Feeling the Heat : How Foundations Can Use their Investments to Curb Climate Change

Climate change is already impacting the people, places and causes that foundations care about. Still, for a variety of reasons, philanthropy practitioners often struggle to translate their awareness and concern into action at the scale and pace that are required. For many foundations, responsible and sustainable stewardship of a foundation's assets that takes climate change into consideration and seeks alignment with a rapid and just transition to a net-zero economy, is an important part of addressing climate change. By surfacing the examples of three European foundations – which differ in shape, size and geographic location and do not have climate at the core of their mission – we hope to illustrate what this process can look like and some of the challenges and opportunities this creates. We hope this provides a valuable resource for foundations on their way to climate-aligning their investments.