Philanthropy is in the business of preventing and alleviating disasters. And plenty of those need addressing right now. A global pandemic has killed more than 120,000 Americans. The accelerating climate crisis resulted in the hottest May in history and an early start to what promises to be a catastrophic hurricane season. Then, this spring, these twin disasters converged with a simmering one: systemic racism.

First, the good news. Many foundations are making grants for media projects intended to address the dangers associated with climate change. Grant makers awarded $167 million in grants for a variety of environmental media projects and organizations from 2009 to 2019, according to a new report from Media Impact Funders, the organization I run. Those grants are substantial and appear to be growing. But the severity of the problem calls for a much larger investment, commensurate with the risk and the need to alert people to the catastrophe we face if we don’t take immediate action.

Raising up the voices of those often left out of the environmental movement should also be a key goal of grant makers.

“For far too long, the mainstream environmental movement has largely excluded these voices, especially low-income people of color, which diminishes our collective ability to create equitable, sustainable, and lasting transformation,” writes Crystal Hayling, executive director of the Libra Foundation in our new report.

She cites grantees such as Grist and the Indigenous Environmental Network as organizations that highlight and promote the contributions of people of color, providing a more complete and inclusive picture of the environmental realities facing these populations. She calls on grant makers to “advance climate justice by supporting organizations that uplift the stories of communities on the front lines of climate change.”

Read the full article about environmental and public health journalism by Vince Stehle at Media Impact Funders.