Don't wait for billionaires to save us, climate philanthropy is for everyone!
Anyone with extra means can donate to projects that fight climate change or help us be more resilient. This week's podcast guest is taking the "Shark Tank" approach to getting the dollars flowing.
This week on Everybody in the Pool
I, like many people I know, absolutely swooned this week at the news that NPR had received $113 million in charitable donations, including a staggering $80 million gift from Connie Ballmer, who runs the Ballmer foundation alongside her husband, former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. (As is so often the case, she’s the one who got him into charitable giving in the first place.)
And I was equally thrilled to find out that while the Ballmers’ top giving priority is “economic mobility,” their oldest son, Sam, leads the efforts around their second giving priority: climate. However, climate-related donations only account for about 20% of their portfolio, tops.
And that’s the story of climate philanthropy writ large — except that the overall story is much sadder. Only about 2% of philanthropic money goes toward climate and environmental issues.
There are lots of reasons for the gap, but complexity is a big one. It’s hard to know what it means to fund “climate,” which is a huge tent that can include everything from environmental justice to tree planting to city and state initiatives to research and on and on and on.
Also, although I used billionaires as examples above, the truth is that anyone with some means can be a philanthropist, and specifically a climate philanthropist, but, you know the old saying, everybody in the pool will make a bigger splash. (That saying is at least three years old, you guys, work with me here.)
So on this week’s episode of the podcast, I talked with an organization that’s trying to make climate giving more accessible, and aggregating dollars for maximum impact.
I talked with Greg Rock, executive director of 1.5 Climate, a national donor collaborative that curates and vets high-impact climate giving opportunities, and then brings them to its members through energetic, Shark Tank–style virtual pitch events.
Greg explained how 1.5 Climate looks for opportunities where relatively modest checks can have outsized impact: catalytic early funding, high-leverage bets (including unlocking matching funds), and gap-filling support for work that’s getting overlooked. The organization interviews hundreds of groups a year and ultimately elevates a small number to pitch to its community. Greg told me the organization tries to be as non-partisan and local as possible, as well.
Here are a few examples of initiatives they’ve helped fund:
Next‑gen geothermal (Utah) — the group helped fund what Greg called the first utility‑scale next‑gen geothermal plant coming online in Utah.
Data center policy campaigns — the donors supported state legislative efforts aimed at making data centers pay their own way for grid/infrastructure upgrades, and pushing policies that require data centers to bring new clean energy capacity as they expand.
Agrivoltaics — 1.5 helped fund an initiative to combine farming and ranching with solar infrastructure, so that grazing and ag production could happen in the shade of solar PV. (Greg said this particularly appealed to members as a cross‑partisan, co‑benefits solution.)
Iowa renewables permitting streamlining — Greg previewed an upcoming event focused on Iowa: a policy effort to streamline permitting for solar, wind, and other renewables in a red‑trifecta state.
Obviously, we also discussed the bigger giving landscape—why climate still gets such a small share of philanthropy, how complexity (and perceived partisanship) holds people back, and why this moment calls for doubling down. Greg makes a strong case that state and local action can be both practical and scalable, with ripple effects that spread far beyond one project or one geography—and that seeing concrete solutions in motion can be the optimism jolt people need right now.
Listen to the episode here or wherever you get your podcasts!
From the Discord
We’ve been having a conversation in the Discord about where to start when you’re thinking about getting solar and/or a battery on your home, and it echoes a conversation I was having with a friend recently, as well.
Some advice:
Ask your friends or neighbors who they went with. Do not, under any circumstances, enter your personal information into one of those online questionnaires about getting a quote for solar installation. Unfortunately, this industry is deeply about the financing, and you will end up getting thousands of phone calls, possibly for the rest of your life. (I wrote about this back in 2022, I’m still dodging calls!)
Do you plan to own or lease? Leasing is cheapest up front, but most likely not in the long term, and can be a real problem if you want to sell your house.
Look into green financing and incentives! Many states offer loan programs with low-interest options for clean energy and electrification upgrades.
Who is the actual installer, are they licensed and well-reviewed, and will they handle ongoing customer service?
Research your inverter types, especially if you plan to electrify in the future (solar installers may offer more than one, so it’s good to know the options). Plan for the system, you will want in the future.
Does your utility offer net metering or other incentive programs for sharing energy?
Do you want or need a battery?
Are you interested in a smart panel like SPAN or similar for managing your system and your electricity use?
This is just a starting place, of course, but it’s a fairly useful starting place, and your geeky mileage may vary in terms of system research, multiphase inverters, adding on your own inverters over time, how much you want to stalk your kilowatt hours, etc.
Got more thoughts? Join the conversation!