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Five Lessons to Accelerate Giving in Climate and Beyond

ABOUT CLIMATE LEAD

ABOUT THIS REPORT

Climate Lead was founded in 2019, following the landmark Paris Agreement, by leading climate philanthropists who saw that significantly more philanthropic capital would be needed for climate solutions if we were to dramatically slow warming and ensure a safe future for all.

The five lessons that follow reflect what we’ve learned from working alongside leading philanthropists navigating one of the most urgent and complex challenges of our time: climate change. Through this work, we’ve gained unique insight into what helps philanthropists move quickly from intention to impact—and what most often slows them down.

But for many prospective philanthropists, the climate landscape felt complex and difficult to navigate, creating uncertainty about where and how to give effectively. Climate Lead was created to help philanthropists move from interest to action through free, impartial guidance focused on impact. Drawing on a global network of experts, peer funders, and partners, Climate Lead helps philanthropists identify high-impact opportunities that resonate, navigate trade-offs, and move quickly toward informed giving.

While this report is grounded in climate philanthropy, many of the lessons can also apply to other urgent global challenges. We are sharing these lessons in the hope that they can help funders, NGOs, advisors, and philanthropic organizations worldwide move further and faster toward meaningful impact in climate and beyond.

Since its founding, Climate Lead has advised more than 115 philanthropic families, helping catalyze over $6 billion in climate funding globally. Additionally, many of those families have gone on to independently contribute more than $2 billion to climate solutions, support peer learning, and help strengthen the broader climate giving ecosystem.

Cover image: ©iStock/Roksana Bashyrova

Contents Foreword by Jennifer Kitt, President, Climate Lead

Five Lessons to Accelerate Giving in Climate and Beyond Lesson 1: There Are Many Paths to Impact

Lesson 2: Action Is the Best Teacher—Learn While Giving

Lesson 3: The Fastest Path to Impact Is Already Forged

Lesson 4: Impartial Guidance Builds Trust

Lesson 5: Philanthropy Is a Solutions Multiplier

Foreword When I think about why this work matters, I don’t start with numbers—I start with people. Families displaced by wildfires and floods. Farmers facing unpredictable seasons. Children breathing polluted air. Communities rebuilding after storms that previously came just once in a generation.

Climate Lead has identified more than 400 high-impact solutions already underway, with hundreds more under analysis. Today, $5 billion would fund 80 of the most pressing and effective climate solutions ready for deployment around the world. The challenge is not finding solutions; it is funding them fast enough.

Climate change is a threat multiplier— intensifying hunger, disease, displacement, and instability.

Every tenth of a degree of warming avoided matters. The faster we act, the more lives we protect and the more time we create for communities and nature to recover.

But philanthropy can be a solutions multiplier. It can move quickly—deploying capital, testing new approaches, and unlocking far greater investment. Philanthropy cannot solve the climate crisis alone, but it plays a critical role in helping solutions that improve people’s lives take root, scale, and endure. Where public budgets and markets cannot move fast enough, philanthropy can help lead the way.

Philanthropy is not a zerosum game. There is enough capital, creativity, and commitment to make progress across multiple fronts.

Climate giving represents approximately 2.1 percent of global philanthropy—roughly $12–18 billion annually.1 That remains far short of what is needed. Climate philanthropy must grow to at least $50 billion annually to address the scale of the challenge.

The challenges we face are deeply connected, and so is our capacity to respond to them together. The work ahead is pressing, but there is also deep purpose and joy in building a healthier, more resilient, and more equitable world.

The opportunity for progress is enormous. With more than $450 trillion in global wealth, the resources already exist, and critically, so do many of the solutions.

Jennifer Kitt President, Climate Lead

1 https://www.climateworks.org/report/funding-trends-2026/

©iStock/JurgaR

Five Lessons to Accelerate Giving in Climate and Beyond

Lesson 1:

There Are Many Paths to Impact There is no silver bullet in climate philanthropy—or any philanthropy tackling systems-level change. That is not a flaw, it’s a feature.

Five Lessons to Accelerate Giving in Climate and Beyond

What often slows giving is the belief that there is a single “right” way to start, or that supporting one strategy requires dismissing others. Through our work with global philanthropic leaders, their staff, and advisors, we’ve seen that impact rarely comes from a single lever.

