We all want our actions to matter. One of the defining features of climate change that makes it so hard to address is the sheer enormity of the challenge. Whether you’re talking about which party to vote for, if you drive or take the bus today, or whether to donate to a climate change organisation, it’s hard not to ask, "does my contribution actually matter?"
Thinking about this through the lens of donations (since this is a blog about climate giving, after all), it’s easy to wonder if we’re making a difference. Last year, I (Pip) gave $200 to an awesome startup on PledgeMe, I donated $100 to an organisation working on te Tiriti issues in the lead-up to te Hīkoi mō te Tiriti, I gave $20 to an Australian climate charity. These donations felt meaningful - I believed in the work, it felt good to support it - but I'd be lying if I said they didn't also feel like drops in the ocean.
Pooled funding
This is part of what led MJ and I to co-found The Climatics. We realised that our individual donations, meaningful as they felt, could have much greater impact if they were part of something bigger.
When you pool climate donations with others, your impact gets multiplied not just mathematically, but strategically. Collective funding can support the kind of ambitious, systems-changing work that transforms how entire sectors operate. Instead of feeling like my $20 or $200 donations are drops in the ocean, I can see myself as part of a wave.
That's exactly what we're building—a way for individual New Zealanders to pool their climate giving and direct it strategically toward the organisations doing the most impactful work in Aotearoa.
Could a climate donation have 100x more impact than going vegan?
That’s a bold claim. The type I generally find implausible. But stay with me for a moment here…
Founders Pledge, a group of folks who are really committed to putting hard numbers into their decision making, dug into the comparative effectiveness (https://www.founderspledge.com/research/climate-and-lifestyle-report) of different individual actions as measured by emission reductions:
- Going vegan: ~2 tonnes CO₂ avoided per year
- Giving up flying: ~3 tonnes CO₂ avoided per year
- Selling your car: ~2-3 tonnes CO₂ avoided per year
- $1,000 donated to effective climate organisations: 100+ tonnes CO₂ equivalent impact
Which kind of blows my mind. (Note: their numbers definitely needing lots of caveating, but the logic that underpins them is strong.)
As an argument for donating to climate organisations, it’s a pretty compelling one. The biggest challenge is that sneaky word in the middle there: “effective”.
What counts as effective for climate philanthropy
Philanthropy obviously can't solve climate change alone. Government funding and private investment dwarf what individual donors can contribute. But philanthropy has a unique role that these other funding sources often can't fill.
Government funding tends to be conservative, focused on proven solutions and influenced by political cycles. Private investment seeks financial returns, which can limit support for early-stage innovations or advocacy work that doesn't generate revenue.
Philanthropy can take risks. It can fund the uncomfortable conversations, the advocacy that challenges powerful interests, the demonstration projects that bring to life inspiring future pathways. Research shows that funding organisations that take systemic approaches and tackle the root causes of climate change creates a much bigger impact per dollar than funding direct emission reductions alone.
Because philanthropy is such a precious resource, we need to be incredibly strategic about how we use it.
What’s next?
On our homepage we outline four focus areas for The Climatics’ funding. Over the next few weeks, I’ll share more about each of them - what they are, why we’ve chosen them and how they show up here in Aotearoa.
If you’ve got questions, or feedback, or links you think we should check out - get in touch. hello@theclimatics.org - we’d love to hear from you.
With hope and determination,
