Comments on: The Post-Copenhagen Funding Landscape: Thoughts from Rachel Leon and Terry Odendahl http://blog.philanthropynewyork.org/2010/02/12/the-post-copenhagen-funding-landscape-thoughts-from-rachel-leon-and-terry-odendahl/ Wed, 21 Dec 2011 22:01:01 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: SmallChangeFund.org | Reflections on Copenhagen, climate change, and the power of small grants. http://blog.philanthropynewyork.org/2010/02/12/the-post-copenhagen-funding-landscape-thoughts-from-rachel-leon-and-terry-odendahl/comment-page-1/#comment-531 Thu, 18 Feb 2010 20:48:45 +0000 http://blog.philanthropynewyork.org/?p=1380#comment-531 [...] to climate. Every small and large effort can make a difference.” Read the full article here. SCF Privacy & Comment Policy (function($){ $('a#comment-policy').click(function() { [...]

]]> By: Stephen Viederman http://blog.philanthropynewyork.org/2010/02/12/the-post-copenhagen-funding-landscape-thoughts-from-rachel-leon-and-terry-odendahl/comment-page-1/#comment-513 Tue, 16 Feb 2010 18:34:15 +0000 http://blog.philanthropynewyork.org/?p=1380#comment-513 By way of background, I am the retired president of the Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation, have been on the board and finance committee of the Needmor Fund, and am now on the finance committee of the Christopher Reynolds Foundation. I have been working in philanthropy and mission investing for almost 20 years.

What saddens me about the recap is that the talk is still about grantmaking as the way foundations can impact climate change. Yes, grants are important. But so too are investments from endowments for clean tech and water, and other market efforts to reduce greenhouse gases and related issues.

Investing in climate change is good investing for financial return and climate return. See, for example, Investing in Climate Change 2010: A Strategic Asset Allocation Perspective (January 2010) by Deutsche Bank Climate Change Advisors.

The recent report on climate funding from the Foundation Center also omitted any discussion of investments. And a quick review of the top 25 climate funders suggests that very few are using their assets in addition to grantmaking.

In my response to the 2007 report Design to Win: Philanthropy’s Role in the Fight Against Global Warming (which was published in The Chronicle of Philanthropy in 2008) I reviewed all of the ways that assets could be used by foundations. The response was deadening. It is sad that now that climate investing is part of the mainstream for investors, foundations still avoid it. Perhaps we could have a session specifically on that?

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