing their support, says Helen Mountford, CEO of ClimateWorks. But the global costs for transitioning to a carbon-neutral economy will be in the trillions of dollars. Philanthropy’s few billion dollars are a start but still fall short. “This is nowhere near fast enough,” she says. “We need to do a lot more.” 

Giving by foundations increased even more, jumping 40% from 2020 to 2021, reaching $3.1 billion. Much of that was due to new big donors like the Bezos Earth Fund, which gave $519.2 million in 2021.