Climate Justice Fund and Inclusiv leaders with EPA staff at the funding announcement // Courtesy of Hive Fund for Climate and Gender Justice

June 5 is World Environmental Day. This day was created to increase awareness and promote ways to protect and restore the Earth’s environment and resources. Since its inception in 1973, World Environmental Day has been led by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to help create a more sustainable world.

This year’s host for World Environmental Day is Saudi Arabia. It’s currently celebrated in more than 150 countries, and recent hosts have included Côte d’Ivoire (2023), Sweden (2022), Pakistan (2021) and Colombia (2020). This year’s theme is land restoration, desertification and drought resilience.

As more people become aware of the environmental crises that exist, more organizations are forming to continue to spread awareness, share tools, knowledge and resources to help make our planet safer and healthier, and become change agents for environmental justice.

In the United States, huge strides have been made as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced $20 billion in grants to finance clean energy and climate solutions across the country. Wins like these are the result of years, sometimes decades, of commitment from collective giving groups like giving circles and community-led collaborative funds who serve as early funders for grassroots initiatives. Hive Fund for Climate and Gender Justice and 1% for the Planet Individual Member Giving Circle are two examples of groups that exist to support, promote and fund change agents, primarily organizations led by and serving Black, Indigenous, and people of color. You will see some of their grantees featured below.

Air Alliance Houston
Air Alliance Houston believes in clean air for everyone, and works to reduce air pollution through advocacy, research and education in order to improve public health. Learn More

Acres of Ancestry
Acres of Ancestry is a cooperative ecosystem nonprofit rooted in Black ecocultural traditions and based on collective land tenure, spirit-culture reclamation, and ecological harmony. It provides financial support, training in agriculture, and non-extractive capital and legal support to land stewards with the goal of ensuring more secured land ownership and generational wealth building. Learn More

Black Outside
Black Outside’s mission is to reconnect African American youth to the outdoors through culturally relevant programming, education on Blacks in the outdoors throughout history, and exploring nature in its homebase of San Antonio, TX and the U.S. Learn More

Connective
Connective is a nonprofit in Houston that is transforming social services to be more human-centered, accessible and innovative, especially during disasters and crises, by instituting streamlined systems and partnering with local organizations, governments and nonprofits. Learn More

Deep South Center for Environmental Justice (DSCEJ)
The DSCEJ works within the Gulf Coast Region and along the Mississippi River Chemical Corridor to protect and improve the lives of children and families vulnerable to climate change and pollution. The nonprofit also provides training helping to create a pipeline of minority leadership in social, environmental and economic justice. Learn More

Family Agriculture Resource Management Services (FARMS)
A legal nonprofit that helps farmers and landowners retain their lost land in an effort to promote generational land ownership, FARMS provides youth education programs on innovative agriculture, estate planning, and land protection education and advocacy. Learn More

Healthy Gulf
Healthy Gulf aims to reverse the exploitation of natural resources and make the Gulf of Mexico the thriving ecosystem it once was through research, communications, and coalition-building tools that prevent extractive systems of production and over consumption, and promote regenerative, equitable economies. Learn More

The Human Impacts Institute
The Human Impacts Institute wants to make understanding climate change easier and accessible to communities. Its work includes inspiring meaningful impact for global climate change through events and programming on storytelling, education, exhibits and conversations. Learn More

Louisiana Bucket Brigade
The Louisiana Bucket Brigade’s mission is to create a healthy, pollution-free state and end the environmental damage being done to Louisiana caused by the petrochemical industry through grassroots action and community organizing to hold it and the government accountable. Learn More

New Communities Land Trust
New Communities Land Trust is a grassroots nonprofit that’s been around for more than 40 years with a mission to promote community empowerment for families in Southwest Georgia through social justice advocacy, agribusiness, education and economic development. Learn More

Nuestra Tierra Conservation Project
Nuestra Tierra Conversation Project works to make public land and conservation management decision making more inclusive and equitable for people who have been historically and deliberately excluded. It advocates for those marginalized communities to explore and enjoy the outdoors, and provides programs and services on community based conservation, and protecting cultural and historical land. Learn More

Power Coalition for Equity and Justice
The Power Coalition for Equity and Justice is a group of organizations building an integrated civic engagement strategy that helps to amplify Louisianians’ voices, empower the underrepresented, and provide knowledge and information to take action to improve their communities. Learn More

Taproot Earth
Taproot Earth is a nonprofit organization that addresses the climate crisis and works to transform systems that govern our land, energy, and water through divesting in policies rooted in U.S. and Global North extraction, and investing in paths that repair and build alternative models. Learn More

West Street Recovery
West Street Recovery aims to eliminate social, racial and political injustices through disaster recovery by building community power, amplifying inequalities and increasing access to better resources for marginalized people who are typically the one most harmed by disasters. Learn More

Women’s Earth & Climate Action Network
Women’s Earth & Climate Action Network is an international organization that aims to accelerate a global women’s movement that empowers women worldwide to protect and defend the Earth’s diverse ecosystems and communities by promoting and providing policy advocacy, on-the-ground projects, trainings, and movement-building for global climate justice. Learn More