In November 2017, The Kendeda Fund awarded the Climate Justice Resilience Fund (CJRF) a 3-year, $900,000 USD grant. This makes Kendeda CJRF’s second ‘member foundation,’ joining the Oak Foundation, which launched the CJRF in 2016.
The Kendeda Fund is a private grantmaking foundation that invests in transformative leaders and ideas, empowering communities across the U.S. and around the globe to enhance equity, vibrancy, resourcefulness, and resilience. Kendeda’s support to the CJRF represents their first grant in a new Girls’ Rights and Climate Change portfolio, which integrates two Kendeda programs: Girls’ Rights and People, Place, and Planet.
Kendeda Executive Director Dena Kimball said, “The Kendeda Fund is excited to invest in CJRF as our first grant in a body of work that attempts to answer the question, ‘How can we support girls’ leadership in climate resilience as a means to build their overall rights, empowerment and options within their communities?’ We believe the values, orientation and approach of CJRF make them an ideal partner in this learning journey.”
Kendeda’s investment in the CJRF takes the form of a flexible grant that supports of the overall CJRF portfolio. Rather than earmarking the grant for specific girls’ rights projects or activities, Kendeda and CJRF have agreed to track a set of Fund-level benchmarks related to gender and girls’ rights. For example, CJRF has committed that 100% of its grants will recognize gender-based differences, and 15% will aim specifically to produce transformations in girls’ empowerment.
CJRF Director Heather McGray said, “We are grateful to Kendeda for their trust, and for their spirit of ‘learning-by-doing.’ Kendeda’s grant takes an innovative approach that I believe will strengthen the whole CJRF.”
The Kendeda Fund helps underrepresented but trusted voices build social and community capital by supporting experienced, and emerging, leaders who have the vision to see problems differently and the courage to challenge conventional thinking. Kendeda’s current geographic priorities overlap with CJRF’s in Bangladesh and East Africa. Learn more at www.kendedafund.org.