A Powerful Boost for Climate Justice in the US South
A Louisiana family with solar panels provided by Hive Fund grantee partner Elevate. Credit Emma Baumgart
We’re excited to share that Hive Fund is among the organizations that received a significant gift from MacKenzie Scott this year. This investment affirms that the US South is central to global climate progress. Across the region, communities are driving bold solutions rooted in the real needs and visions of communities with the most at stake in the transition to a cleaner and more just energy future.
This one-time gift, totaling $60 million, will be distributed over the next three years. Along with additional funding we’ve raised from other donors, this contribution brings Hive Fund more than a third of the way toward our goal of raising $200 million by 2030. We are also thrilled to see many of our peers across the South and the climate justice sector included in this funding round, creating space for deeper alignment and collective visioning.
“This commitment is a testament to the leadership and vision of Southern communities who know the harms of our broken energy system — and the solutions to make it better,” said Hive Fund Co-Director Melanie Allen. “It opens up space to imagine what transformational investment in the US South can look like, in deep partnership with those closest to the work.”
MacKenzie Scott’s latest round of giving included more than $1.5 billion for collaborative funds — intermediaries like Hive Fund that serve as a bridge between money and movements. This signals a vote of confidence in the powerful role collaborative funds play in accelerating impact far beyond what any single funder can achieve alone. This is a powerful opportunity for funders to pool resources and align efforts in ways that will deliver real benefits — like lower electricity bills, cleaner air, better health, and good jobs — for communities that need it most.
This investment arrives at a pivotal moment. With communities under heightened attack and many funders pulling back from climate and justice work, this serves as a stabilizing force — not just for Hive Fund, but for the broader ecosystem. It will enable us to maintain and strengthen multiyear, flexible support so we can sustain the momentum we’ve built together with our grantee partners over the past six years, rather than scaling back support when communities need it most.
Participatory decision-making has always been central to Hive Fund’s DNA, and this will allow us to lean even more deeply into that approach. We plan to bring together staff, advisors, grantees, peers, and regional partners to identify transformational opportunities that were previously out of reach — like setting up a loan loss reserve to unlock financing for clean energy projects that were illegally defunded under the Inflation Reduction Act; or strengthening Southern green banks so more low-income households can access clean, affordable energy.
“Hive Fund has shown repeatedly that when you trust Southern leaders and resource them directly, it leads to lasting impact. This gift not only recognizes that but also invites all of us in philanthropy to match that urgency and scale,” said Lourdes Rodríguez, CEO of the David Rockefeller Fund. “Lasting systems change depends on long-term, sustained, patient funding. That’s why the David Rockefeller Fund doubled down this year with a five-year commitment to the Hive Fund. We are confident that they will use these investments creatively and fearlessly to advance new structures that meet the current moment.”
While this support provides much-needed stability, the scale of the work ahead remains far greater than any single donor or investment. Our partners continue to demonstrate they are experts of the pivot, finding creative new ways to advance clean energy projects and chip away at polluting industries. We hope that other funders will be inspired to help narrow the gap and expand what's possible in the last half of this decisive decade.