Funding Movements on the Ground to
Keep Fossil Fuels in the Ground.
We have 10 years to cut emissions in half yet the fossil fuel industry blocks progress every step of the way. The tide, however, is turning. People from all walks of life are leading the fight to prevent climate catastrophe, and to ensure economic and racial justice. It’s time we invest in their power.
What is The Equation Campaign?
The Equation Campaign is a new ten-year funding initiative working to bring about a safe and just future by enhancing the power of movements to keep oil and gas in the ground.
The science is irrefutable: to avert the worst effects of the climate crisis, carbon emissions must be cut in half by 2030. While supporting the rapid growth of renewables and energy efficiency is essential, this support cannot solve the climate problem alone. There is a missing piece of the equation: stopping oil and gas at the source.
Studies show we can’t even burn all the oil and gas currently under production without pushing our climate over the brink. But instead of working towards a managed transition, the oil and gas industry is pushing for $1.4 trillion dollars worth of new infrastructure in the next five years. This expansion must be stopped.
As a society, we know exactly how to avert the worst impacts of the climate crisis: We have the data, the money, the technology and enough time to achieve a smooth transition if we begin to shift course right now. We have everything we need to transform our future, except for one thing: the power to make it happen. The potential for mass mobilization around climate is unprecedented, and so is the need. Our strategies support the transformational change required, in the time science demands.
We will keep it in the ground by funding movements on the ground. We center and amplify voices of people on the frontlines, for whom the expansion of the oil and gas industry is a matter of life and death. This includes young people fighting for their future, indigenous people defending their land and water, black and brown communities living in the shadow of the industry’s operations, and poor people who are not responsible for global warming but who bear the brunt of its effects. But the truth is that in the climate crisis, we are all on the frontline; none of us can escape the impacts of climate change. Together, we can avert the worst of it.
Our Strategy
The Equation Campaign is premised on the belief that we can keep it in the ground by funding movements on the ground — enabling historically underfunded grassroots groups to stand shoulder to shoulder alongside their peers in the national environmental community.
The fossil fuel industry has used its immense power, wealth and political influence to keep expanding its operations by selling the lie that we cannot live without their oil and gas. To counter this power, the climate movement needs to channel the kind of unstoppable momentum we have seen in social justice movements throughout history. Only this scale of mobilization can disrupt the industry’s continued obstruction of climate action.
We provide funding that supports two missing pieces of the equation in most climate philanthropy and activism to date: (1) supply side strategies to stop or delay new or expanded projects, and to directly target the power of the fossil fuel industry, and (2) racial justice movement strategies that center the expertise and power of the communities impacted first and worst by both the climate crisis and the impacts of oil and gas operations. Our goal is to amplify the voices of people on the frontlines, for whom the expansion of the oil and gas industry is a matter of life and death.
Grantees
Here are some of the grantees that The Equation Campaign is currently supporting:
Society of Native Nations
The Society of Native Nations is an organization founded by Native people in Texas with members in many states that are dedicated to advocating for indigenous people and the earth by helping to protect and preserve native culture, spirituality, teachings, medicine, and way of life, including passionate protection of land and people.
Labor Network for Sustainability
Labor Network for Sustainability engages workers and communities in building a transition to a society that is ecologically sustainability and economically just. Fostering deep relationships that bring the labor movement and climate movement closer, LNS works to dispel the damaging lies the fossil fuel industry tells about fossil fuel jobs.
Resilience Force
Resilience Force invests in the dignity and power of the frontline workers who help communities adapt and thrive to climate disasters to build back better by building back fossil free. The national initiative organizes workers from poor and marginalized communities in oil and gas producing regions to demand fair wages and working conditions for this growing sector of the economy.
Minnesota Interfaith Peace and Light
MNIPL works to build the interfaith climate movement in Minnesota by empowering faith communities across the state to take action that is authentic, effective, and energizing in their context, and playing a supportive coordinating role in the frontline fight against Line 3.
Native Roots Radio
Native Roots Radio is one part of a larger network of Indigenous communicators, artists and organizers that fights for a new form of democracy that upholds Treaty responsibilities and acts in deep partnership with people on the margins of our society.
Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy
Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy works in the courts, at the legislature, and with public agencies to enact, strengthen, and enforce smart environmental law. Equation Campaign’s grant supports their legal advocacy with frontline groups opposing Line 3.
Unkitawa
Unkítawa is an indigenous-led group of dedicated, results-oriented people who have come together to support the efforts that protect and heal the Earth for the benefit of all and provide core organizing and spiritual support to indigenous activists.
Contact
info@equationcampaign.org
Note: We do not review unsolicited proposals.