How we work with the world's most effective climate charities
Giving to climate organizations is easy. But with thousands of climate organizations to choose from, it takes significant time, energy, and focus to identify the ways to create the most meaningful impactful. In this article, we share how we evaluate and work with the world's most effective climate charities to help donors make informed decisions about their giving.
Protecting our planet from climate damage might be one of the defining challenges of our time. Knowing that, you might wonder: why doesn’t Founders Pledge recommend a list of the world’s most effective climate charities?
The answer is because in climate philanthropy, the most impactful and high-leverage opportunities are often relatively small, proactive, and time-bound.
Many of the most cost-effective opportunities are nonprofits doing advocacy work during critical policy windows, with funding margins in the low millions. Even when we believe a grant to unlock that critical work is highly impactful, we can’t say for sure that the next $100M to the same organization would be equally good.
For donors who want to make sure your hard-earned dollars are well-spent, that can make evaluating effective climate charities a difficult space to navigate, since the landscape of cost-effective opportunities is constantly evolving and often requires actively co-building new projects.
At Founders Pledge, this is exactly the challenge our Climate Fund research team strives to solve. Rather than evaluating effective climate charities and recommending them on an ongoing basis, we operate a Climate Fund that finds uniquely high-impact opportunities or builds them with grantee organizations. We seek to find impactful ways to work with the most effective climate charities through active grantmaking and a robust evaluation methodology, helping philanthropists give with confidence.
How our Climate Fund works
Our evidence-led approach gives philanthropists confidence that their donations are directed toward opportunities with the greatest potential for impact. So far, our Climate Fund has received over $120M in contributions, of which we've granted more than $75M to high-impact funding opportunities from over 7,900 donors.
You can dive deeper into our impact in our 2025 Climate Fund Impact Report.
Ignaz Forstmeier, Co-Founder of Personio and a Founders Pledge member, shares:
"Climate change is a systemic problem, so solving it requires systemic thinking. What I appreciate about Founders Pledge is that their Climate research identifies the highest-impact opportunities and then enables donors to act on them collectively through the Climate Fund. I trust the research team to think critically and pursue the most effective strategies, and that's why I'm happy to support their work as a member."
Johannes Ackva, Climate Lead at Founders Pledge, shares:
"Climate is generally a well-saturated space, certainly compared to global health. So it's much much more difficult, we think, to find really promising opportunities. Creating those requires active climate grantmaking. This means not only just filling funding margins, but developing new programs with organizations acting globally, pulling funding in a way to have the highest impact. We believe that is the impact-maximizing strategy."
Climate Fund impact in action
We identify and create opportunities where philanthropic funding can have outsized influence. Our recent work includes strengthening climate policy and supporting clean energy innovation.
Innovation Initiative: $3.5M granted in March 2025
When Breakthrough Energy, the largest energy innovation policy funder, suddenly closed its policy program in March 2025, a vital ecosystem of innovation advocates risked collapse. Within less than a month, we deployed $3.5M to establish the Innovation Initiative, ensuring former staff could maintain critical innovation thought leadership, policy development, and coordination across the energy innovation advocacy ecosystem during federal budget threats.
European Geothermal Energy Council, Future Cleantech Architects, Cleantech for Europe: €350K granted in 2026
Europe's geothermal conversation isn’t appreciating the promise of next-generation geothermal technologies at sufficient depth. At the most fundamental level, the European Commission and member state policymakers have been operating with an outdated picture of what geothermal can deliver, as geothermal has been neglected in policy discussions in Brussels and European capitals and the surge in attention we have observed in the U.S. has not yet happened.
We're supporting a coalition to push for a much more ambitious European vision for geothermal, timed to the EU Geothermal Action Plan. We believe that the Iran crisis, with its profound effects on European energy security, provides a golden opportunity to increase the salience of geothermal, given it is a domestic energy resource that could reduce Europe’s dependence on imports in home heating, industrial heat, and electricity.
Start supporting high-impact climate charities
Whether you're ready to make your first climate donation or are looking to build a long-term philanthropic strategy, there are several ways to put evidence-led giving into practice with Founders Pledge.
1. Make a donation
Anyone can donate directly to the Founders Pledge Climate Fund. Your contribution is pooled with other donors and directed towards the highest-impact funding opportunities identified by our research team, allowing you to support evidence-backed climate solutions and high-impact active grantmaking with a single donation.
2. Take the Pledge
If you're an entrepreneur, changemaker, or philanthropist, taking the pledge with Founders Pledge is a commitment to dedicate a percentage of your personal proceeds to high-impact causes. As a member, you'll gain immediate access to our global community, events, research, and philanthropic advisory, helping you learn, connect, and build your giving strategy. Whatever stage you’re at - whether you're just starting up, deep in a Series B, or scaling globally - start your philanthropic journey with us.
3. Open a Donor Advised Fund
If you're looking for a flexible way to manage your giving, a Founders Pledge Donor Advised Fund allows you to quickly and easily contribute cash or other eligible assets and recommend grants to our high-impact funding opportunities. We'll take care of the processing, while giving you access to our recommended funds and advisory services to help shape a high-impact giving strategy. Our DAF is currently available to members and partners.