Some philanthropists we work with focus on gigaton-scale outcomes, directing resources toward sectors or geographies with the largest emissions reduction potential. Others prioritize under-resourced strategies such as industrial decarbonization or nature-based solutions, often beginning with a gap analysis to identify areas where new funding can unlock the greatest impact. Still others prioritize movement building, communications, and policy, recognizing that durable change requires public will, leadership, and long-term capacity.

Climate change is driven by multiple overlapping systems: energy, land use, food, industry, finance, politics, and culture. Because the problem is multi-dimensional, the solutions are, too. Policy, technology, nature-based solutions, communications, and movement building all matter—and often reinforce one another.

For NGOs, clearly situating their work within the broader landscape—and showing how they collaborate with others—helps philanthropists understand their role in the solution, and engage with greater confidence.

Lasting progress depends on multiple strategies advancing simultaneously.

There are many paths to impact. They all matter, and they all help.

This can be deeply freeing for philanthropists. The question is not whether there is a single perfect path, but where they can contribute most meaningfully.

“ This will be the biggest challenge we will face in humanity’s history, so we have a huge responsibility to act now.” — Pedro Bueno, new climate philanthropist in Brazil

Five Lessons to Accelerate Giving in Climate and Beyond

©iStock/SolStock

Five Lessons to Accelerate Giving in Climate and Beyond

Lesson 2:

Action Is the Best Teacher— Learn While Giving In philanthropy, waiting to feel “ready” carries its own risk. In climate philanthropy, where delays compound harm, those risks are especially urgent.

Five Lessons to Accelerate Giving in Climate and Beyond

Many philanthropists want to feel fully knowledgeable or develop deep expertise before acting. That instinct makes sense. But the urgency of the climate crisis changes the equation.

Action accelerates understanding. It brings philanthropists into community with experts, peers, and real-world data—transforming abstract questions into practical insight. There is already a deep foundation of science, evidence, and field experience to draw from. Philanthropic families do not need to build teams from scratch or reinvent strategies.

Climate change intensifies over time, with pollution accumulating in the atmosphere and accelerating warming. Delayed action has real costs—for people, ecosystems, and economies. We are already experiencing the impacts of increasing droughts, floods, and wildfires that will worsen as the planet warms. The world cannot wait for new philanthropists to become experts before giving. Every tenth of a degree makes a difference. The faster we reduce current emissions and prevent new ones, the more we can avoid locking in future harm.

They can learn alongside: • Experienced peer philanthropists who share candid insights • Trusted advisors • NGOs with proven track records

Learning while giving is not reckless; it is a disciplined response to urgency.

In philanthropy, the quickest way to clarity is often simply getting started.

Organizations that invite philanthropists into the learning process, not just the outcome, help accelerate both understanding and giving at scale.

Across the philanthropists we have advised, those who begin with a thoughtful first commitment consistently gain clarity faster than those who remain in prolonged analysis.

Five Lessons to Accelerate Giving in Climate and Beyond

©iStock/marktucan

Five Lessons to Accelerate Giving in Climate and Beyond

Lesson 3:

The Fastest Path to Impact Is Already Forged One of the most underappreciated accelerators in philanthropy is that the infrastructure often already exists. In climate, it is surprisingly robust. While it is human nature to want to forge our own paths, philanthropists can move significantly faster by building on existing networks and strategies rather than starting from scratch.

Five Lessons to Accelerate Giving in Climate and Beyond

In climate, for example, collaborative funds, regional climate foundations, and thematic hubs allow philanthropists to engage in sophisticated strategies from day one.

Regional climate foundations provide established, on-the-ground teams and trusted relationships, particularly in complex geographies where local context matters deeply. Thematic hubs—whether focused on industry, methane, or communications— offer similar advantages. Pooled funds in impact investing and policy advocacy provide additional ways to participate with confidence.

Collaborative efforts can unite climate-friendly solutions across geographies, particularly in developing economies, enabling these regions to bypass polluting options and leapfrog directly to cheaper, cleaner, zero-emission solutions in transportation, cooling, and energy systems.

For NGOs, collaboratives reduce transaction costs, align funders, and create shared metrics that streamline the reporting process, allowing the organizations to focus on the work.

These platforms offer: • Clear strategic focus • Shared metrics and learning • Professional diligence and coordination • Deep subject-matter and regional expertise

For funders, these collaborative models lower friction and risk by offering multiple ways to engage—actively or quietly, early-stage or proven—while still contributing to efforts at scale.

Philanthropists don’t need to start from zero—the fastest paths are already in place.

