With the launch of the 100% Campaign, we set out to shift the culture, creating affordable clean energy solutions. With our grantmaking, we promised to support and lift up frontline organizations already out there creating solutions.
In the last five years, we’ve seen cities, states, and businesses committing to 100% clean energy targets. We’ve seen the narrative around clean energy shift – in the media and among the general public. Now more than ever, people want climate action — and so 1 out of every 3 Americans today live in a place already committed to 100% clean energy.
We’re well on our way to a cleaner, greener future. But The Solutions Project believes that a green future must also be just and inclusive, with no one left behind – and we are 100% committed to seeing that through.
Join us as we look back on 2019, and what commitment means to us.
The Solutions Project was in the front of the pack as the first national organization to call for 100% clean energy for all, and now it’s in the lead again with its 2019 100% Commitment to Justice.
We believe that the communities most affected by climate change are the ones best positioned for impact, and we know that racial and gender diversity in leadership brings greater chances of success. Yet only a small percentage of U.S. philanthropic dollars go to organizations led by women and people of color. That’s why, in February of 2019, we made a big announcement.
To back up our strong belief in equity and justice, and to help address the extreme funding gaps in climate philanthropy, we made our 100% Commitment to Justice pledge to invest 95 percent of our resources in frontline organizations led by Executive Directors of color, with at least 80 percent going to organizations led by women.
in 2019, compared to 53% in 2018
in 2019, compared to 56% in 2018
The Solutions Project team at their 2019 retreat.
Wahleah Johns, Co-founder and Executive Director of Native Renewables.
Working session at our Funding Climate + Equity Narrative Convening.
The Solutions Project's approach to partnership is innovative and reflective of your commitment to unconditionally supporting our community-based efforts. Most of all, it is a reflection of the trust we have built as partners.
Our grantees are our partners and our collaborators. We do everything in our power to move money, media and momentum in their direction, and provide the tactical support and training needed to accomplish their missions. In 2019, we awarded 40 Fighter Fund grants to organizations across the United States and Puerto Rico, and 6 Fighter League grants to leaders from the Gulf South.
In its first iteration, The Fighter League honored Black and Indigenous women leaders from the Gulf South region of the United States, providing each with a $10,000 grant and mentorship. The program purpose is to support wellness, healing and leadership in a time of crisis. Nominated by their peers, each recipient went through a self-directed process to identify personal growth and learning opportunities that supported their project and network goals.
With my Fighter League grant, I supported youth projects that create leadership pathways that move the community away from relying on one person.
Mary Gutierrez
Another Gulf is Possible
With my Fighter League grant, I participated in an arts-learning exchange in Palestine and attended arts-healing workshops.
Jayeesha Dutta
Another Gulf is Possible
With my Fighter League grant, I participated in multiple international trips to deepen local and global connections.
Kathy Egland
Gulf South Rising
With my Fighter League grant, I created space and time to do research and develop more connections between health and climate crises.
Yolanda Edwards
Gulf South Rising
With my Fighter League grant, I invested in land to fight climate gentrification and build an agri-hood, freeing up resources to implement.
Valencia Gunder
EEECHO
With my Fighter League grant, I developed a youth and nature-based curriculum and strategy in Southeast Louisiana to implement my long-held vision.
Bette Billot
EEECHO
Last year, New York State passed the nation’s most ambitious climate bill, committing to carbon-free electricity by 2040 and a net-zero carbon economy by 2050.
PUSH Buffalo co-chaired the NY Renews coalition. They spent the last several years creating, and then working to advance the legislation that eventually became the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA), the country’s strongest and most equitable climate policy. PUSH teamed up with Seventh Generation to spread the word and protect the equity provisions in the bill.
The Justice First Tour visited 25 cities across the South, convening a diverse range of community members, organizers, and activists in an effort to inspire a “stronger, more unified and intersectional Southern movement centered around justice.”
Led by Rev. Leo Woodberry of South Carolina-based New Alpha Community Development Corporation, the tour was instrumental in building a clean energy narrative that centers justice and equity. This greatly influenced the framing of the Green New Deal which called to “Promote justice and equity by preventing current and repairing historic oppression to frontline and vulnerable communities.”
When people who live every day with the effects of dirty energy and a changing climate draw on that experience to create solutions and drive change, the results can be game-changing.
This year our One100 awards shined the spotlight on real-life heroes in South and Southeast Los Angeles who came together to stop toxic oil drilling in their communities. The awards were hosted by The Solutions Project board member Don Cheadle, and coincided with the Marvel Studios’ Avengers: Endgame premiere.
A transition to clean energy that is just and equitable takes everyone. We’re lucky to have amazing advocates and ambassadors – some who reach into media and pop culture to spark conversation, and some who work every day to inspire their own communities to participate & act.
The Solutions Project helped Seventh Generation to take action in support of frontline leaders and equity outcomes when New York state was deciding to commit to 100% clean energy in 2019. We were able to work together with PUSH Buffalo and the NY Renews coalition because of the trust we all had in The Solutions Project, including taking out a full page ad to show that our business not only supported the highest clean energy targets, but also demanded clear benefits for the most impacted environmental justice communities in the state.
With your support, we can provide funding and training to more of the grassroots organizations that are leading the way to a clean energy and green economy future that includes all of us.
Donate to The Solutions ProjectWe are grateful to our partners and funders, and all of our supporters and participants, whose contributions make our work possible.
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