Mission
Our mission is to identify and engage with initiatives that will safeguard our planet and protect and enrich the life that exists on it.
The natural world is the life support system for all life on Earth, including humankind. To quote Attenborough, its loss is not just sad but disastrous.
Our aim is to protect the planet and its climate, both for humanity and nature's own sake, ensuring its sustainability for future generations, by focussing largely on projects that either encourage the burning of fewer fossil fuels or the protection and growth of carbon sinks.
Applications
We are very conscious of how time-consuming grant applications can be. In the first instance, please email us either with a brief introduction (and latest financials if possible/applicable) or your standard intro email.
Should we then wish to explore in more depth we would favour an initial call to chat about the work you are doing and/or proposing to do, what you hope to achieve within the landscape, what measurements you expect will represent impact and what external factors/systems you think might interact with and potentially affect your outcomes and objectives.
We ask all potential grantees about their policies (safeguarding, equality etc) so please be prepared to have these in place - or if you need help implementing we'd be happy to point you in the right direction!
We currently do not have application windows, seeking instead to respond to the needs of our partners as flexibly as possible.
Where possible we will seek to give feedback on applications that are not successful.
Historic
Established in 1975, the Kreitman Foundation has supported a number of areas over the years.
The current trustees came onboard more recently and began by focussing on the smaller area of gender norms in UK education (further background in our blog), initially driven by an interest in the LGBTI+ rights of children and young people and the desire to build trustee skills in an arguably smaller domain than climate.
The core focus of the foundation is now the climate crisis.
STRATEGY
Our strategy is generally split between critical intervention points which have a shorter-term time horizon to address, such as the two critical areas of carbon sink protection and the burning of fewer fossil fuels, and efforts that may bring about the broader change needed to protect our planet in the longer term.
Projects may include climate crisis mitigation initiatives such as; conservation, facilitating positive changes in human behaviour, funding climate justice, research, carbon sink/store protection, food systems, wildlife/biodiversity protection and movement building.
We endeavour to focus on areas where funding gaps most greatly exist, taking into account the types of projects and organisations best suited to our size, likely to be smaller initiatives but with the potential to achieve broader change.
We are especially drawn to projects that address multiple areas (e.g. the human rights of environmental defenders or carbon capture and biodiversity).
We do not have a predetermined idea on the duration of projects we support, though we are conscious of the time it can take to see landscapes change positively. Grant amounts are dependent on individual partner's needs but are typically £5,000 - £20,000.
For a flavour of the types of projects we generally support please see our Partners.
We also have a 'special interests' provision that allows for the potential to fund projects outside the above, however given these goals and the challenging economic environment, additional funding is likely to be limited.
We strongly believe that the above goals are also achieved through how our endowment is invested, which additionally touches on the areas of energy and innovation.
A note on the use of pooled funds
Experience has demonstrated to us that under the right circumstances, pooling funds can have the power to greatly increase impact.
By combining resources and expertise, funders with identical aims can reduce the duplication of workflows not only for themselves but their partners, as well as speeding up progress towards funding objectives.
This sharing of learning is also of huge strategic importance as it allows for strategies to be created from a less-isolated perspective, in turn making it easier and more likely to cover funding gaps. Without this collaboration, some areas could end up overfunded whilst others remain overlooked.
This increased efficiency also means more capacity, which can be used to broaden the range of organisations reached, enabling support to get to (often smaller, valuable) places that may not otherwise make the shortlist.
Another benefit is that it lessens risk, as the risk in funding unestablished, grassroots projects can be shared with others.
Lastly, it allows funders to engage in areas identified as strategically important but which their limited capacity may have previously prevented.
Obviously, selecting quality funders that align with our mission and values to collaborate with is critical - and we still largely maintain direct funding relationships with our partners - but we do see pooled funding as an important part of our overall funding strategy.