Catalyzing resilient solutions, scaled to meet the climate challenge.

CATF is a nonprofit organization dedicated to reducing atmospheric pollution through research, advocacy, and private sector collaboration.

Clean Air Task Force

The END Fund is the only private philanthropic initiative solely dedicated to ending the most common neglected tropical diseases.

Our Mission: To control and eliminate the most prevalent neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) among the world's most vulnerable communities and people by 2030. 


NTDs are a group of parasitic and bacterial diseases largely prevalent in tropical regions that currently receive little attention on the global health agenda yet have a significant impact hampering the potential of individuals and communities at large. The devastating effects of NTDs include irreversible blindness, severe disfigurement, stunted cognitive and physical development, especially in children, malnutrition, social isolation, and more. NTDs also cause 170,000 deaths per year. Their comprehensive impact on all aspects of daily life means that the presence of NTDs costs affected countries billions of dollars per year in lost productivity, out-of-pocket expenses, and reduced socioeconomic and educational attainment. 

Currently, 1.7b individuals are affected by such diseases. However, the treatments and knowledge required to eliminate these diseases are readily available, with the annual cost of treatment per individual averaging 50 cents per year. Demonstrating the uniquely cost-effective impact of NTD treatment, studies have shown treatment is the single most efficient means of improving children’s school attendance and capacity to learn. A recent report by Deloitte on Nigeria showcases the significant gains affected economies stand to make should NTDs be eliminated, with Nigeria’s economy estimated to receive an $18.9b boost from now until 2030. The report is available to view here - https://www2.deloitte.com/za/en/nigeria/pages/strategy/articles/Ending_The_Neglect.html

The END Fund helps ensure those at risk of NTDs need not experience such preventable suffering but can live healthy and prosperous lives instead. We do so by working in close partnership with stakeholders across the global NTD community to identify and fulfill gaps and needs in NTD funding, design programs, strengthen the capacity of local actors, provide technical support, and assist with monitoring and evaluation, amongst various additional activities. Our work helps children stay healthy and in school, prevents advanced cases that cause disability and restrain individuals' productive potential, and alleviates the disproportionate disease burden faced by women and girls, as well as the economic burden of disease on families. We have distributed more than 1.2b treatments since our founding in 2012, with 118m individuals treated in 2021 alone.

We envision living in a world in which all have the opportunity to achieve their full potential, with these diseases that have plagued humans for millennia confined to history once and for all.

The END Fund

Dedicated to the sustainable elimination of iodine deficiency worldwide.

According to the World Health Organization, iodine deficiency is the world’s most prevalent, yet easily preventable, cause of brain damage in children. Nearly 50 million people have stunted cognitive and motor development as a result. Severe stunting can be as bad as a loss of 15 IQ points, meaning children who don't get enough iodine struggle at school and in later life. The solution is simple, and has already been implemented in many countries: national level fortification of salt with iodine. IGN works with governments to implement such programmes. Despite not being directly related to schools, removing this barrier to healthy development is one of the cheapest and easiest ways to include children's educational outcomes.

Iodine Global Network

Protecting sight and fighting for disability rights

Sightsavers works in more than 30 countries worldwide, focusing on Africa and Asia.
We work with local, regional, national and international partners and governments. With their help, we distribute treatments to prevent disease, carry out eye operations, advocate for disability rights and improve health services to create sustainable development projects. 

Our vision is of a world where avoidable blindness is eliminated, and people with disabilities have the same rights as everyone else. We can only get there thanks to the generosity of our supporters, so we aim to be as transparent as possible so you can be sure your money is being used wisely.

Sightsavers

StrongMinds provides life-changing mental health services to women in Africa using innovative community-based group therapy.

According to the WHO, depression is the leading cause of disability worldwide, and is a major contributor to the global burden of disease. In Africa, an estimated 66M women have depression and 85% have no access to treatment. Since 2014, StrongMinds has treated over 200,000 individuals for depression symptoms, with 80% measuring as depression-free after therapy. When a woman recovers from depression, she is more engaged in the community and her economic activity increases. Her family eats more meals and her children go to school more often. When you invest in mental health, you invest in the future of an individual, their family, and their community.

StrongMinds Inc

Helen Keller, our co-founder, envisioned a world without barriers to human potential. We are continuing her work.


Helen Keller, our co-founder, envisioned a world without barriers to human potential. Guided by her fierce optimism, we have been working on the front lines of health and well-being for more than 100 years. We deliver life-changing health care to vulnerable families in places where the need is great, but access is limited. Our proven, science-based programs empower people to create opportunities in their own lives.


Helen Keller International

We provide cash incentives for childhood vaccinations. It’s one of the most cost-effective ways known to save lives.


