Reflections from the Pacific Rising convening on presence, power, and responsibility in climate philanthropy.
Over the past year, through conversations and shared spaces with grassroots partners across the Bay of Bengal, East Africa, and the Pacific islands, the Climate Justice Resilience Fund (CJRF) has returned again and again to one realization: for communities living with climate harm, funding alone does not meet the moment. How we fund, and how we show up, matters just as much.
This reflection is not about proposing a new model. It is about naming what we are learning about accompaniment, and why it must be treated as central to climate justice funding, not an afterthought.
What Changes When We Show Up
There are things we learn only by being with partners, not by working at a distance. Through CJRF’s Loss and Damage portfolio, we spent time with partners through in-person visits and learning convenings. In these circles, different kinds of stories surfaced: stories of fear, frustration, and fatigue, but also of quiet resilience and determination. These emotions rarely appear in reports, yet they shape the work itself.
Being together went beyond observation. No report could have conveyed the heartbreak of a family leaving cattle behind, losing access to local markets, or watching burial grounds wash into the sea. We were reminded that relocation is not simply about moving houses, it is the loss of clan systems, social structures, and collective memory.
We learned that for our partners, ‘adaptation’, ‘resilience’, and ‘loss and damage’ are not separate technical agendas, they are lived together. Whether it is preserving canoe carving skills in the Pacific or folk music traditions in the Sundarbans, these are not secondary concerns, they sit at the core of their belonging and dignity.
When we first attended these convenings, we worried our presence as a funder would stifle the conversation. However, we found that when funders enter a space without trying to manage the outcome, power shifts. Trust becomes possible. While being present doesn’t completely remove power differences, it allows us to bear witness to local expertise that reports often overlook, shifting the focus to our partners’ own knowledge and expanding the boundaries of what can be discussed.
Funding as a Practice of Accompaniment
What our partners are asking for is not just resources, but accompaniment. Accompaniment is the practice of walking alongside partners and communities as they navigate uncertainty and risk, even when the work becomes slow, political, or uncomfortable.
In practice, this looks like:
A practice of generative listening
Sharing risk
Co-creating spaces for reflection and care
A Call to Fellow Funders and Donor
For those of us in philanthropy and climate finance, the lessons are clear. We must shift our approach from transactional funding to truly transformative solidarity. Some of these shifts include:
