Dear Colleagues,
The sky is on fire from wildfires raging out of control across the entire Western region. The devastation to land, homes, wildlife and lives is unprecedented.
Flash back to our Women Funded 2019 Conference held in San Francisco almost exactly a year ago, when speakers, including global climate experts and environmental justice leaders like Mary Robinson, warned us about the exact situation we currently face. Robinson also noted that women are at the center of this global environmental crisis — both in bearing the brunt of the impact and holding the solutions to ending climate change.
Thanks to women’s leadership, cross-sector nonprofit organizations and reproductive justice leaders are addressing climate change as a reproductive justice issue. They are calling attention to the intersections between climate change and women’s and girls’ health. They are exposing health impacts like the link between extreme heat and health risks for pregnant people. They are addressing clean water access as an issue with both reproductive and overall health implications. Perhaps most importantly, they are making the intersectional connections between sexism, racism, classism and climate change.
Just last year Global Greengrants Fund and Prospera International Network of Women’s Funds released a comprehensive report titled, “Our Voices, Our Environment: The State of Funding for Women’s Environmental Action” which found that women’s funds provided more than half of all grants awarded for women and the environment.
Women’s foundations and efforts like The Hive Fund for Climate & Gender Justice are providing the support that makes possible these intersectional, women-of-color-led conversations and gender-lens approaches to the climate crisis we face. Women — especially women of color — are the bright light leading us out of this man-made disaster.
Thank you for supporting the innovative leadership of women across the country and around the world. Your visionary philanthropy is enabling the most promising solutions for our planet.
It is a privilege to stand with you as we all work for environmental justice and to reverse climate change.
Yours for equity and justice,
Elizabeth Barajas-Román
Women’s Funding Network
President & CEO