Support High-Impact Climate Solutions
This page shares our latest research and recommendations.
The Founders Pledge climate team identifies and invests in the most effective, underfunded opportunities in climate action.
Dive into our latest research
In our latest report Robust to Risk, we explore how we’re thinking about climate philanthropy in 2026 and beyond, during the most challenging moment for explicit climate policy in at least a decade.
Read this report if you want to:
- Understand how to navigate this uniquely challenging moment. We discuss strategies that protect against very real political risks, while simultaneously leveraging emerging opportunities and adapting to a changed world.
- Evaluate what actually happened in climate action—and how things went wrong. We trace the arc from unprecedented momentum (2018-2022) through emerging cracks (2022-2024) to today's reckoning (2025), examining not just the US but global patterns of climate backlash.
- See how effective climate philanthropy actually works in practice. We connect analysis to action, from defending the Loan Programs Office to building right-of-center coalitions to protecting Department of Energy capacity, to show what strategic positioning looks like on the ground.
- Identify specific, actionable opportunities that could move us toward decarbonization. We examine opportunities and risks around the world—the United States, European Union, China, OECD Asia, Emerging Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa—and show how to construct a portfolio that hedges against correlated risks while maximizing decarbonization impact.
Climate Report: Robust to Risk
Read the full report here: Robust to Risk: Building a Climate Giving Portfolio for a Turbulent 2026 and Beyond
Give to our top recommendation
Recommended Fund | Why we recommend them | How to give |
FP Climate Fund | At Founders Pledge, we recommend funds-based giving as the impact-maximizing choice for individual donors who lack the time and giving infrastructure to make decisions that expert- and research-driven grantmaking enables. Specifically for climate, we think the current moment is characterized by severe risks in all major world regions and a lack of “slam dunk” strategies. In response, we are executing a grantmaking strategy doubling down on “robust diversification”—building a robust portfolio under uncertainty about which risks will materialize—and tackling risks to climate progress heads on through a significant focus on reducing political risk in the US and beyond. | You can also contribute from any Donor Advised Fund. Reach out to giving@founderspledge.com for details. |
Why we recommend them
At Founders Pledge, we recommend funds-based giving as the impact-maximizing choice for individual donors who lack the time and giving infrastructure to make decisions that expert- and research-driven grantmaking enables.
Specifically for climate, we think the current moment is characterized by severe risks in all major world regions and a lack of “slam dunk” strategies. In response, we are executing a grantmaking strategy doubling down on “robust diversification”—building a robust portfolio under uncertainty about which risks will materialize—and tackling risks to climate progress heads on through a significant focus on reducing political risk in the US and beyond.
How to give
:::donationbutton{fundSlug="climate.fund" fundName="Climate Fund"} Donate to the Climate Fund :::
You can also contribute from any Donor Advised Fund. Reach out to giving@founderspledge.com for details.
Other giving recommendations
Recognizing that not everyone wants to give to a Fund, here are some other recommendations. These are “robust recommendations”: organizations we think of highly based on detailed analyses and their ability to absorb funding at various sizes and deliver impact over the years.
While we have granted to all of them from the Climate Fund, they are not necessarily the most typical Climate Fund grantees, given that we will often use the Climate Fund to make highly targeted grants or grants to organizations that cannot be easily supported by individuals.