Childhood vaccines prevent an estimated 2 to 3 million deaths every year. They are recognized as one of the most cost-effective child health interventions in low-income countries. Yet, an estimated 25 million children missed out on vaccination in 2021, 5.9 million more than in 2019 and the highest number since 2009. 

In Nigeria, 40% of under-five deaths are from vaccine-preventable diseases – low immunisation rates are a significant contributor to its high under-five mortality rate (111 deaths per 1,000 live births). 

See RCT findings here: https://www.newincentives.org/evidence

New Incentives

Supporting highly-impactful, evidence-based solutions to the triple challenge of climate change, air pollution and energy poverty.

## The Founders Pledge Perspective

Climate change is one part of a triple challenge surrounding energy production. Not only does most current energy production lead to damaging carbon emissions, the effects of which are devastating ecosystems and changing our planet beyond recognition, it also pollutes the air and leaves many of the world’s poor without sufficient energy. This adds up to an environmental and humanitarian crisis.

Thus, we face a triple challenge: we not only need to drive down carbon emissions to near zero by mid-century, and drastically reduce air pollution, but we need to do so while supporting work to reduce global poverty that will often be accompanied, or even driven, by increased energy consumption.

We aim to take a holistic approach that recognizes the global nature of this challenge, as well as the fact that, despite its urgency, we are still in the early days of climate action. This means that the solutions that we focus on will not only reduce emissions now, but will do so in a way that avoids future emissions, while also creating opportunities for the world’s poor and eventually ending energy poverty entirely.

We aim to do this in three ways:

- **Audacious advocacy**: By focusing our grantmaking on organizations leveraging large amounts of money through policy advocacy. There are highly effective organizations with budgets in the millions of dollars which have influenced government innovation budgets, orders of magnitude larger than their costs. By looking for opportunities with leverage like this, we can have an outsize impact.
- **Accelerating low-carbon innovation**: By finding and funding advocacy opportunities that strengthen the energy innovation eco-system or promote particularly neglected technologies. As the success of solar has shown for electricity, the availability of cheap, low carbon alternatives to our current energy sources can make a very significant difference. Efficient, low-cost technology can spread around the world without inter-governmental cooperation or expensive policies to spread around the world, making it a more robust strategy in a world where climate action will often not be the first priority of policy makers and the public.
- **Focusing on blindspots and bottlenecks**: By focusing on areas neglected by other stakeholders, we can ensure that fund dollars make as much difference as possible. While some technologies, such as solar, enjoy widespread popularity and significant policy support, this is not similarly true for other approaches, resulting in a huge imbalance in resource allocation. By finding and funding advocates for overlooked solutions, such as carbon capture and storage technology, we can ensure we are making the most of every tool available to us in the fight against climate change.

Managed by two members of the Founders Pledge Research team, the Climate Change Fund identifies and supports sustainable, evidence-based solutions to the “triple challenge” of carbon emissions, air pollution, and energy poverty.

## Our Approach to Grantmaking

When evaluating potential grants, we consider several key points:

- **Counterfactual impact**. Our grants are designed to create a meaningful outcome that would not otherwise have happened. In particular, we aim to make grants that otherwise wouldn’t have been made, rather than those which just take the place of other philanthropists’ donations. This means that you can rely on the Funds to create meaningful, real change, rather than just maintaining the status quo.
- **Impact-driven philanthropy**. The goal of this fund is maximal positive impact, irrespective of this impact being “sexy” or visible. This means we will focus on opportunities that others focused on clear attribution of their work or shiny outcomes might neglect. For example, we are very comfortable funding organizations to increase their general capacity and strategy when we perceive this as their bottleneck to higher impact, rather than being tied to specific outcomes or deliverables.
- **The organization’s funding gap**. Not all organizations are set up to scale up their programming and many can’t productively absorb large amounts of unsolicited funding. We evaluate all potential grantees’ capacity for growth and consider how much money they could put to good use.
- **Organizational strength**. Particularly with unrestricted funding, it’s important to have trust in the leadership and capacity of the organizations we support. We look at their track record of success and their transparency about failures as well as successes, and we only support those organizations which are exceptionally well run.
- **Time-critical opportunities and funding certainty**. While Founders Pledge members give to our top climate charities regularly, sometimes there are time-critical opportunities which require fast decisions. Or there are needs for certainty of funding streams to allow new hires and start new campaigns and programs. We will use the Fund to make grants that enable such short-term opportunities and stability for high-impact funding opportunities thereby increasing the impact compared to individual giving to specific organizations.
- **Portfolio approach**. Because most climate damage comes from particular severe outcomes – with a world of 4 degrees of warming being much worse than twice as bad as a world with 2 degrees – and because every particular strategy – such as energy innovation – might underdeliver, we pursue a portfolio approach to maximize positive impact. This means we will diversify our bets in ways that, when one approach fails (such as energy innovation), the others we promote (such as carbon removal) can be expected to be particularly important and still available. This maximizes the expected impact of your donation in a world characterized by huge uncertainty about the success of different high-impact solutions.

