Trying to make sense of the sorrow and frustration and anger I felt after watching "When They See Us" and learning more about the injustice that befell the Central Park Five.

I want to be part of the movement to support girls in STEM fields!

Works to exonerate innocent people through DNA testing and reform the criminal justice system to prevent injustice.

The Innocence Project was founded in 1992 by Barry C. Scheck and Peter J. Neufeld at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University to assist prisoners who could be proven innocent through DNA testing. More than 350 people in the United States have been exonerated by DNA testing, including 38 who pleaded guilty to crimes they did not commit and 20 who served time on death row. The Innocence Project provided direct representation or critical assistance in more than 200 exonerations.   The Innocence Project’s full-time staff attorneys and Cardozo clinic students provide direct representation or critical assistance in most of these cases. The Innocence Project’s groundbreaking use of DNA technology to free innocent people has provided irrefutable proof that wrongful convictions are not isolated or rare events but instead arise from systemic defects. Now an independent nonprofit organization closely affiliated with Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University, the Innocence Project’s mission is nothing less than to free the staggering numbers of innocent people who remain incarcerated and to bring substantive reform to the system responsible for their unjust imprisonment.  With the generous support of individuals like you the Innocence Project has exonerated scores of innocent people and worked around the country to reform our criminal justice system. With the generous support of individuals like you the Innocence Project has exonerated scores of innocent people and worked around the country to reform our criminal justice system.

Innocence Project

We want to live on a healthy, peaceful planet.

A planet where forests flourish, oceans are full of life and where once-threatened animals safely roam. Where our quality of life is measured in relationships, not things. Where our food is delicious, nutritious, and grown with love. Where the air we breathe is fresh and clear. Where our energy is as clean as a mountain stream. Where everyone has the security, dignity and joy we all deserve. It’s all possible. We can’t make it happen alone, but have no doubt: We can do it together.

Greenpeace's mission is to expose global environmental problems, and promote solutions for future generations. Greenpeace Fund Inc, is a separate non-profit organization set up to continue the vital work of Greenpeace by increasing public awareness through research and education. We are the leading independent environmental organization in the world, and accept no money from governments or corporations.

Greenpeace Fund

Together, we can preserve the rainforests, protect the climate and uphold human rights.

Rainforest Action Network preserves forests, protects the climate and upholds human rights by challenging corporate power and systemic injustice through frontline partnerships and strategic campaigns.

RAN works toward a world where the rights and dignity of all communities are respected and where healthy forests, a stable climate and wild biodiversity are protected and celebrated.

We are committed to doing what is necessary, not only what is considered politically feasible, to preserve rainforests, protect the climate, and uphold human rights.

Our commitment to fairness and equity demands that we treat each other, fellow activists, and community partners with honesty, respect and dignity and that we are accountable to these relationships.

We are committed to working with Indigenous communities and frontline communities directly impacted by profit-driven systems of injustice. We support the leadership of these communities in working on strategic and effective solutions to protect people and the planet.

We believe creativity, integrity and people power drive the success in our campaigns and in our organization; while compassion, irreverence, and a celebration of life’s possibilities drive the commitment to our mission.

We are a collaborative organization that challenges corporate power and exposes institutional systems of injustice in order to drive positive systemic change.

Rainforest Action Network

The Nature Conservancy is a global environmental nonprofit working to create a world where people and nature can thrive.

The Nature Conservancy

Empowering young women of color ages 7-17 to embrace the current tech marketplace as builders + creators.

Black Girls CODE is devoted to showing the world that black girls can code, and do so much more. By reaching out to the community through workshops and after school programs, Black Girls CODE introduces computer coding lessons to young girls from underrepresented communities in programming languages such as Scratch or Ruby on Rails. Black Girls CODE has set out to prove to the world that girls of every color have the skills to become the programmers of tomorrow. By promoting classes and programs we hope to grow the number of women of color working in technology and give underprivileged girls a chance to become the masters of their technological worlds. Black Girls CODE's ultimate goal is to provide African-American youth with the skills to occupy some of the 1.4 million computing job openings expected to be available in the U.S. by 2020, and to train 1 million girls by 2040.

Black Girls CODE

Works to educate, inspire, and equip young women with the skills and resources to pursue academic and career opportunities in computing fields.

Girls Who Code is a national nonprofit working to close the gender gap in the technology sector. Its programs work to educate, inspire, and equip high school girls with the skills and resources to pursue opportunities in computing fields.

Girls Who Code

Together, we create science-based solutions for a healthy ocean and the wildlife and communities that depend on it.

You love the ocean as much as we do, and we can’t protect it without you.

A healthy ocean means more than beautiful coasts and vibrant ocean wildlife. If the ocean isn’t healthy, neither are we. Because the food we eat, the water we drink and the air we’re breathing this very second comes from our ocean.

Our work is focused on solving some of the greatest threats facing our ocean today. From the Arctic to the Gulf of Mexico, we bring people, science and policy together, to champion innovative solutions and fight for a sustainable ocean.

That’s why for over forty years we’ve worked to protect vital ecosystems, defend critical legislation, enforce accountability of leaders and legislators and rally the world’s largest effort to remove trash from our beaches. Because a healthy ocean means a healthy planet.

Ocean Conservancy

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

Working for a world where all girls can learn and lead without fear.

With more than 130 million girls out of school today, here’s how we’re breaking down barriers that hold girls back.

Through our Education Champion Network, we invest in local educators and advocates — the people who best understand girls in their communities — in regions where the most girls are missing out on secondary school.

We advocate — at local, national and international levels — for resources and policy changes needed to give all girls a secondary education. The girls we serve have high goals for themselves — and we have high expectations for leaders who can help them.

We believe girls should speak for themselves and tell leaders what they need to learn and achieve their potential. We amplify girls’ voices and share their stories through Assembly, our digital publication and newsletter.

Malala Fund

Spearhead lifesaving initiatives and assist grassroot animal activists worldwide.

Advance the safety and well-being of animals. Through outreach, rescue and educational programs SPCA International spearheads lifesaving initiatives and assists grassroots animal activists worldwide. 

SPCA International

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. 

Founders Pledge

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Co-founder & Head of Product @ Every.org. Especially excited by small nonprofits doing big things for underprivileged people and our planet.