One of the best things about my job as Director of Strategic Partnerships for Sierra Club is that I get to lead our Showing Up for the Movement Fund. We use the Fund to offer small grants to support work in and outside the environmental movement - it’s just one of the many ways we’re trying to show up for our partners all across justice movements. Sierra Club is one of the best-resourced grassroots organizations in the world, and our commitment to centering equity in all of our work means that we are always looking for ways to share the power, resources and influence that we have accumulated over our 125 year history.
Most of the organizations we support through the Showing Up for Movement Fund don’t have the national brand recognition and access to funders that Sierra Club does. By sharing our resources, we are attempting in a small way to level the playing field. At the same time, we’re also working to confront the structural inequities that created the massive funding gap between mainstream environmental groups to and environmental justice groups led by impacted communities, through Building Equity and Alignment for Impact. Check out their website to learn more about their work to build equitable relationships and expand the pool of resources for base-building organizations in people of color, Indigenous, and low-income communities that are achieving results on the frontlines of the climate and ecological crisis.
Along the way to that ultimate goal, we have the Showing Up for the Movement Fund. Here are just a handful of the projects we’ve been proud to support this year:
Honor the Earth works to create awareness and support for Native environmental issues and to develop needed financial and political resources for the survival of sustainable Native communities. With our support, they assisted the Haliwa-Saponi Tribe in conducting a Cumulative Impact Analysis on the Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) which is planned to be built on their ancestral territory.
Honor the Earth director Winona La Duke prepares for a protest against #Line3 with Sierra Club activists
Portland Just Energy Transition works to build a diverse grassroots movement to address the causes of climate disruption through justice-based solutions by inspiring, training and mobilizing people to act. With support from Sierra Club, Portland Just Energy Transition is supporting a ballot measure that would fund local and equitable investments in renewable energy in Portland and efficiency by imposing a tax on large corporations. If passed next year, the measure will create a local fund for environmental justice projects at a scale that is unprecedented anywhere in the U.S.
Portlanders rally in support of clean energy. Photo credit: Rick Rappaport
New Alpha Community Development Corporation exists to help communities of low- and middle-income families with environmental health and community economic development issues to empower and emancipate people in communities. Sierra Club provided significant support to their Justice 1st Tour, which calls for a strong network of grassroots and frontline organizations working together to advance climate justice and forest protection, with a focus on 100% clean energy for 100% of the people.
Justice 1st Tour
Hip Hop Caucus works to strengthen social, economic, and environmental. movements by empowering communities who are. impacted first and worst by injustice. We are supporters of their THINK 100% radio show, hosted by national civil and human rights, and environmental and climate leaders, Rev. Lennox Yearwood Jr., Mustafa Santiago Ali, and Grammy-Nominated Singer & Actress, Antonique Smith. Guests include leaders from communities on the front-lines of climate change, elected officials who are boldly leading, and cultural creators and artists who are reaching hearts and minds.
This is just a sampling - this year we were also proud to support Latino Victory Foundation, Pennsylvania United, GreenLatinos, Southwest Pennsylvania, Environmental Health Project, Hip Hop for Change, Indigenous Environmental Network, US Climate Action Network, WE ACT for Environmental Justice, Never Again - Colorado and ManPower DC through the Showing Up for the Movement Fund.
Sierra Club is showing up for these organizations not only because we seek to level the playing field and share our power, but also because we recognize that communities directly impacted by environmental injustice are the most effective in combating that injustice - when they have the resources to do so. With the financial support Sierra Club is able to offer because of our powerful fundraising network and access to the most privileged in our society, these groups can do things Sierra Club could never accomplish alone.