## Frequently-Asked Questions

**Can charities apply for money from the Fund?**

The Funds do not generally accept applications from charities. If the Fund Managers choose to open up an application round, this will be publicized. Charities are requested not to send unsolicited applications for funding.

**How frequently will you make grants from the Fund?**

Fund Managers will review grant-making decisions on a quarterly basis. Decisions will be made based on the value of Funds and the available options for high-impact grant-making. We may sometimes delay grant-making if we believe that waiting for more promising opportunities will be more impactful. Conversely, we may disburse funds outside of our quarterly review dates if we become aware of a particularly promising and time-sensitive funding opportunity.

**How will my contribution be used?**

All funds are granted out. The Fund is not an investment vehicle. The Fund does not use any percentage of contributions to cover staff time or other overhead costs. Every dollar contributed to the Fund will be used to make grants directly to end-user organizations creating a real difference.

## More Questions?

To learn more about the Founders Pledge Climate Change Fund, please visit [founderspledge.com](https://founderspledge.com/funds/climate-change-fund) or email the Fund Managers at [funds@founderspledge.com](mailto:funds@founderspledge.com).

Founders Pledge: Climate Change Fund

Developing the roadmap for a sustainable, secure, and just global protein supply 🧫🌱


Check out what your support makes possible at gfi.org/your-impact. 

The Good Food Institute (GFI) is a global network of nonprofit organizations developing the roadmap for a sustainable, secure, and just protein supply. Industry alone will not meet this challenge at the scale or speed we need. GFI is accelerating the transformation of the food system by identifying solutions and mobilizing resources to make alternative proteins the default way meat is made.

GFI is a network of nonprofits around the world strategically based in the most critical economies for alternative protein advancement. In Asia, Europe, Brazil, India, Israel, and the U.S., GFI’s teams are mobilizing the international community to use markets and technology to replace harmful practices with ones that are better for the climate and biodiversity, for food security, and for global health.

GFI’s Focus
As a nonprofit, GFI is uniquely positioned to accelerate the transition to alternative proteins by focusing on three programmatic priorities:

-Cultivating a strong scientific ecosystem | GFI’s science and technology teams map out the most neglected areas that will allow alternative proteins to compete on taste and price. GFI meets these challenges by developing open-access research and resources, educating and connecting the next generation of scientists and entrepreneurs, and funding research that benefits alternative protein development across the sector. 

-Influencing policy and securing government funding | GFI’s policy teams ensure that alternative proteins are a part of the policy discussion around climate change mitigation and global health. In every region where GFI has a presence, teams advocate for government funding and incentives to transition to alternative proteins and are paving the way for the approval of novel proteins such as cultivated meat.

-Ensuring industry prioritizes alternative proteins | GFI’s corporate teams are creating a transformation of our global meat supply. GFI works to replicate past market transformations by showing companies of all sizes, from startups to multinational corporations, how alternatives to animal products can be profitable while meeting environmental, social, and governance goals.

Reimagining meat
The very real threats of climate change, global food insecurity, antibiotic resistance, and pandemics require us to imagine a different future of food. Alternative proteins are the solution that will securely and sustainably feed the world.

GFI’s global community of scientists, policy experts, and corporate specialists are creating a world where alternative proteins are no longer alternative.



The Good Food Institute

Prevention, control and treatment of malaria and other communicable diseases  among vulnerable populations.

Our mission is to improve lives in Africa and Asia through sustainable, evidence-based programs  that combat targeted diseases and promote child and maternal health. 

We will accomplish this together with partners and all levels of government, by:

designing and implementing cutting edge research, surveillance and monitoring and evaluation;
selectively scaling up and delivering sustainable evidence-based health programmes;
providing technical assistance and consulting services that shape and strengthen national and international health policies, strategies and systems and build local capacity;
seeking to ensure that our experience, thought leadership, practical findings and research results are effectively communicated and contribute to the coordinated improvement of access to and quality of healthcare. 
Our areas of expertise include: 
disease prevention, diagnosis and treatment
disease control and elimination
health systems strengthening
research, monitoring and evaluation leading to best practice
behavior  change communication
national and international advocacy, and policy development


Malaria Consortium

Founders Pledge is a global nonprofit empowering entrepreneurs to do the most good possible with their charitable giving. 

We equip members with everything needed to maximize their impact, from evidence-led research and advice on the world’s most pressing problems, to comprehensive infrastructure for global grant-making, alongside opportunities to learn and connect. We’re grateful to be funded by our members and other generous donors. 