Looking Ahead to Hive Fund's Next Chapter

A message from Hive Fund Co-Director Erin Rogers

With a heart full of gratitude, I’m writing to share some big news: after eight amazing years of helping to build and run Hive Fund, I’ll be transitioning out of my co-director role at the end of this year. Although leaving our tight-knit community will be bittersweet, I’m feeling the pull to create space for new senior leadership at Hive Fund and to find new ways to contribute to movements for justice. I’m excited that my visionary partner-in-purpose and co-director, Melanie Allen, will move into the role of CEO to keep leading the organization toward our goal of building power to accelerate the transition to climate and energy justice.

It has truly been the highest honor of my life to be one of many co-conspirators collectively constructing this buzzing, bustling hive. In 2018, an incredible design team of movement leaders and funders came together and set our focus on the South — a region overflowing with vision and possibility, but severely lacking in philanthropic support. When Melanie and I became co-directors in 2019, we immediately brought together Southern frontline leaders to establish our values, which continue to guide our approach to grantmaking to this day. Every year since then, our place-based staff have co-created grant strategy with our network of more than 160 grantee partners and local advisors, charting stronger and more impactful paths forward than any of us could have found alone. I’m especially proud that, together with more than 65 funding allies, we’ve shown by example how philanthropy can effectively support solutions that move us toward cleaner and fundamentally more just energy systems.

As Hive Fund celebrates our six-year mark, we’re calling 2025 our year of metamorphosis — a time to fine-tune our systems and strengthen our team structures to better serve a staff of 11 and our evolving participatory approach to grantmaking. Our model of shared leadership has positioned us well for a transition like this, and we’re excited to bring in new vision, voices, and energy to carry the work forward for a departing founder. I’ll be transitioning out of the organization at the end of the year, but will stay engaged into 2026 to advise and support as needed. After some rest and regrouping, I’ll be looking for ways to spread my wings and re-engage in new ways in support of our democracy and climate justice.

I’ll close for now with a giant thank you to Melanie, our staff, our past and current advisory board members, our funders, our grantee partners, and all the trusted mentors and partners who’ve supported us along the way. The richness of all of these relationships has changed my life in profound ways. Under the stewardship of these powerful leaders, I can’t wait to see the ways in which the Hive Fund thrives and our grantee partners succeed. Our country needs that now more than ever.

In solidarity,

Erin Rogers

Reflections from Advisory Board Chair Tamara Jones

After an exceptional tenure, Erin Rogers, Hive Fund’s co-founder and co-director, will transition from her role in December 2025. On behalf of the advisory board, I want to express my deep gratitude to Erin for her extraordinary contributions to building Hive Fund into the strong, vibrant organization it is today.

Bolstered by Erin’s leadership, in our first six years Hive Fund has granted over $100 million to more than 160 organizations in Texas, Louisiana, Georgia, the Carolinas, and across the South. We’ve helped seed or scale four of the South’s five green banks, opening new pathways for clean energy to reach low-income communities. We’ve backed our partners as they stopped and slowed the expansion of dozens of polluting facilities, translating into tangible relief for communities and significant carbon emissions avoided. This year, we’re on track to re-grant more than $20 million to groups accelerating the transition from dirty to clean energy in ways that center justice, redistribute power, and create healthier, safer, and more prosperous communities.

So much of this impact is thanks to Erin’s bold vision, authentic relationship-building, and strategic expertise, among many other talents. Day in and day out, Erin has brought her passion, creativity, and skills to advance our mission.

Erin is leaving us in the capable hands of her co-director and co-founder, Melanie Allen, who will transition into the role of Hive Fund’s CEO. Melanie will continue leading alongside our talented and growing team of staff, advisors, and grantee partners as Hive Fund enters this exciting new chapter.

Please join me in extending our deepest gratitude and well wishes to Erin as she embarks on her next adventure.

With gratitude,

Tamara Jones
Advisory Board Chair

Hive Fund Co-Directors Erin Rogers and Melanie Allen (center) with Hive Fund’s advisory board at their first meeting in Houston, February 2020.

Reflections from Co-Director Melanie Allen

After six incredible years of learning and leading alongside Erin, I want to take this opportunity to honor her, reflect on what we’ve built together, and share a bit about what’s ahead.

Erin and I first connected through a series of long-distance phone calls — me under a tree outside my home in North Carolina, her under another tree 3,000 miles away. What started as polite conversation quickly found its way into something deeper: a shared commitment to communities in the US South who’ve long been at the forefront of social change.

That commitment has been the heartbeat of Erin’s leadership at Hive Fund. She’s led our work supporting frontline leaders in the Gulf South, where communities have long endured the harms of the polluting oil and gas industry. Thanks in part to Erin’s vision, funders in Texas and Louisiana have come together in new ways, moving more resources for climate justice than any one of us could have alone.

I couldn’t be more excited or more honored to lead Hive Fund into this next phase as CEO. We’re more committed than ever to mobilizing resources for movements fighting climate pollution and accelerating the transition to cleaner energy in the US South. This moment calls us to work in even greater solidarity with others who are breaking down silos and working across sectors to counter authoritarian forces. We’ll continue to be in deep relationship with our grantee partners as they defend fundamental rights and build power for a more just and resilient future for all.

It’s been a gift to call Erin my partner-in-purpose. Together with Southern partners, we helped turn a bold idea into a transformational fund that recognizes and resources visionary leaders who’ve too often been overlooked and undervalued. I’ll miss working alongside Erin day to day, but I know her next chapter will be full of the same beauty and magic she brought to Hive Fund.

Please join me in celebrating Erin — for her bold leadership, deep care, and lasting impact.

Sincerely,

Melanie Allen

Guest UserSeptember 3, 2025