“Climate isn’t my lane” is one of the most common things we hear from funders. Most giving strategies are built around one cause, and climate feels like someone else’s line item.
But every cause that philanthropy cares about is shaped by the impacts of climate change.
A few examples:
Heat and air pollution worsen asthma and heart disease.
Floods and drought disrupt education for children globally.
Extreme weather strains food banks, shelters, and water systems.
Climate change increases security risks for women and girls.
Wildfires and disasters threaten cultural heritage.
Disasters are increasing demand for faith-based resources and community services.
Treating those problems without touching climate means those causes are even more exposed.
So if you care about health, education, or hunger, climate is how you protect the work. You keep funding your cause, and you add climate to defend it.
Progress, with an asterisk
According to the 2026 ClimateWorks Funding Trends report, climate giving represented only 2.1% of all global philanthropy in 2024. It’s the first time on record that it crossed the 2% threshold, so in a way, it’s progress*.
But if climate shapes the success of nearly every other philanthropic priority, then 2% of philanthropy isn’t even close to where it needs to be.
The ClimateWorks report captures this well:
“As these crises converge, so too do the solutions. Climate solutions are helping to boost economic development and competitiveness, and protect lives and livelihoods.”
If a stable climate shapes whether grants succeed, it can’t stay in a box marked ‘someone else’s problem.’
Putting climate in your portfolio
Wherever you give, there’s a climate group sitting one step upstream. A few to start with:
If you fund policy or civic engagement, consider Carbon Removal Alliance. It builds the policy and market conditions that let climate solutions scale, the same lever civic funders already pull for other causes.
If you fund public health, consider Global Methane Hub. Methane is the fastest lever on near-term warming, which is driving the heat and air-quality damage already showing up in health budgets.
If you fund economic development, jobs, or energy access, consider RMI. It works with businesses, utilities, and governments to build a cleaner, more affordable energy system.
If you don’t know where to start, or you fund broadly, consider ClimateWorks Foundation. It connects funders and implementers, routing capital to the strongest bets across the field.
Terraset touches each of these causes, but we sit one step earlier in the chain. We pre-purchase carbon and superpollutant removal before markets are ready to back it, so that a project gets funded before it has to prove itself. That’s where the leverage shows up: since 2022, we’ve seen that each dollar we deploy in philanthropic capital unlocks more than $5 in private investment.
The next step
You don’t have to become a climate funder to fund climate. You just have to see it as part of the portfolio you’re already running.
We can help you do that. Email us at hello@terrasetclimate.org and we’ll find some solutions that support the work you’re funding.
*The 2.1% figure is from 2024, the latest year with complete data; 2025 and 2026 data is still unknown.