Giving Compass' Take:

• Philanthropy News Digest examines a recent report on philanthropy's insufficient funding towards efforts to address climate change. 

• Why should climate change mitigation receive such a hefty portion of philanthropic funding? How does addressing climate change effectively support marginalized communities? How can you be sure your giving helps fight climate change?

• Learn more about how you can spend your money to effectively address climate change.

Less than 2 percent of global philanthropic funding is dedicated to climate change mitigation, which, according to a report from the ClimateWorks Foundation, is not nearly enough to meet the scale of the global challenge.

The report, Funding Trends: Climate Change Mitigation Philanthropy, estimates that between $5 billion and $9 billion of the $730 billion in total global philanthropic giving in 2019 — including about $1.6 billion in foundation funding and between $3.4 billion and $7 billion in individual donations — was designated for efforts to address climate change. While funding for climate change mitigation from leading foundations with climate-focused programs nearly doubled between 2015 and 2019, U.S. foundations overall allocated no more than 2 percent of their grantmaking dollars to address climate change in 2016-17.

"Philanthropy can increase global ambition, support innovative solutions, scale proven mitigation strategies, and drive collaborative actions,"  the report's authors write. "Philanthropy can also take risks that the public and private sectors can't or won't take. It can support frontline advocacy, emerging but unproven breakthrough technologies, and unique collaborations that bring together voices from the public, private, and civil society sectors to solve the climate crisis."

"As funding for climate change mitigation increases, the deployment of those dollars needs to be calibrated across the areas most important to solving the climate crisis, accounting for emissions sectors, geographies, and societal implications," said Surabi Menon, vice president of global intelligence at the ClimateWorks Foundation.

Read the full article about how philanthropy must do more to address climate change at Philanthropy News Digest.