Why we recommend them | How to give | |
Clean Air Task Force | We’ve been supporting CATF since 2018 and see it as the premiere advocacy organization in the United States systematically, focusing on underappreciated opportunities. They were one of the first environmental non-profits to work on advanced nuclear, have been working on enhanced geothermal since 2017 and also are at the forefront of methane abatement. | Support CATF. |
DEPLOY/US | As described in our write-up, we see DEPLOY/US as the best bet for donors who want to enable more bipartisan policy outcomes for climate and clean energy. We have been recommending DEPLOY/US since 2023 and, while the right-of-center field on climate and clean energy has certainly grown since, it still remains woefully underfunded compared both to the opportunity and necessity of correcting a large ideological blindspot of the climate movement that has come to bite in 2025. | Support DEPLOY/US. |
Innovation Initiative (I2) at the Clean Economy Project | The Innovation Initiative at the Clean Economy Project, led by former Breakthrough Energy staff, supports and coordinates organizations across the political spectrum advocating for clean energy innovation. We were one of their seed funders and have been recommending them since they formed in the wake of Breakthrough Energy’s shutdown. We see the Innovation Initiative as the best bet for donors who want to support federal energy innovation policy advocacy at a moment when this ecosystem needs coordination and strategic leadership. Federal innovation funding represents high-leverage climate philanthropy: relatively modest advocacy investments can influence billions in R&D spending that accelerates breakthrough technologies with global spillover effects. As we discussed in All In, we see this type of philanthropy as the sweet-spot of global leverage, high tractability, and high neglectedness. | To support the Innovation Initiative, email giving@cleanecon.org with the subject line "Donating to Innovation Initiative." |
Future Cleantech Architects (FCA) | We’ve been supporting Future Cleantech Architects since 2021 and see them as the most global-emissions-focused single organization in the European context. They are laser-focused on hard-to-decarbonize sectors and sectors where Europe can play an important role in supporting global decarbonization. The European context—while certainly also more challenging than before—remains a fruitful avenue for climate philanthropists seeking to diversify; see our Robust to Risk report for a detailed discussion. Over the course of 2025, we got to observe and validate further successes from FCA; we are convinced they played an important role in industrial heat and in the innovation component of the Renewable Energy Directive. | Support FCA. |
Energy for Growth Hub | We think of Energy for Growth Hub as a great option for those focused on the intersection of human development and energy and climate and one of the few orgs with demonstrable success in emerging economies. They have demonstrated successes making policy change happen; there’s an example in our Robust to Risk report as well. | Support Energy for Growth Hub. |
Why we recommend them
We’ve been supporting CATF since 2018 and see it as the premiere advocacy organization in the United States systematically, focusing on underappreciated opportunities. They were one of the first environmental non-profits to work on advanced nuclear, have been working on enhanced geothermal since 2017 and also are at the forefront of methane abatement.
As described in our write-up, we see DEPLOY/US as the best bet for donors who want to enable more bipartisan policy outcomes for climate and clean energy.
We have been recommending DEPLOY/US since 2023 and, while the right-of-center field on climate and clean energy has certainly grown since, it still remains woefully underfunded compared both to the opportunity and necessity of correcting a large ideological blindspot of the climate movement that has come to bite in 2025.
The Innovation Initiative at the Clean Economy Project, led by former Breakthrough Energy staff, supports and coordinates organizations across the political spectrum advocating for clean energy innovation. We were one of their seed funders and have been recommending them since they formed in the wake of Breakthrough Energy’s shutdown.
We see the Innovation Initiative as the best bet for donors who want to support federal energy innovation policy advocacy at a moment when this ecosystem needs coordination and strategic leadership. Federal innovation funding represents high-leverage climate philanthropy: relatively modest advocacy investments can influence billions in R&D spending that accelerates breakthrough technologies with global spillover effects. As we discussed in All In, we see this type of philanthropy as the sweet-spot of global leverage, high tractability, and high neglectedness.
We’ve been supporting Future Cleantech Architects since 2021 and see them as the most global-emissions-focused single organization in the European context. They are laser-focused on hard-to-decarbonize sectors and sectors where Europe can play an important role in supporting global decarbonization. The European context—while certainly also more challenging than before—remains a fruitful avenue for climate philanthropists seeking to diversify; see our Robust to Risk report for a detailed discussion.
Over the course of 2025, we got to observe and validate further successes from FCA; we are convinced they played an important role in industrial heat and in the innovation component of the Renewable Energy Directive.
We think of Energy for Growth Hub as a great option for those focused on the intersection of human development and energy and climate and one of the few orgs with demonstrable success in emerging economies.
They have demonstrated successes making policy change happen; there’s an example in our Robust to Risk report as well.
How to give
Support CATF.
Support DEPLOY/US.
To support the Innovation Initiative, email giving@cleanecon.org with the subject line "Donating to Innovation Initiative."
Support FCA.
Support Energy for Growth Hub.