“ Our hope is to inspire other funders to come into this underfunded area and realize that if we pool funds now, we can do a lot of the learning, failing, and succeeding that needs to happen, as soon as possible.” —Sam Ballmer, co-founder of Rainier Climate, on their deforestation funding

Five Lessons to Accelerate Giving in Climate and Beyond

©Moniruzzaman Sazal/Climate Visuals

Five Lessons to Accelerate Giving in Climate and Beyond

Lesson 4:

Impartial Guidance Builds Trust Trust is a critical accelerant in philanthropy. Philanthropists move faster and with greater confidence when they can explore the landscape with someone whose only stake in the outcome is impact.

Five Lessons to Accelerate Giving in Climate and Beyond

This neutrality creates space for honest conversations about trade-offs, broader exposure to strategies, and greater trust by making clear that the mission—not any one organization or theory of change—is the priority.

Climate Lead’s network has helped shorten decision timelines. Over half of the families we worked with started their first portfolio gift within 9 months, and two-thirds of families within just over a year—the first gift averaging around $4 million USD.

In a complex ecosystem like climate, where many organizations are advancing critical solutions, this role is essential in connecting the dots to accelerate giving.

This model has relevance beyond climate. Impartial, expert guidance can help philanthropy move faster and work more collaboratively across complex global challenges.

Impartial advisors help philanthropists navigate options, connect their values to high-impact opportunities, and move forward with clarity. In a field with many pathways, they also help funders understand where others are investing, identify opportunities to collaborate, and align around shared goals—accelerating impact.

When the focus stays on the outcomes the world needs most, rather than any single organization or strategy, it becomes easier to build trust, align philanthropists’ interests with high-impact opportunities, and accelerate action.

When advisors are not constrained by a specific agenda, they can act as problem solvers: freely sharing knowledge, situating strategies within the broader system, and helping philanthropists act with confidence. The same is true for NGOs. When they show up focused not on a single organization, but on generously sharing knowledge in service of the broader cause, it builds an authentic basis for trust—and faster engagement.

Five Lessons to Accelerate Giving in Climate and Beyond

Lesson 5:

Philanthropy Is a Solutions Multiplier Climate change intensifies risks across health, food security, economic stability, education, and democracy. It is a threat multiplier. Philanthropy, on the other hand, can multiply solutions.

Five Lessons to Accelerate Giving in Climate and Beyond

Funders do not need to choose between climate and the issues they already care about. Climate can, and should, be integrated into existing priorities because it affects them all.

One of the most powerful lessons from recent global crises is that generosity across causes expands impact—it doesn’t dilute it. Climate works alongside other issues, and it enables those other goals, too. When those connections are made clear, barriers fall away and engagement deepens.

Among the more than 115 families we worked with, the majority of whom were new to climate giving, many brought deep experience in other global priorities. More than half were experienced in giving to health, poverty reduction, livelihoods, gender equity, conservation, or education—discovering how climate action amplified their core missions. For example, philanthropists who actively give to health might also invest in the transition to electric vehicles, which can lead to cleaner air and better health outcomes.

Because climate touches nearly every aspect of human life, progress on climate can also accelerate progress across many other important priorities—just one example of philanthropy’s multiplier effect.

Today, nearly all have added climate as a pillar of their philanthropy because they saw multiple benefits as a result. Those new to philanthropy altogether were able to see their values immediately put to work, giving them greater confidence as givers overall and helping them see the interconnectedness of issues right away.

Five Lessons to Accelerate Giving in Climate and Beyond

We Have a Shared Responsibility to Move Further, Faster

Five Lessons to Accelerate Giving in Climate and Beyond

Taken together, these lessons point us to a place of possibility. There are many ways to make a difference—and they all matter.

Even amid global instability, strategic philanthropy remains an essential lever for action. We are inspired by the growing community of funders stepping forward to protect hard-won gains and accelerate solutions.

You don’t need to know everything to begin. Action is the best teacher. Infrastructure exists to get started quickly, and trust accelerates impact. Climate belongs in every conversation about the future we want. Our overheating climate touches every part of life—health, food, water, safety, and economic stability. Philanthropy can move where governments often cannot: deploying capital quickly, taking calculated risks, and advancing solutions at the pace this moment requires.

The time for decisive action is now. The faster we move together, the more we can save.

In climate, and across our most urgent global challenges, hesitation carries real costs. The next wave of philanthropy must be bold, collaborative, and sustained.

Five Lessons to Accelerate Giving in Climate and Beyond

CL 128 June 2026