Deadline: 08-May-24

Applications are now open for the Climate Justice Resilience Fund (CJRF) under the theme Building connections, networks and collaborative spaces for climate justice and resilience.

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The Climate Justice Resilience Fund (CJRF) is one of the first major philanthropic initiatives explicitly framed around climate justice and one of the few working internationally on climate resilience. They put people, their rights and their lived experience directly at the centre of climate action. They envision a prosperous planet built on participation, equity, human rights and justice, where people who have been disproportionately affected by climate change issues are recognised and resourced to lead solutions and act on the emerging frontiers of climate justice. To this end, they fund locally-led, rights-based initiatives to help communities reduce risks, manage shocks, recover and continue to chart their path to development.

CJRF Donations Strategy 2024-25

• The new board has been working diligently since 2023 to transition the governance and grant systems. At the end of 2023, the board approved an 18-month strategy to mobilise up to 4 million dollars in funding by testing several different participatory grant-making methods.
• As a funder that has in the past awarded grants through traditional philanthropic methods and structures, CJRF is now investing in a period of exploration and learning. They will undertake a series of initiatives that will allow the staff and board to test various methods of participatory grantmaking throughout 2024-25, including:
  • a collective process of candidates, where the candidates will select the award winners;
  • network-driven grant-making processes in which current and former grant partners define strategic parameters, refer organisations for funding or otherwise drive grant-making;
  • a re-conceding collective;
  • potentially one or more other models
• They are excited to officially launch the first of these participatory grant pilots through this global open call for applications! This pilot will employ a collective applicant decision-making model, through which applicants will analyse proposals and decide on grant awards. Under this global call, the CJRF will award four grants totalling US$ 200,000. The grants are intended to be multi-year and flexible. If you are interested in being considered, please carefully review the following information about the process, criteria, eligibility and more.

Open Call Theme and Criteria

• In November 2023, the CJRF held two workshops with grant partners, board members and other members of the climate justice movement to discuss what a global open call for proposals might entail. From these workshops and subsequent board meetings came the decision to focus this first global open call of 2024 on the following theme: Building connections, networks and collaborative spaces for climate justice and resilience.
• Through this theme, the CJRF aims to equip organisations with the resources and tools to build relationships and structures for collective climate action. This collective action accelerates the momentum for change in communities, countries and the world. It strengthens movements, allowing like-minded local groups to learn from each other and partner for greater impact
• CJRF is prioritising the social and relational aspects of movement building for this open call. Some examples include: building coalitions, partnerships, networks, alliances and/or other relationships; facilitating conversations; creating shared advocacy plans and strategies; developing shared narratives or communications campaigns; skills and leadership development opportunities; organisational development; and curation work. They are looking for applications that can demonstrate the following:
  • A clear grassroots-led effort to build or strengthen climate justice movements, connecting diverse constituents, movements and/or types of organisation.
  • A convincing strategy to sustain and support climate justice movements in the long term.
  • A clear strategy to strengthen the voices of marginalised peoples and enable local actors to influence national and international decision-making.
  • A commitment to addressing intersecting forms of oppression.
  • A clear articulation of how your work supports people in building climate resilience.

Election criteria

• Entries for this pilot are accepted in French or English; entries in other languages will not be considered.
• Eligible candidates must have an annual organisational budget of between US$ 50,000 and US$ 2 million.
• Applicants must be constituent-led. In order for your group to be considered constituent-led by CJRF, at least 50% of your senior staff and board members must include the demographic your work is intended to benefit. For example, suppose a group wants to support Indigenous Peoples in climate justice work. If they had five board members and three senior staff, at least four of these individuals (50% of the total eight leaders) would have to be Indigenous. Priority will also be given to applications that demonstrate a specific mechanism for constituent ownership and accountability (e.g. elected governing body, membership rules).
• The CJRF will accept applications from organisations based in the Global South and indigenous-led organisations in the Global North. Specifically, the CJRF will support organisations based in East, West, Southern and Central Africa; Asia and the small island states of the Pacific; South West Asia and North Africa; Latin America; the Caribbean and Central, South and Central Asia and North Asia.
• The CJRF will also support indigenous-led organisations in Europe, Canada, New Zealand, Australia and the United States of America. Non-indigenous groups in these regions cannot apply.
• Due to organisational restrictions, the CJRF cannot award grants to organisations based in Afghanistan, Belarus, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia, Syria, Ukraine (Russian Occupied Territories), Yemen
• Organisations must be formally registered with the local or national government as a non-profit or charitable organisation.

For more information, visit CJRF .