A summer of trepidation and hope

By Amanda Martin OAM, CEO, Australian Environmental Grantmakers Network

We’re heading into summer here in Australia, and not without a sense of trepidation. In recent weeks, we’ve watched from afar the wildfires rip through Canada, Europe, and Hawaii, and send our deepest sympathy to all those affected. It’s a painful reminder of our own recent catastrophic Black Summer bushfires, and that climate change is real and happening now. As UN Secretary-General António Guterres says, the era of global boiling has arrived¹.

While I don’t dispute the UN Chief’s characterisation, it’s not the whole story. As the CEO of Australia’s peak membership organisation for environmental and climate philanthropy, I have a privileged vantage point. One where I can see other powerful forces at play; forces that are working to create an era characterised by community, connection and care.

For nature and climate, there’s no time to lose
Our love for the environment, and active commitment to see it protected, preserved and thriving, is what brings the members of our philanthropic network together. We give because we care — and because for nature and climate, we know there’s no time to lose. Here in Australia, the world’s driest inhabited continent, we’re painfully aware that our communities are on the frontline. Droughts, bushfires, heatwaves, floods, they’ve all become more frequent and more severe. The damage is already in plain view. But so too are the solutions.

Every day, I see the powerful impact our members are making by partnering with the community sector — and each other — to restore a safe climate and create a better world. Indeed, our members have achieved some phenomenal wins over the past year. They’ve helped to secure meaningful changes to the Australian Government’s emissions safeguard mechanism². Played a catalytic role in the establishment of a national Net Zero Authority, which will help communities transition away from fossil fuels to clean industries³. And they’ve influenced the unprecedented board renewal at Australia’s dirtiest energy company, AGL, and its accelerated exit out of coal⁴.

Insights into best-practice climate funding
Our Climate Change Funders Framework has helped to inform and guide much of our members’ philanthropy by identifying 25 areas of work that are needed to address climate change; opportunities to scale outcomes throughout 2023 and beyond; and insights into best-practice funding. By pulling these levers for climate action together, philanthropy has the power to make transformational change. This framework has been developed in consultation with more than 60 climate thought leaders and our network’s members from around the country. It also draws on comparable funding guides from around the world.

Excitingly, philanthropists who don’t typically fund in this area can be part of the solution too, as our work on the Climate Lens has shown. This tool — developed in partnership with Philanthropy Australia — complements the framework by helping all funders understand and minimise the effects of climate change while remaining focused on the people, places and causes at the heart of their mission. It’s comprehensive in its scope and application, encouraging funders to interrogate every aspect of their philanthropy, from grantmaking to their investments and operations, as well as use their influence and connections to effect positive change.

A wide range of funders — focused on everything from alleviating poverty and disadvantage to championing women’s rights — have found the tool has enhanced their capacity to achieve positive social and economic outcomes. The Wyatt Trust — its mission to challenge inequality and eradicate poverty — is a strong advocate, with CEO Stacey Thomas, acknowledging “that regardless of where you focus your philanthropy, climate will impact it in some way”. So too is the Lord Mayor’s Charitable Foundation, one of Australia’s oldest community foundations, which considers incorporating a climate lens into its work as one of the best things it’s done: “You get a double whammy for many, many projects.”

By applying a climate lens to their giving, these funders and others are channelling philanthropy’s potential for all that we can achieve: a nation run on green energy, cleaner cities, more prosperous and sustainable food systems, and better lives for all Australians. It’s worth our energy and our investment.

An enormous investment gap
While the Climate Lens tool is designed to enhance funders’ impact within their current focus areas, we also encourage philanthropists to consider funding climate action directly and offer guidance to this end. The reality is we still face an enormous investment gap that must be closed by 2030 if we are to avert climate catastrophe. Only around 2 per cent of philanthropic giving in Australia is directed to the environment and climate change⁵. We need far more resources now, and there are immediate opportunities to have real and lasting impact. Indeed, to continue to build community, connection and care.

Will the world act on climate? Will it act fast enough? As one of our members recently said to me — and I whole-heartedly agree — in the Australian context, there’s some real hope out there. I like to think that in the end, the good forces win.

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Amanda Martin OAM, CEO, Australian Environmental Grantmakers Network

Amanda has worked in philanthropy for over 20 years, having worked as Executive Officer for the Poola Foundation for four years before helping to establish the AEGN in 2008. After years of participating in and helping with social and environmental change, Amanda believes that a key ingredient to making the world a better place is smart and strategic community groups working with smart and strategic philanthropy. She has a degree in Zoology and post-graduate qualifications in Environment Studies.

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