Values

The Fund has committed to the following core values to guide its work:

Inclusivity

We seek to shift power away from the funder and closer to communities working on solutions to environmental and climate justice challenges. To do so, we engage representatives of grassroots networks who sit on our advisory board to lead in determining the fund’s priorities, identifying grantees, and directing resources.
Responsiveness

Grantees may use our resources flexibly to address their true needs, and we manage an efficient grantmaking process so communities can access resources in a timely manner to address pressing challenges and opportunities.
Efficiency

We try to minimize the burden the applicant organizations face during the application and reporting processes so community members can spend less time trying to access funding and more time on their important work. We also try to balance the time our advisory board members spend guiding the fund’s strategy and decision-making with the need for authentic input from field leaders.
Transparency

We seek to be accountable to the communities we serve and we solicit frequent input on how our operations affect those communities. We take time to reflect and adapt so those communities truly lead us.

Governance

As a fund that practices participatory grantmaking, the Fund to Build Grassroots Power relies on an advisory board and a steering committee, each composed of grassroots experts and leaders in the environmental and climate justice field. The fund’s advisory board provides strategic guidance on grantmaking priorities and decisions, ensuring the Fund to Build Grassroots Power responds to network members’ needs. The steering committee guides the fund’s overall grantmaking strategy and process and recommends grant awards to the fund’s fiscal sponsor, the Windward Fund.

The Fund to Build Grassroots Power Advisory Board

The Fund to Build Grassroots Power’s advisory board is composed of individuals from five organizations. Members of the four national networks of grassroots environmental justice organizations the fund supports serve on the advisory board. Each network represented on the advisory board is advancing environmental justice by approaching environmental and climate justice through an intersectional lens, tackling environmental health, democracy, housing, community development, and other issues. A representative from the fund’s donor organization, The JPB Foundation, also sits on the advisory board.

The Advisory Board includes:

Marion Gee, Co-Executive Director, Climate Justice Alliance
Dana Johnson, Senior Director of Strategy and Federal Policy, WE ACT for Environmental Justice
and Peggy Shepard, Co-Founder and Executive Director, WE ACT for Environmental Justice
Christina Rosales, Housing and Land Justice Director PowerSwitch Action
Sondra Youdelman, Campaigns Director, People’s Action Institute
and Sophia Cheng, Climate Justice Campaign Director, People’s Action Institute
Anna Loizeaux, Senior Program Officer, Environment, The JPB Foundation

The Fund to Build Grassroots Power Steering Committee

The Fund to Build Grassroots Steering Committee is composed of two leaders in the environmental philanthropy field and a representative from JPB. The Steering Committee guides the Fund’s overall grant-making strategy and process and recommends grant awards to the Fund’s fiscal sponsor, Windward Fund.

The Steering Committee includes:

Dana Bourland, Senior Vice President, Strategic Initiatives and Environment, The JPB Foundation
Ryan Strode, Program Officer for Climate Equity, The Builders Initiative
Jumana Vasi, Environmental Justice and Water Policy Strategist, JVasi Consulting

An Illustration of the Fund’s Structure

Fiscal Sponsor and Coordinator

Windward Fund

The Windward Fund is the Fund to Build Grassroots Power’s fiscal sponsor. The Windward Fund provides the Fund to Build Grassroots Power with administrative services, such as financial, legal, and management services. As a 501(c)(3) public charity, Windward supports efforts to address climate change and other environmental issues. The Windward Fund is managed under an administrative agreement by Arabella Advisors.

Arabella Advisors

Arabella Advisors is a philanthropic consulting firm that provides backbone supports to help the Fund to Build Grassroots Power facilitate decision making, manage its grantmaking process, conduct its evaluation, among other services. Arabella helps foundations, philanthropists, and investors who are serious about impact achieve the greatest good with their resources. Arabella helps its clients understand complex problems, develop and implement innovative solutions, and achieve social and environmental impact at scale.

Funders

The FBGP was seeded by The JPB Foundation in 2018. In 2021, Waverley Street Foundation joined the fund. The Fund to Build Grassroots Power is open to welcoming additional funders that are interested in advancing this work.

The JPB Foundation

The JPB Foundation works to advance opportunity and justice in the US by reducing poverty, sustaining and enriching the environment, and furthering breakthrough medical research. The JPB Foundation works alongside local leaders, national movements, and world-changing research organizations to make people’s lives better.

Waverley Street Foundation

The voices, experiences, and innovations of communities around the world have a central place in protecting people, nature, health, and our planet. Waverley Street Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, supports farmers, students, Indigenous peoples, advocates, and many others working in the places they call home. Waverley Street has committed to spend the entirety of its endowment — more than $3 billion as of 2022 — by 2035 to support organizations working on solutions at the intersection of climate change and community priorities.