Neither the Tube Nor Philanthropy Was Built for This Heat

Just over two weeks before I arrived in London for Climate Action Week (LCAW), we published the first-ever State of the Movement report, our first look at how Philanthropy for Climate has helped foundations move from intention to action. Six years after 14 foundations made a public call to their peers to act on the climate emergency, that call has grown into a network of nearly 1,000 foundations turning commitment into action. I went to LCAW wanting to test our findings against a wider set of actors. Much of what I heard reinforced what our movement is seeing.

A week that mirrored the moment

London was in the middle of a heatwave that its infrastructure, and most of its attendees, simply weren’t built for. Aside from being LCAW’s very own deeply depressing metaphor, it was also hard not to see the parallel: many of our systems, including philanthropy, were built on assumptions of a world order that no longer exists. The heat also split the attendees in a telling, and uncomfortable way: while many of the European and North American attendees visibly struggled with the conditions, colleagues from the Global South reminded us that these temperatures are something they have been living with for some time. A physical confirmation that urgency is not felt equally, and some of us are only now catching up to what others have been experiencing for years. 

While it was my first time at LCAW, I heard from many that this year was different. Longtime attendees said it was busier than they’d ever seen it, while newcomers said they’d chosen London over New York Climate Week this year because of growing restrictions and climate opposition in the US. The centre of gravity is clearly shifting, with regional climate weeks around the world becoming increasingly important in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, where discussions are localised. This resonates with a shift that philanthropy as a sector must advance too: breaking down funding silos, centring local community voices, directing resources to those on the ground and moving from commitment to ambitious action. It was exciting to see the space growing, but a familiar frustration sat alongside that excitement: too many conversations echoed ones I’ve heard for years. While I left London encouraged by real shifts in tone, I was still equally aware that none of it is moving fast enough.

The power of movements and networks in protecting and sustaining climate action

As I took the sweaty tube from session to session, I found real reassurance in the shape of the discussions within philanthropy. Since we have mostly moved from discussions of “why should we engage on climate?” to “how do we engage effectively,” the conversations are more focused on action. The range of philanthropic actors in the room, from health, education, democracy, justice, equity funders and more, alongside climate-focused foundations, was encouraging, and the work it took our sector to get here deserves recognition. It’s a sign that Philanthropy for Climate‘s core mission of supporting foundations to integrate climate considerations into their work, rather than treating it as an independent program area, is landing. The siloed approach of our sector was never built to reflect the lived reality of the people we serve, and the movement exists to change that. This is progress that is putting us on a path towards transformative philanthropy.

Progress and all our collective climate gains were central to many of the conversations I was in, and the tone was more anxious than it was celebratory. While the urgent need for more progress remains, we also must now worry about protecting what’s already been built. A question that came up a few times was: How do we preserve, protect, and strengthen the institutions, infrastructure, and enabling conditions that have made climate progress possible, while we also safeguarding the gains we’ve made in political landscapes that are becoming increasingly restrictive? This idea of protecting and sustaining climate action feels more front of mind now than in years.

And weakening multilateralism is one of the things that sits at the centre of that anxiety. The systems many of us assumed would hold are increasingly failing to deliver, which means that protective work is falling to us. As Luiz de Andrade, COP30 Presidency’s Climate Finance Coordinator, put it: “Even though we know the challenges, we’re still struggling to handle the complexity of a fragmented world after thirty years of assuming multilateralism would hold”. In that gap, networks and movements are doing real work, not by replacing multilateral action, but stitching together what it can’t reach. That’s exactly the role our report shows Philanthropy for Climate playing: infrastructure for collective action, at a moment when strong, connected and well-resourced networks and platforms are essential to coordinate, sustain and scale collective action.

A collective focus on implementation

COP30 has lit a spark toward implementation, and I felt that everywhere in London. It’s no longer enough to talk about what philanthropy can do. People want shared targets, real tracking, and data showing that implementation is actually happening and not just being promised.

That push extends to how philanthropy sees its own role – it is more than just money, and as a sector, we need to further implement our unique value proposition and show policymakers and the private sector what philanthropy’s value looks like in practice, not just principle. Our recent report shows that foundations are increasingly moving beyond grantmaking into influence, learning, convening, and action. It’s no longer just about what philanthropy funds, but about how funding is generated and flows, and whether it’s willing to use its capital, convening power and influence to strengthen the conditions for sustained and inclusive change.

The answers lie at the local level

During a session at Global South House, Maria Amalia Souza, founder of Casa Socio-Environmental Fund, said: “moving money to the grassroots is like oxygenating the roots of a community.” That idea of oxygenating the roots is helpful. We are failing to drive resources, connections, and visibility to the roots of climate action: the local communities who hold the solutions and knowledge to combat the climate crisis. We don’t need new ideas. We already have a wide range of proven, implementable solutions, but these remain unevenly resourced, missing the connective tissue between them, and lacking the global visibility they deserve. What’s missing is investment in the networks, relationships, and local institutions that let those solutions spread, adapt, and scale. Strengthen the roots, and the impact follows.

This is exactly how Philanthropy for Climate is structured: with local philanthropic organisations as leaders at its centre, driving action from within their own contexts. Our report’s findings highlight that locally-led commitments are proving to be one of the most powerful levers for shifting how philanthropy actually operates; not through top-down projects, but action that is locally informed and contextually relevant.

My time in London made two things clear. First, that philanthropy, like the Tube that week, was built on assumptions about a world that no longer exists, and pretending otherwise is no longer an option. Second, that collective action, the kind our movement is built on, is exactly what lets us keep moving and stay resilient when these old assumptions stop holding. If you’re a foundation or philanthropy support organisation looking to break down those old assumptions and start, grow, or strengthen collective climate action, Philanthropy For Climate exists to help make that happen. Join us.