Put Your Money Where the South Is

Climate work in the US South, and particularly work led by women and gender-nonconforming people of color, has historically lacked the visibility and funding that it deserves. And yet we have seen firsthand what groups led by women of color and others on the frontlines have accomplished in some of the most politically challenging states with mere pennies on the philanthropic dollar. Now is the moment to turn our attention and resources to the US South. It's time to add zeros — many zeros — to the funding levels of organizations on the frontlines. We welcome new funding partners to co-invest in the powerful ecosystems of groups we support.

Funding Partnerships

As an intermediary, Hive Fund serves as a bridge between funders and high-impact groups working toward shared climate and equity goals. We offer our funding partners: 

Co-invest with us in these powerful organizations.

  • Place-based expertise and strategic grantmaking: We bring together the deep expertise of grantee partners, advisors, and staff — all based across the South — to co-create grant strategy, understand progress and challenges, and share learnings.  

  • Speed and scale of impact: We help funders move money quickly, effectively, and strategically. We have administrative and staffing capacity to make grants to numerous smaller groups in ways that foundations with more limited staffing can find challenging. 

  • Connectivity and coordination: We connect funders to prospective grantee partners they might not otherwise know about. We coordinate with aligned regranters to ensure that our efforts are complementary. 

  • Learning: We share insights, funding strategies, lessons learned, and participatory practices in hopes of learning together to fund organizations in ways that enable them to do their best work. 

Interested in making a donation or learning more about funding partnerships and aligned funding opportunities? Contact Strategic Partnerships Director Nandini Chaturvedula at nandini_at_hivefund.org.

Key Funding Opportunities

 

IRA Climate Justice Zones

Amid escalated attacks on federal funding, Hive Fund partners are preparing to defend and implement billions of dollars in shovel-ready clean energy projects and deliver on the promises of community-driven climate solutions. 

Atlantic Coast

Cleaner energy industries are poised to reshape the economic landscape of the Carolinas and Georgia, states that are also home to some of the country’s most important struggles for racial justice, democracy, and reform of monopoly utilities. 

Gulf South

The Gulf South is ground zero in the fight against dirty energy. Powerful networks of community, state, and regional groups are coming together stop the expansion of dirty energy industries and reduce their harmful pollution.

Emissions Outpace Climate Funding in the South

A third of the $900 million in annual US climate funding from foundations goes to groups working at the regional and state level. Of this state and regional funding, just 23 percent flowed to the Southeast and Texas in 2021, a region that accounts for nearly 40 percent of all US climate pollution.

Source: Climate and Energy Funders Group and 2022 emissions from the Rhodium Climate Deck.