Giving Compass' Take:

• Climate and Land Use Alliance’s (CLUA) is an example of how collaborative philanthropic investment can tackle a complex issue. In this post, The Bridgespan Group explains other big bets in philanthropy that are doing the same. 

• How can more donors get involved in big bets in philanthropy through collective impact? 

• Jean Case explains the value of big bets in philanthropy. 

Climate change is among the most daunting social problems for philanthropists to address. The issue is global in scale, involves a very large number of stakeholders and regulatory environments, and must take into account the continually evolving scientific understanding of how to slow climate change and help communities and countries adapt to it. Even the biggest big bets from individual funders may seem insufficient to make a dent in the problem.

Even the biggest big bets from individual funders may seem insufficient to make a dent in the problem.

Since 2010, the Climate and Land Use Alliance’s (CLUA) five main funders (Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies, ClimateWorks Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, and The David & Lucile Packard Foundation) have committed more than a half a billion dollars to a set of common strategies, with $211 million of that total coming in 2018. 

Outside of their CLUA work, these funders pursue climate action with different strategies.But in CLUA, the funders are taking advantage of an opportunity to come together around a shared belief in land use as a climate change mitigation strategy.

 

Among its results to date, CLUA has been able to convince some of the world’s largest paper- and pulp-manufacturing companies to make zero-deforestation commitments.

CLUA demonstrates how collaborative philanthropy can bring together funders with different strategies but a common overall goal in order to focus large investments on a complex issue. Here are some other examples of big bets in philanthropy tackling larger problems:

  • Big Bet to the Bail Project (total grant size not public)
  • $39 Million to Opportunity Insights
  • $27 Million to the Susan G. Komen African-American Health Equity Initiative
  • $50 Million to TheDream.US

Read the full article about profile of big bets by The Bridgespan Group at Stanford Social Innovation Review.