The Climate Justice Resilience Fund (CJRF) is embarking on an exciting transformation from a donor-led fund to a fully participatory, movement-facing and constituent-led fund. As a key step in this change process, our current Review Board (comprised of funders) has decided to hand off leadership to a new governing Board comprised of activists, practitioners, thinkers, and others. We are now recruiting 7-9 members for this new governing Board, which will oversee and support the second six-year phase of the CJRF.

In March 2022, Climate Justice Resilience Fund (CJRF) provided a small grants fund for Youth Climate Lab to attend the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival. The festival presented an ideal opportunity for Youth Climate Lab (YCL) to explore the concept of “Everyone VS Climate Change”. Learn more.

CJRF has had an eventful spring! We just returned from Kenya with our CJRF Phase 2 Design Team, solidifying options for governing and implementing a more participatory grantmaking structure for our second phase, starting in early 2023. Read more in our Spring Newsletter.

Many Indigenous communities around the world are relying on traditional knowledge of the land to recognize and adapt to a changing climate. To uplift and learn from their experiences, CJRF convened representatives of our partner organizations to reflect on how Indigenous Peoples are showing up as leaders in the climate justice movement.

Farhana Yamin and Maria Alejandra Escalante share why we need to go all in on climate justice at South By Southwest in March. Watch the full conversation.

To encourage justice-centered funding, CJRF launched a fund re-design process in November that aims to shift decision-making power from our staff and board members into the hands of activists and practitioners. Learn more about this design process and our recent $7M grant from MacKenzie Scott that we will leverage in support of phase 2.

Hello from South by Southwest (SXSW)! SXSW is an annual gathering that is best known for its conference and festivals that celebrate the convergence of tech, film, education, and culture. This year’s conference includes a Climate Change track which covers topics from renewable energy to policy change to just transition. Hear what CJRF will be up to this week from Director Heather McGray.

Our winter newsletter describes our design process for the next phase of this fund as an inclusive and participatory grantmaker.